World’s Greatest Horseman is a part of the National Reined Cow Horse’s (NRCHA) Celebration of Champions held in Fort Worth, Texas February 10-18, 2017. The WGH title is about one horse and one rider, they will show in four events total to compete for the title. The four events are herd work, rein work, steer stopping and cow work. All of us at Kimes are so excited to have two of our Kimes endorsees competing for this title, Chris Dawson and Brad Lund! Chris Dawson will be riding Travelin Jonez, and Brad Lund will be riding RubiesScoobieDoobie, which he has won the AQHA JR Heeling World Champion Title on in 2015!
Chris Dawson and TJ prove they’ve got what it takes to make the finals for the WGH!
Chris scored a 215.5 in the herd work, a 216.5 in the rein work, a 222 in the steer stopping, and a 216 in the cow work for a composite score of 867.5. That score was enough to get him into the finals, and place 7th in the prelims! According to a previous post from Kimes Ranch Jeans and an interview with Chris, TJ's weakest event is the reining. He is strongest in the cow work. Dawson says, "Taking Travelin Jonez down the fence is the kind of ride every horseman dreams of! In the finals, he scored a 209 in the herd work, a 218.5 in the reining, a 220.5 in the cow work, and a 214 in the steer stopping. For a composite of 862, and an overall placing of 4th.
Brad Lund and Scoobie prep for the Steer Stopping!
For Brad, he scored a 214 in the herd work, a 216 in the rein work, a 222 in the steer stopping, and a 216 in the cow work for a composite score of 868, and an overall placing of 6th in the prelims. That score was enough to get him into the finals! According to an interview with Kimes Ranch Jeans, Brad states that “Scoobie's strongest event is the fence work, but the teams weakest event is probably the cutting”. That score was enough to get him into the finals! In the finals, he got a 209 in the herd work, a 211.5 in the reining, a 211 in the cow work, and a 225 in the steer stopping. This gave him a composite score of 856.5 and an overall placing of 8th to finish out the celebration of champions.
Congratulations to John Swales and Heza Diamond Spark who had a finals score of 874 and are your 2017 World’s Greatest Horseman!!
Even though I was stuck at work I managed to glue myself to the computer for the cow work finals!
If you were not lucky enough to watch live or catch the live feed, make sure you catch it next year! It was one heck of a show!! If you want to catch up on all the great action that was covered by Kimes Ranch Jeans be sure to check out our Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kimesranch/.
-Emily Bomgardner
Pictures courtesy of: Brad Lund Performance Horses
Show Pen
February 22, 2017
