POMONA — Rain couldn’t dampen the spirits of the region’s Arabian exhibitors who filled the Fairplex Jan. 25-27 for the 38th Annual Sierra Empire Arabian Horse Association show. The venue attracted top talent looking to start a new show season and prepare for the upcoming Scottsdale Arabian Show this month.

Once held in April, the SEAHA event moved to January three years ago when the venerable Whittier Lions Horse Show ended its 48-year run.

Temecula-based trainer Katherine Rich-Elzig, the granddaughter of Whittier Lions Show founder and leader, Dr. Harold West, looks forward to the January competition.

What if you had a show and everybody came?

For Show Director Doug Huls of the Arizona Quarter Horse Association, that’s not far from his experience each winter at the show he manages alongside the AZQHA, the Sun Circuit.

Last year, Huls says this nine-day event was the largest AQHA circuit competition worldwide. This year’s event, which will feature eight AQHA shows spanning Jan. 26-Feb. 3, will require 100 additional stalls.

OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. — Reiners from across California wrapped up their 2012 season with Top 10 finishes at the National Reining Horse Association, as NRHA closed the curtain Dec. 1 on another record-setting year.

Riders from both the West Coast Reining Horse Association (WCRHA) Northwest Affiliate and the California Reining Horse Association (CRHA) Southwest Affiliate shined during the 10-day competiton, which featured a new Three Million Dollar Rider when Texan Tim McQuay pierced the earnings mark after earning $145,000 on David Silva’s Gunners TInseltown.

From beginning to end this year, California horses and riders performed well.

BURBANK – Trainer Tom Foran was pleased to win the Open division on Lil Joe Tag at the California Reining Horse Association Challenge. But his satisfaction from this year’s event, held Oct. 24-28 at the Los Angeles Equestrian Center, also stems from the show itself.

Foran, the CRHA President, worked alongside CRHA board members all year to prop up the 2012 Challenge, and the efforts paid off. With an innovative line-up and with sponsors stepping up to provide the show its biggest purse in years – more than $50,000 in cash payouts — the “challenge” was more than just met this year. It thrived.

TEMECULA — The Valley Cow Horse Association held its 2012 Super Show competiton at Sundance Arena on Oct. 27-28 with two shows in two days. The winners went home knowing they had made the most of their last VCHA events of the year.

Also, a couple of riders also went home with a new saddle and buckle, respectively, after the annual Saddle Shoot-Out and Box-Off for a Buckle competitions.

OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. — October is a time of year Elaine Olsen can expect to reminisce on her Vermont roots, but not for the autumn leaves — it’s the Morgan Horses. The American Morgan Horse Association assembles its finest each year for the eight-day AMHA World Championship and Grand National Horse Show, and for Olsen, a New England transplant who along with husband Ted settled in Coto De Caza in 1985, it’s a bit of a homecoming.

RENO, Nev. — With four horses in the National Reined Cow Horse Association Snaffle Bit Futurity Open finals, the odds were most definitely in Corey Cushing’s favor.

He still had to work for every bit of the $100,000 Championship paycheck as he staged a thrilling come-from-behind victory on CD Diamond (CD Olena x Shiners Diamond Girl x Shining Spark), owned by San Juan Ranch.

LAS VEGAS, Nev. — The 2012 High Roller Reining Classic held at the South Point Arena and Equestrian Center Sept. 9-15 drew more raves this year, with entries up 37 percent over 2011 and competition that continues to impress.

The depth of entries in each class resulted in some of the toughest competition in the country. And, while familiar faces like Andrea Fappani rose to the top, so did young talent like 27-year-old Cody Clock of Day Creek Ranch in Simi Valley, who took Intermediate, Limited and Level 1 championship honors in the $70,000 Added Spooks Gotta Gun Open Futurity on Chics Dream About Me.

PASO ROBLES — There is a zip in the step of John Ward this fall, but not just because he remedied an old football injury last November with hip replacement surgery. The two-time National Reined Cow Horse Association Snaffle Bit Futurity World Champion is excited to have his health this year — and to have Gotta Go Get It.

The Ward Ranch’s 3-year-old stallion (Smart Little Pepinic x Got Mister x Mister Dual Pep) was brilliant under Ward in his first competition, the National Stock Horse Association Snaffle Bit Futurity at the Mid-state Fairgrounds Aug. 13-19, winning both the Open and Intermediate Open championships. Zane Davis took John Semanik’s Brother Jackson to the Reserve NSHA Open Futurity title.