The final leg of the 2011 National Reined Cow Horse Association Circle Y Ranch Derby was completed mid-day Monday, January 31, 2011.
The Circle Y Ranch is one-third of the Celebration of Champions, which also hosts the NRCHA World Championship Show presented by John Deere, and the World’s Greatest Horseman. The Celebration of Champions is held annually at the 1st Community Credit Union Spur Arena in San Angelo, Texas.
The fast-paced action of the signature cow work resulted in high scores, “ah” moments, and a lucrative payout that exceeded $120,000!
Prior to the cow work of the Derby, Boyd Rice and Boonie Toons were sitting in second place – 5.5 points behind the leaders. With a little luck and a cow work that resulted in a 147, the Spearman, Texas, trainer and the Peptoboonsmal stallion, out of Shiney Tari, won the Open Championship and the accompanying check for $9,212.
“He was good in the cutting. We cut some soft cattle but he worked well,” noted Rice, who has won nearly $3 million in National Cutting Horse Association competition. “He was the best he’s ever been in the rein work, and we were a 147.5. The cow didn’t run as hard as he could, but my horse was just perfect and gave it everything he had.”
Boonie Tunes is owned by Danny Poole of Texline, Texas, and was shown at all the major NCHA events with Rice in the saddle. “I started to have some trouble with him and decided to show him in the cow horse. He was pretty natural at it,” Rice said.
Boonie Tunes won his first cow horse event – the Faith Performance Horses Derby in Ardmore, Oklahoma – and was a finalist in the Open Hackamore at the 2010 NRCHA Snaffle Bit Futurity. In fact, the Circle Y Ranch Derby is only the stallion’s third cow horse event.
Rice explained that he’s trained and ridden cutting horses for Poole since 1985. “This is Danny’s first cow horse. He went to a clinic that Todd Crawford and I did, and he’ll start showing cow horses soon,” he said.
After the awards ceremony, where Circle Y Ranch trainers Gerald Cosby and Benton Bland presented the awards, Rice said, “I thank Penny Youngblood and the Circle Y Ranch for sponsoring this event every year. Everyone appreciates her and the Circle Y Ranch.”