Team Royal Blue Performes Royally to First Place Honors; Deary Storms to Victory In The Individual Competition

The team aspect was a very unique component of this event; one we haven’t really seen in the horse show world. Comprised of one cutter, one reiner, and one cow horse rider decided by random draw, each team’s standing was determined by combining the three individual scores.

Once the curtain fell on the Globe Life Field arena on Friday night, Sarah Dawson and Adan Banuelos had topped the cow horse and cutting individual competition and, along with Fernando Salgado who placed third in the reining portion, also took team gold.

“I had to say goodbye to her [All Spice] after winning the Futurity since owners Teton Ridge had decided to retire her—when this opportunity came up, I was over the moon.”

– Adan Banuelos

The event kicked off with the cutting where 2020 NCHA Open Futurity Champions and 2021 NCHA Open Horse of the Year All Spice, AKA “The Queen,” and now NCHA Six Million Dollar Rider Adan Banuelos laid down an amazing performance paid back by the judges with a 229 for the lead. “This is the best horse I have ever ridden,” said Banuelos about the stylish red roan mare owned by Teton Ridge. “I had to say goodbye to her after winning the Futurity since the owners had decided to retire her so when this opportunity came up, I was over the moon.” The duo picked up from where they left off thrilling the crowd with their incredible connection and with the mare showing off her athletic ability on “an unbelievable stage” as Banuelos put it. “We’re just full of emotion and happiness and I knew it was going to work out right. This is a thing that people dream about doing and when you get the opportunity to perform somewhere like this, you just shut up and like it! We have all put so much criticism into ourselves, into our program, into our horses. We can dissect anything and the truth is that these guys’ horses have done a lot for people for a long time and have endured some tough situations under a lot of pressure. We have taken the cowboy out of our sport. None of the 15 here ever doubted what Teton would put together; they did their very best and made us all look better. They set the stage and showed it can be done and I think we’ll absolutely find more shows like this around the country — maybe not to the level these guys pulled it off but I’m certain we will.”

As event staff reworked the arena for the reining, Rock and Roll Hall of FamerSheryl Crow entertained the public with a line-up of hit songs. When the Grammy Award winner left the stage, the attention returned to the arena for the reining.

First in the arena was NRHA Million Dollar Rider Fernando Salgado riding Pale Dun Star, a 7-year-old gelding owned by Ian Jr. and Kristen Cantacuzene. The pressure was on for the native of Brazil now based in

Gainesville, Texas. With Banuelos on top of the cutting leaderboard and Dawson posting the highest score in the rein work, which took place before the show began, the pressure was on. “I am a big fan of both of them and I was nervous,” he told.

“When you watch them showing and how their hors es perform, they’re amazing; that put a lot of pressure on me and I didn’t want to drop the ball. I was really happy I was able to do that.”

Salgado rode to a 224 score closing in third place which was accompanied by a $50,000 paycheck.

“Love for the horses is the answer to everything and why the atmosphere was so high tonight. That’s the reason that I moved from my country to here. We all work so many hours, and I think what makes us go to this level is the love of the horse. It always pays off.”

– Fernando Salgado

Another page was turned in the arena and it was time for the muchanticipated reined cow horse fence work. Sarah Dawson and Shine Smarter were the last to go: The NRCHA Million Dollar Rider needed a 215.5 to ride her team to victory, yet, with the 11-year-old mare between the reins, she didn’t settle on riding easy and once their fast and precise performance was over, a 226.5 appeared on the scoreboard bringing their composite to a 452.5, the win, and and a $125,000 paycheck.

that was great for all three disciplines, to making the show roll. We’ve always talked amongst ourselves about how our sports are so freakin’ cool but the problem we’ve always had is that we don’t have spectators. We get the same people over and over again coming to our shows but here Teton has proved that we can make it a spectator-driven event as opposed to a competitordriven one, and I am excited to see what it’s going to turn into. They’ve opened a door for us that we didn’t know we could open.”

“Teton Ridge has proven that we can make this a spectator-driven event as opposed to a competitor-driven one, and I am excited to see what it’s going to turn into. They’ve opened a door for us that we didn’t know we could open.”

- Sarah Dawson

“She was fantastic! It hasn’t sunk in and I haven’t even wrapped my mind around the money yet,” said Dawson during the press conference. “I just can’t get over the fact that that mare accomplished what she did tonight. I felt like we kinda cheated this morning because we all warmed up in that arena, we come out for 15 minutes, and then went back in to show. For the fence work, we were a little bit in different shoes as opposed to the reiners and the cutters because these horses don’t take a lot of preparation to go down the fence: all they have to do is stretch their legs. Mentally they can be a little up and that’s OK. I have a lot of respect for the cutters and reiners because they are the ones that had to manage their horses’ nerves because of the situation they were put in but Teton Ridge did a great job of managing everything, from the ground