EQUITANA - Open Reining Championships

Warren Backhouse and Ruf Lil Renee - winners of the Equitana Open Reining Championships

Rick Meredith of Narellan NSW proudly displaying the trophy saddle he made for the winner of the Equitana Open Reining Championships

Warren Backhouse and Shiney and Nu after their run - Warren always  dismounts and rewards his horses after a run

Stacy Westfall after her wonderful Freestyle demonstration

The atmosphere was electric tonight when the first night of Equitana kicked off in style with the Open Reining Championships!

Loud rock and country music, top horses, plenty of fast riding and super sliding gave the enthusiastic Equitana crowd heaps to cheer about and cheer they did, making sure the riders knew how much we were appreciating their runs.  

The winner was the first horse out in the draw the impressive, Ruf Lil Renee, owned by Deborah Segeren and ridden by the extremely accomplished Warren Backhouse, with a great score of 222.5.  This run certainly set a high standard for the others to follow.

Equal second place went to Warren again, this time riding Shiney and Nu (also owned by Deborah) and Shaun Saunders riding Kalnins Quarter Horses' Whizz Peppy.  There was a slight issue with the scoring at the end of the night so we're unsure of the exact scores but that was the placings for the top three.

During the break tonight spectators were in for a treat, when Stacy Westfall performed a bridleless freestyle reining demonstration, riding her new Aussie equine best friend, Blaze (who she rode in the clinic earlier today and I need to check his registered name).  Stacy chose the emotional theme song from Titanic 'My Heart Will Go On' and the crowd went wild with appreciation to have this super star performing for us.

Congratulations to all the reiners who put on a fantastic show and obviously had a ball doing it.  Special Congratulations to Warren Backhouse and Deborah Segeren on winning the gorgeous Rick Meredith Equitana trophy saddle!

So to bed now, to get ready and do it all again tomorrow, with more of an English flavour.

by Jo Johnson/Horsezone