Last weekend we were in Harriman Tennessee at the East Coast Reined Cow Horse Classic Derby and Bridle Spectacular. They put on a beautiful show! This is the third year we have been there and its better each year..way to go Paul Bailey who runs the whole thing!
Lucas and his horse, "Nice Bobby Sox", were entered in the Non Pro and Novice Non Pro Bridle Spectacular. If your not familiar with that it is like a derby or futurity except for older horses and there are three sections to the competition. Herd work, rein work, and down the fence on a single cow.
Lucas and Bobby marked a 133 the first day in the herd work and really looked good. Bobby had some huge moves..actually so many big moves that the photographer got about 7 or 8 great pictures of the pair in perfect form making it hard to pick just one of them to buy! Anyone who does this knows its hard to get even one good shot so that was pretty cool! They had no major penalties and the cattle were real tough because Lucas cut late in his group meaning the cows were getting pretty used up. I was thrilled with that first go!
The next day Lucas showed the reining and cow work portions of that class in conjunction with the regular classes. Lucas and Bobby had a very nice reining pattern and kept it a little conservative marking a 137. Then came the fun part... the part we all love to watch!!! They turned out a nice cow and Lucas and Bobby went to work! The boxing was tough and the cow challenged them hard several times back and forth across the arena. Bobby dropped down and shook in front of that cow like a cutter! Lucas set up his fence run and took the cow in perfect form all the way down the long fence and had a "HUGE" first turn!! Back down the fence they came and hit another very nice turn. Lucas drove the cow out to the middle of the pen and circled both ways in great position getting the whistle from the judge. It was a classic great cow horse ride with no waste of energy and total control of the cow!!! They marked a 144 in the cow work which ended up being the high cow score of the class!!
Lucas ended up 3rd in the Non Pro and 2nd in the Novice Non Pro and when the checks were paid out he won over $1700 dollars!!! His biggest pay check to date!
Lucas rode one more time the next morning winning the Youth Bridle Class and a nice head stall for doing that!
Lucas is becoming a tiger in this sport and is playing at the highest level in the country! At age 16 that's pretty cool! Way to go Luke and Bobby!!!
