SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. – Jonathan Ramsay could very well be the youngest ever to experience riding to an Arabian U.S. National Championship, were it not for a technicality — his mother, trainer Cynthia Marlow Ramsay, was six months pregnant with him when she won.

Twenty-eight years later, the Canadian native is making headlines of his own in California, where he is training and managing at Stachowski West, a San Marcos-based extension of the venerable Stachowski Farm in Ohio, headed by Jim and Peter Stachowski. Ramsay, a third-generation Arabian horseman with a sterling resume, opened Stachowski West last May in the facility vacated by reiner Andrea Fappani, now in Scottsdale, Ariz.

TEMECULA — Jolie Wentworth showed that her veteran campaigner Killian O’Connor has returned to full form, winning the open intermediate division at the Galway Downs Winter Horse Trials in Temecula on Feb. 3-5.

The 30-year-old rider from Martinez, who also claimed fifth place on GoodKnight in the highly competitive open intermediate division, outdueled Canadian Olympic veteran and Temecula resident Hawley Bennett-Awad, who took second on Five O’Clock Somewhere, her mount at last year’s Pan Am Games. In third was Katie Groesbeck on Oz The Tin Man, and Kristi Nunnink finished fourth on R-Star.

SAN ANGELO, Texas – Roy Rich spent the night with his rig in Albuquerque on his drive to the National Reined Cow Horse Association World Championships, then was caught off guard by a frozen Interstate 40 east of town the next morning.

“I thought I was going to die — I don’t know how to drive in ice,” joked the Southern California native.

Economic forecasts may call for slow, slight improvement this year, but show organizations in California aren’t waiting around. As they have the past three years, groups that create horse events in our state are innovating more than ever — not just to keep activity levels steady, but to grow them.

As Melissa Braunstein, Marketing Director for Blenheim EquiSports, puts it, the tougher times are the times that make you better.

“It’s definitely been a couple of years of having to get extremely creative to stay strong through a tough economy,” she says. “When you have to train for the really hard marathon — that’s when you get serious. And at the end of it, you are better than when you started. It’s in the lean times that you say ‘OK, we don’t want to cut back and lower our quality’, and then you find a way to do that.”

NOVATO – Four years ago, Joey Pacini traveled to the Oklahoma State Fairgrounds with a friend to observe the NRHA Futurity. He was impressed.

“It was the real deal – it was huge,” said Pacini. “It left an impression.”

He made his first return visit to the Futurity last month, this time with Cash Me If You Can as a qualifier in the Adequan® North American Affiliate Championship (NAAC) Show, and the Fresno State senior left his own impression.

TEMECULA – When the Non Pro Triple Crown Stock Horse event fell off the schedule after 2009, Southern California Reined Cow Horse Association leaders Laura Edwards and Jimmy Flores, Jr., decided in September to pick it up. Remarkably, two months later on Nov. 18-19, the region’s top Non Pros brought Casner’s Ranch to life in a competition so successful that folks are looking ahead to next year.

With $10,000-added and more than $17,000 in payout, 22 prize buckles and other custom awards, the 2011 Triple Crown has returned, thanks largely to the Southern California’s swelling ranks of Non Pro competitors.

TULSA, Okla. — Of the more than 600 Arabian Horse Association National Champions crowned Oct. 21-29 in the Expo Square arena, perhaps none deserved a cheer as much as the 2011 Arabian Country English Pleasure AAOTR 55 & Over National Champion.

Those in attendance certainly noticed Helen Lacey Reed and her striking mare, SV Justajoy, in the arena, and the judges’ choice was clearly deserved. But the story behind her tumultuous journey went unnoticed. That is fitting, because the obstacle that threatened Reed’s accomplishment is largely unnoticed, too: depression.

TEMECULA — Although the rains fell at the Galway Downs International Three-Day Event Nov. 6, they couldn’t stop the juggernaut that was British rider James Alliston. He started the day by winning the CCI1* aboard Mojo, then he placed second in the CCI2* with Tivoli. And then he finished his day with a victory in the CCI3*, the last event on the PRO Tour Series, aboard India McEvoy’s Jumbo’s Jake, and also placed seventh with his own Parker II.

“I got the day rolling the right way with the one-star win, because the round I had was pretty horrible and I got really lucky,” said Alliston, who lives in Castro Valley. “And [all] the horses jumped great after that.”

RANCHO MURIETA — The West Coast Reining Horse Association held its Best of the West horse show Oct. 11-16 at the beautiful Rancho Murieta facility near Sacramento. The show ran a full slate of reining classes, including classes for the National Reining Horse Association’s North West Regional Affiliate Finals.

Reiners came from Idaho, Washington, Oregon, and Nevada to compete for seven trophy saddles, over $20,000 in prize money, and possibly the honor of representing the North West Region of the United States at the prestigious NRHA Futurity show which will be held Nov. 2-Dec. 3 in Oklahoma City. Gina Hunter from Tracy, winner of last year’s Non Pro Futurity with Guns Lit N Blazin, said that this show was a “great preparation for the NRHA Futurity in Oklahoma.”