In the modern era many don’t know what reining is. But a family from Sequoyah County is heading out this weekend to try and claim one of the western riding sport’s highest awards. They want to win the National Reining Horse Association (NRHA) Futurity and bring home the first place money from a $125,000 purse.
Jim and Pat Andersen, and their trainer, Robert Arnold Jr., are taking two futurity horses, which are 3 year olds, to the reining futurity. And since this is one of the crown jewels of the reining world, they have some competition. Pat counted 549 3-year-old horses from all over the world who will be competing for the same prize.
The NRHA Futurity is taking place this week in Oklahoma City, home of the NRHA, which is offering $1.5 million in total prize money in a number of classes. The NRHA offers classes for youth competitors — both horse and rider — to what is known as Prime Time, for riders over 50, and for both professional and novice riders and horses.
The Andersens and their son, Dana, 23, came a long way — in two ways — to climb to the top of the reining world. The family moved from Stetler, in Alberta, Canada, to be closer to the heart of reining horse country in Oklahoma.
“It’s pretty central here,” Pat said, “and we’re close to I-40. We’re close to Oklahoma City, Tulsa, Texas, Arkansas.
“We really, really like it here, and we love our church.”
The Andersens attend Journey Church in Sallisaw.
“I can’t see us moving away from here,” Pat said about the family’s 120 acres, east of Sallisaw. They are working diligently to make their place a deluxe horse ranch. “And once we get it finished, it will be better.”
The Andersens, like many horse-loving families, began their journey with horses in Alberta, in western Canada. Pat recounted that the family members were city folks back in the 1980s.
“We just wanted a horse for the kids,” Pat said.
That one horse, of course, led to more horses and in 1987 a place in the country.
“It was like that old TV show ‘Green Acres,’” Pat said. “It was funny. We had to learn so many things, like how to move bales of hay and drive a Bob Cat.”
Pat said husband, Jim, likes to build and “tinker,” and did a lot around that country home.
“He built homes in the city, and we honestly thought that would be our one place,” Pat said. “We just wanted a horse for the kids, and we did 4-H for years. And then we got a Paint horse — Elko Jim — and we won all of Alberta in our first year. He was a good horse.”
The Andersens said their award-winning gelding was from Elko, Nev., and a son of Smart Little Lena, an world champion Quarter Horse.
“And then we bought a cutting mare. She was our first. We had one cutter and one reiner…and then we couldn’t stop buying horses.”
Cutting horses are not reined by the rider, as reining horses are, but must work cows with a rider on board but without any direction from the rider.
The Andersens changed direction in 1990-91. That’s when they decided that, if they were going to be in the horse business, they’d move to the heart of western horse country — to Oklahoma.
“We lived in Muskogee four or five years, then we heard about this place,” Pat said.
The Andersens moved once again and bought the ranch in Sequoyah County. It was a horse ranch that needed lots of work, and love. One of the reasons the Andersens bought their place was that it is probably the ranch where the grand-dam of Pat’s favorite horse, a Paint mare, was born.
“Pat said, “Her grandmother was a horse named Sallisaw Rose, and we understand she was born right here,” Pat said. “She was a top cutting mare in 1964.
“Well, it’s a good story anyway,” Pat said with a grin as her mare, Gems Latin Queen, now retired, came over for a visit.
The ranch itself took some hard work to bring it up to the Andersen’s requirements. Jim is handling that well.
He said with a smile, “I’m just the maintenance man around here.”
In addition to the upkeep of the two homes on the property, Jim has straightened up the stable, built a 125-foot-by-200-foot covered reining arena next to the barn, built a 200-foot-by-400-foot outdoor arena, or track as the Andersens call it, behind the barn for horse training. They have also upgraded a breeding, foaling, lab and office building. The Andersen’s place has become a fully-operational horse breeding and training facility, but the Andersens know it will always be a work in progress. Their next big project is good fencing.
In the meantime they continue to breed, raise and train good horses, and employed a top reining horse trainer, Robert Arnold Jr., originally of Akron, Ohio.
“We were really please to get him to come,” Pat said.
Arnold, his wife, Robin, and daughter, Thea, live in the second house on the ranch. Thea recently won the Green Rider award in the Arkansas state reining competition on PKM Im Just Too Smart, or Babe, as the horse is known in the barn.
Her dad, Bob, has been training professionally for over 25 years, and has won many awards, including the limited and limited reserve championships at the American Quarter Horse Association (AQHA) Congress in Ohio. The Congress, as it’s known to horsemen, is the largest AQHA horse show in the world.
This year Arnold rode the Andersen’s two futurity horses to a tie for 14th and 15th at the Congress in the 3-year-old open class. The Andersens received medals for those placings, which Pat proudly displays. The Andersens and Arnold also took top spot in the novice open class in the Arkansas Year-end Awards with Electric Elvis.
Reining, Arnold explained, is a precise demonstration of a horse’s ability to respond to the rider’s direction, from a slow canter to a faster gallop. The horse and rider must demonstrate a number of skills — changing direction, both in large circles and, as older Quarter Horse owners people refer to it, “on a dime, with change.” That is called a roll back. The horse must also be able to spin, like a top, 360 degrees at least four times in both directions.
A spectacular stop, when the horse slides about 30 feet on its hind legs, is also required. The successful completion of the last two maneuvers will bring a reining-knowledgeable crowd it its feet for a standing ovation and prompts a deafening cheering-and-whistling roar.
On the NRHA Web site, horsemen confess that a good reining performance gives them “goose bumps.”
Arnold said the NRHA Web site can explain the sport better than he can. But he added, “Reining is a test of training, of a partnership between horse and rider, where nothing can go wrong.
“Good reining training can prepare the horse for any cowboy event — barrels, cutting, roping. It’s total communication between horse and rider.”
Arnold, who guessed he has trained over 1,000 horses in his 25-year career, said it takes years to get a horse to the top of the sport, a feat the Andersens are hoping for this weekend. Their futurity horses are Misnwhizable, or Missy, and CF Merada, or Money.
And even though Jim said he’s “just the maintenance man,” he can recite the 3-year-old horses’ pedigrees from memory, all the way back through their championship lineage.
Pat said she will almost be too nervous to watch their 3-year-olds perform this weekend. Jim said he’ll watch.
“I get very nervous,” Pat said.
“It is a business,” Jim said. But he added, “You do get a little nervous. You just hope your horse does well and doesn’t have a wreck.”
The Andersens and Arnold hope to interest others in the sport of reining too. In the past Arnold has organized clubs called affiliates, which introduce young and old to the sport of reining.
The Andersens have horses for sale, and welcome inquires.
Pat said, “Our whole goal is we’d like to get people involved. Bob is great with kids and we’d like to get people interested in reining.”
The Andersens can be contacted at (918) 774-9199.
