Sunny skies and strong breezes kicked off the first week of the 63rd Annual Del Mar National Horse Show, held April 17-20. Western Week is hosted by the American Quarter Horse Association (AQHA), the National Reining Horse Association (NRHA), and the Pacific Coast Horseshows Association (PCHA). This year, 300 horses competed for the many prizes and awards in over 300 classes, representing 21 different events.



Last year, competitors had a new surface to ride on. The Polytrack footing, placed on the backstretch of the Del Mar track, is being used to reduce race injuries and is supposedly very comfortable on the horses’ legs. After a year’s use, the synthetic footing appeared more compacted, but was still springy. However, the reining competitors still cannot slide in the rubbery mixture, and had to sneak in practice slides in the warm-up arenas whenever possible.
Over the past two years, the reining events have had fewer entries, due to the NRHA’s National Reining Breeder’s Classic, held in Katy, TX the same weekend. In addition to the large purses (almost $500,000 in prizes), the Texas show is one of the qualifiers for the United States Equestrian Federation (USEF) U.S. Reining Team. The four top riders and their horses will compete at the first ever FEI World Reining Championship, held this September in Manerbio, Italy.
For the reiners who made it to Del Mar, there were still trophies and dollars to be won. Gary Roberts was the big winner in the NRHA open classes, winning the $1000 Open and $500 Intermediate Open with The Sun Rises. The Non-Pro classes were swept by Wendy Anderson on her buckskin mare, Valentine Dreamin. They won the $1000 Non-Pro, the $500 Intermediate Non-Pro and the $200 Limited Non-Pro. Kristen Darnall-Titov and her horse, Breezy Lena, won the $500 Novice Horse Non-Pro. Both Wendy and Kristen are trained at Johnette Burman Training.



Although reining is the event that is normally associated with money, PCHA does offer $150 championship classes in their Trail and Western Pleasure events. Imagoin On Principle, a 2004 bay gelding owned by Kim Brandon-Watson, won the $150 First and Second Year Green Pleasure and the $150 Junior Horse Pleasure classes. Cindy Jensen won the $150 Adult/Amateur Pleasure with Ima Feelin It Now.
In the trail arena, the $150 Open Trail championship was won by Melissa Zanetti on Zips Golden Goddess, a sorrel mare owned by Elizabeth Gawron. The Adult/Amateur Trail money went to Becky Martin and her horse, Silkn Passion.
The AQHA classes awarded points instead of money. From western to english events, competitors tried to pick up points toward the World shows, held later this year.
As always, The Night of the Horse was presented on Saturday Night. This year’s theme was “Making the Team – Horses in Sports.” The evening began with a salute to the area firefighters, who risked their all during the devastating 2007 wildfires in the San Diego area. Vintage fire wagons, pulled by different breeds of draft horses, cruised through the arena, complete with Dalmatian dogs.
One of the more exciting acts was Blake Goode, who rode in Roman-style on a pair of Brahma bulls. Weighing in at around 2,000 pounds apiece, the two gray behemoths were completely at ease in the arena. Blake crawled around on them as if he was a child on playground equipment, and at one point, had them jumping through hoops of fire.



Big Ring Blues
Unfortunately, the cool evening air, strong breezes and noisy crowd combined to make some of the other four-legged performers lose their cool. More than one act entered the arena, only to cut their performance short when the horse decided that it didn’t want to play anymore.
The large Del Mar Arena can be daunting for competitors as well as entertainers. The ground is nestled below the stands, with lighting structures that extend high over the seats, and the open ends of the arena create a wind tunnel, increasing the strength of the normal ocean breezes. Even the calmest horse is tempted to look up and see what’s happening.
This was problematic on Saturday afternoon, as workers prepared the tables in the box seats for the evening entertainment. It was a normal conflict of events; the tables needed to be cleaned and set and the western riding classes needed to be held and judged. Western riding, for the uninitiated, is a pattern of loping in and out of cones, with a flying lead change between each. More than one horse completed the last turn, only to look up and become distracted by white tablecloths being shaken.
Some of the exhibitors complained to the judges that it was hard to keep their horse focused. My friend, Christine Duncanson, was going to be showing her gelding, Principle Advisor, in the class. I wanted to warn her about the flapping tablecloths and excessive activity, but thought it would only worry her, so I said nothing. Luckily, by the time she entered the arena, the tables were complete, giving her and Bubba peace and quiet. Not only did they have a nice ride, Christine won first place, Circuit Champion and got the points she needed to qualify for the AQHA Select World.
Although this show had a lot of classes, I remember when it used to offer more. My first time at this show was when I showed Copper Kist in 2000; in addition to the standard events, there was a sliding contest for the reining horses, the USEF Reining Seat Medal and the Challenge of the Breeds. The USEF Reining Seat Medal was retired in 2004, and the sliding contest was discontinued last year. The first year I saw the Challenge of the Breeds, Arabians and Quarter Horses were competing against Freisians, Saddlebreds and even donkeys. By 2005, the breeds in the Challenge had dwindled down to a Quarter Horse and a Paint horse.
I can understand the difficulty of maintaining the breed challenge at a show where 95 percent of the exhibitors are Quarter Horses, but it would be nice to see the sliding contest return and the USEF medal come out of retirement.
In the meantime, I’d like to congratulate Christine and all of the competitors for their hard work and persistence at a beautiful, if sometimes intimidating, venue.
For more information on the Del Mar Nationals, visit www.sdfair.com/horseshow. For a list of Del Mar Western Week winners, visit www.trackoneevents.com.
Got any news you’d like to share with the western riding community? Contact me at 714-296-6009, or e-mail me at gayle_western@sbcglobal.net.