Cash for Chrome: Understanding APHA’s Chrome Cash

$///////// INDUSTRY INSIGHTS

CASH

FOR CHROME Incentives are nothing new to the horse industry, but the consistent payout from the APHA-sponsored Chrome Cash lures breeders toward more colorful cow horses. By Amy Olson Photography by Primo Morales

One of the challenges for reined cow horse newcomers is understanding the divisions and classes they can enter in the National Reined Cow Horse Association. Even seasoned showmen can be thrown for a loop when new incentives are added or classes are revised. Although Chrome Cash began in 2019, the incentive based on a horse’s registration instead of parentage seems to draw confusion from competitors.

Started by the American Paint Horse Association, Chrome Cash encourages competitors to register their horses as Paints if they’re eligible. It also provides more earning opportunities for registered Paint Horses. Double registering a horse can raise its value initially and allow the horse to compete for additional earnings at a show it was already entered.

Since its start in the NRCHA, the Chrome Cash program doubled at the Snaffle Bit Futurity® from 12 entries in 2020 to 32 in 2021. In 2022, Chrome Cash paid out $10,000 in added money at NRCHApremier events and another $22,000 at the APHA World Championship Show in the working cow horse Chrome Cash Challenge classes. At the 2022 Celebration of Champions, NRCHA Youth member Emily Kent won the Non Pro Derby with her Paint, On the Reydio (Reydioactive x Bewitching Ichi x Cat Ichi), and cashed in on the incentive.

This year, all five NRCHA premier events will have $2,000 added in Chrome Cash, with Linda McMahon’s McSpyder Ranch at the upcoming Kalpowar Quarter Horses Celebration of Champions and the Teton Ridge Stallion Stakes.

Curious about the Chrome Cash Incentive? We went straight to the source, Sunny Bates, APHA Chrome Cash representative, to gain insight.

GunnaLetThePaintFlo and Trey Pool topped the Level 1 Open in the Tres Osos Cow Horse Derby in 2021, adding to their NRCHA earnings were the Chrome Cash funds from the horse’s Paint registration.

Reined Cow Horse News: Do you have to do anything during registration, like pay into an incentive?

Sunny Bates: There is no incentive fee during registration. You are required to become an APHA member to register a horse. Registration costs are at their lowest while the horse is a foal or weanling, but you can always register as your horse gets older. Your membership must be kept up to date to enter Chrome Cash.

RCHN: Are specific horses eligible or all registered paints?

SB: All registered Paints are eligible for Chrome Cash. Many Quarter Horses bred from double-registered stock may also be eligible. There are many more sires and dams not listed on the website that are registered with APHA. In Paint terminology there are “regular registry,” and “solid bred paints” regular registry are those horses that you would recognize as a Paint immediately. Solid bred means a horse may not have many white markings, but because it had a Paint parent it can be registered. Any offspring from registered stock is eligible.

Aboard Biscuits R Smokin, Debbie Crafton took home the 2022 Non Pro Futurity Champion title and split a check for the Chrome Cash Incentive. Loudly colored, like Valentines Hickory shown by EJ Laubscher, or a solid-colored Paint, Chrome Cash pays out to reward the registry.

RCHN: How does someone find out if their horse’s parents are double registered?

SB: You can always ask the breeder; many breeders do not advertise that their horses are double registered. Many horses are double registered with the AQHA, it provides more opportunities for a horse and its riders to compete. There is a list of popular cow horse sires and dams whose offspring qualify regardless of markings on the Chrome Cash webpage, including Stevie Rey Von, Smooth As A Cat, Metallic Rebel, Dual Reyish, Shes Twice as Smooth and Sadie The Cat. If you don’t find your horse’s sire or dam on the website don’t worry, there are more than a million registered Paints, if you call the APHA they will be able to tell you if your horse can potentially be registered. [If the horse has white markings and no APHA parentage], that is called a “cropout” in Paint terminology. If a horse without APHA registered parents has two inches of white above its hock or knee it’ll qualify for regular registry. If you draw a line from your horse’s ear, behind its eye and to its lips and there is two inches of white behind that line the horse is also eligible.

RCHN: Am I able to show a cow horse at APHA events or just in NRCHA Chrome Cash classes?

SB: Once registered you can show at APHA events as well as any other association you were already competing in. Chrome Cash may be paid at NRCHA, American Rope Horse Futurity Association, National Cutting Horse Association, World Cutting Horse Association and National Reining Horse Association events internationally. In addition, competing at select NRCHA events may qualify you to attend the APHA World Show. On the flip side, finalists at the 2022 APHA World Show in cow horse classes earned themselves a qualification to the Celebration of Champions.

Chrome Cash classes will take place at the Celebration of Champions, Stallion Stakes, Western Derby, Eastern Derby and the Snaffle Bit Futurity® in 2023. The incentive was started by the APHA, however, the NRCHA handles the entries and payouts at the shows.

RCHN: Is Chrome Cash a class or how does an exhibitor/horse get signed up?

SB: All you have to do is have a registered Paint horse and get entered for your show. It’s a “side pot,” or a class within a class, so there will not be working finals. It’s just like the NRCHA Select division classes or other breeding based incentives. To be entered select the Chrome Cash option on your regular NRCHA entry form.

RCHN: Is it worth it to get another membership and register my horse just to be eligible for Chrome Cash?

SB: That’s up to you! Last year Vince Von and Sarah Dawson took home $1,240 in Chrome Cash earnings in the Open division of the Snaffle Bit Futurity®, while Brandon Buttars, Todd Crawford, Shane Steffen and Matt Koch also rode Paint horses to incentive winnings. In the Non Pro divisions Debbie Crafton and Sophia Buttars split the $1,300 pot to each take home $650. As these classes continue to grow, they will payout more and more.