Day 7 — Early practice in the Coliseum

Morning came early after watching the reining finals that ended at 11 p.m. the previous night. We’re on a countdown to Joan’s ride, so Cynthia was up at 3 a.m. to ride Reprint in the Coliseum. The Coliseum is only open for practice after the show ends each day until 6 a.m. There were over 50 horses and riders — all practicing for their upcoming events. Joan arrived at the barn and completed her practice trail work. They allow 10 minutes per practice for each horse and run 80 horses through by 1 p.m. She rode beautifully through the course, and she was beaming when she finished. “It’s a good course for Joan and Reprint,” commented Cynthia “with tight trot serpentines and wagon wheel lope-over maneuvers.

Day 4 – Getting to meet new people is the best

The day started with a run for me and Cynthia’s dogs. It’s really flat here in Texas, so the fairgrounds is easy to run around — and big. There are lots more rigs that have pulled in, as the competition will start tomorrow.

I had the pleasure to get to know Kim Barrington of Angels Camp, Calif. She’ll be competing in the reining class Monday. Her journey to the 2009 Select World Show started three years ago when she started to ride with Benny Guitron. Each year, there was some reason why she couldn’t get here, but not this year. She focused on her goal, and she’s here thanks to the help of her husband, Mike, and trainer, Benny. She attended the 2009 AQHA Sun Circuit show and earned over 10 points at that one show. She won the Select Amateur Reining class one day and placed in all the other reining classes. In Paso Robles, she was the Reining Circuit Champion and went on to be the Reining Circuit Champion at Reno as well. She and Benny had planned out their shows, but before they hit their last 4 show, Kim’s horse, Lil Red Sliding Hood (Slider) twisted her ankle and was laid up. She had only 45 days to recover — but recover she did! She is ready to show her talents tomorrow. Slider is a 10-year-old sorrel mare found as a 3-year old by David Hansen for Kim. Slider was raised at Bob Avila’s ranch.

California Horsetrader staff member Cece Campbell joins legendary trainer Cynthia Cantleberry of Paso Robles as they take Joan de Regt and “Reprint” to the 2009 Bayer Select World Championship Show Aug. 31-Sept. 6.

Joan fell in love with “Classy Reprint” years ago when the mare was owned by someone else. Joan, who secretly dreamed of owning Reprint, approached Cynthia two years ago about the horse, a successful show mare who at the time was having the pasture life of a successful, retired show horse and broodmare. She thought her chances of taking lessons on Reprint were slim to none.