NOTABLE NON PRO

The miles between California and Oklahoma couldn’t stop Monica Duflock from pursuing her reined cow horse dreams.

BY JESSICA LASH

Thirty-six miles north of Paso Robles, California, rests the quaint community of San Ardo. The quiet, sparsely populated town is easily overlooked by passersby on their way to more thrilling California destinations. But for reined cow horse competitor Monica Duflock, San Ardo has a special meaning.

“It has always been home,” Duflock said. “And no matter where I go, it’s always going to be home.”

Duflock’s roots run deep in San Ardo. Her family has owned the historic San Bernardo Rancho for five generations—six, now, counting Duflock’s three teenaged sons. A vast expanse of rolling California ranchland, San Bernardo Rancho was part of the land ceded to the United States following the Mexican-American War. The original document, penned on parchment paper and dated September 1871, is framed in Duflock’s mother’s dining room.

Growing up on San Bernardo Rancho instilled a sense of self-sufficiency, responsibility and adventure in Duflock, who was often responsible for caring for sick or orphaned calves alongside her two older sisters. Missing school to help gather cattle horseback was always a childhood treat.

“Life on the ranch makes you independent,” Duflock shared. “It also gives you the space to be creative, to make your own adventures and to carve out your own fun. It’s a predictable thing to say, but the ranch teaches you things no place else can.”

Duflock lived on the ranch until she was 13 years old and then left for boarding school at Santa Catalina School in Monterey, California.

After graduating from high school, she attended college in Cleveland, Ohio, before returning to California. Although she now lives in the San Francisco Bay Area, Duflock still calls the pastures of San Bernardo Rancho home. And the lessons she’s learned from it all followed her everywhere she went, including to the reined cow horse arena in Blanchard, Oklahoma.

Back To The Beginning

Getting a divorce opened a new window of time in Duflock’s life, even though she had three children, ages 5, 3 and 1 at the time.

“Sometimes, you’re so busy just getting from morning to night that you don’t have the headspace, bandwidth or time to do anything but get through your day,” Duflock shared. “It had been that way for me for a long time. I went 11 years without getting on a horse and suddenly a space opened where I had time to fill it.”

For Duflock, who grew up using horses on her family’s ranch and showing Quarter Horses in horsemanship and trail classes, deciding what to fill the newfound space with was easy—horses.

“I had a friend I’d shown Quarter Horses with who was competing in reined cow horse events, so I went to watch her at a show in Santa Barbara [California] one weekend,” Duflock explained. “She was showing in the boxing, and I remember thinking, ‘This is so cool!’ I drove home that night and told my mom, ‘This is what I’m going to do.’ ”

Duflock bought a horse and began taking boxing lessons, and just like that, she was off and running with cow horses. She has never looked back.

“About a year after I started taking lessons, I bought my mare, Oh Cay Meriah, from Todd Crawford’s program in Oklahoma. That was it; after that I was all in,” Duflock said, with a laugh.

Oh Cay Meriah is sired by Light N Lena and out of the Freckles Merada daughter Meradas Oh Cay. Duflock shipped “Meriah” to California, where she spent six months before returning to Oklahoma to train with Crawford, an NRCHA Two Million Dollar Rider and Hall of Fame member, for the upcoming American Quarter Horse Association World Championship Show.

“I’ll never forget, when I asked Todd if he would help me get Meriah ready and show her in the Senior Working Cow Horse. He said, ‘You won’t ever have to ask me twice; we adore this mare,’ ” Duflock said. “She is very easy to love. When I got to Oklahoma to practice, all the bells went off in my head. I just knew that was where Meriah was meant to be.”

For the past six years, Duflock has prioritized Meriah’s well-being, allowing her to remain in Oklahoma under Crawford’s guidance, where the mare has continued to thrive. She commutes between California and Oklahoma to ride and compete as time permits.

“I don’t get back there as much as I’d like,” Duflock admitted. “I’m still raising three boys and helping with the ranch, so it ebbs and flows a little bit. I’m there as much as I can be, and someday I know I’ll be able to do more. But for now, I’m happy being able to carve out the time I do have for this other side of my life that doesn’t exist in the Bay Area.”

In addition to the enjoyment Duflock finds competing in National Reined Cow Horse Association events, the California native said she also finds fulfillment in the relationships she’s forged through her cow horse connections.

“We have a great group of people in Todd’s barn,” Duflock said. “I also have a great group of friends outside the barn who are a part of reined cow horse. Being part of all of it on a larger scale has been so much fun. I often wonder what I would be doing with myself if I hadn’t done this. I would be so boring.”

Left: Duflock enjoys competing on her reined cow horse mare, Oh Cay Meriah.

Below: Oh Cay Meriah poses with Duflock and two of the mare’s offspring.

From Foundation To Future

While Duflock enjoys the excitement of competing in reined cow horse events, she cherishes the relationship she shares with Meriah more than anything else.

“She has the most wonderful disposition,” Duflock said. “She’s kind and easygoing. She is so talented on a cow—she had a lot of success with Todd in her futurity and derby years. Her talent exceeded my knowledge when I started riding her and, to be honest, it’s probably always going to. She never holds that against me.”

Enamored with the mare’s cow sense and kindness, Duflock began breeding Meriah in 2019. Before Duflock purchased her, the mare had one colt, 2015 stallion Oh Cay MC, sired by Metallic Cat, that was a finalist at the Snaffle Bit Futurity®.

“We have two 3-year-olds on the ground right now, and I’m really excited to see if she continues to pass on her easygoing nature and her talent on a cow to her babies,” Duflock shared.

Duflock sold one of the 3-year-olds, Oh Cay Smarty Pants (by WR This Cats Smart), to

Dustin Mills in 2021. With any luck, she hopes to see Crawford pilot the colt she still owns, Oh Cay Maverick (sired by Metallic Rebel), at this year’s NRCHA Snaffle Bit Futurity®. Beyond continuing to show Meriah and watching the mare’s offspring find success in NRCHA events, Duflock said she does have one goal she’d still like to check off her list: going down the fence.

“I love competing in the boxing,” Duflock shared. “When NRCHA introduced the Box Drive class, I couldn’t say enough good things about it. It’s a great transitional class because it gives you the tools to pull everything together before you’re thrown into a fence class. Right now, the responsibilities in my life outside of horses don’t allow me to ride as much as I want to, but that’s always there in the back of my mind. Ultimately, I want to go down the fence.”

Whatever the future holds, Duflock said her life has been made whole by the special mare.

“As nerdy as it sounds, I look at my life in two parts—life before Meriah, and life after her,” Duflock said. “I’m so grateful for all the ways in which she has enriched my life.”