PREMIER - September 2024 by PremierSires

Having A Goodtime:

Non-Pro Allison Rassinoux Looks Ahead to Fall Majors with Best Bea Goodtime

It didn’t take long for Allison Rassinoux to fall in love with her current partner, Best Bea Goodtime, in fact it was love at first sight, or perhaps more accurately, love at first head scratch. “Earlier this year Farley [McLendon] wanted me to look at a new horse at the Sudden Impulse. As soon as I went into the stall with him, he put his head in my hands and started asking for scratches. I fell in love right there,” says Rassinoux.

After riding him in Ocala, Rassinoux knew she’d found her next partner and the two have been on a fast track to success since making their debut together at the 2024 NSBA World Show in August. Best Bea Goodtime, also known as Kenny, is a 2021 gelding by Good Better Best and out of the mare Bea Sweet Blaze.

Rassinoux shares that her trainer Farley McLendon had been on the lookout for a new horse for her to compete with in the futurities. McLendon explains, “Allison is really tall. She has long legs and needs a tall horse to do the futurities.” Rassinoux’s previous partner, Howdy Hippie, or Stix, was a great match, but wasn’t a big horse. “I knew about Kenny, Dwayne and Amber Pickard had him and I had looked at him previously. I felt like he would be a good match for Allison,” she says. “When I rode him last fall, he was super quiet and had a good feel. When Amber told me he was still available, I knew it could be the right match for Allison.”

McLendon adds, “I wasn’t surprised that Allison fell in love with him. He’s really pretty headed, and he’s a giant. He reminds me of Naturally Ironic. He’s out of a Hot N

Blazing mare that Suzanne Pickard Duquette showed. Then Leslie Bacon owned her and bred her. Amber and Dwayne bought Kenny from her as a baby, so it’s a cool family connection.”

The gelding’s slow, gentle personality has endeared him to both McLendon and Rassinoux, who says, “He is the goofiest puppy dog. He will do anything for a neck scratch or head scratch. He has that in your pocket personality type and wants to make you happy. Kenny is very easygoing, which is good for me because I am a type A personality and he complements me very well. When I first met him, he put his head in my arms. How could you not fall in love immediately?”

“I wish they were all like him,” says McLendon “He’s very forgiving and doesn’t hold a grudge. He reminds me of the big cartoon dinosaurs. He’s just big, slow, and unassuming. He goes out and does his job and doesn’t get excited about much. Kenny is not a horse that you have to ride all the time; if he’s good you can ride him and let him be. He’s just a cool horse.”

Best Bea Goodtime made his debut at The Premier earlier this year in the Premier Sires 3 & Over Maiden Hunter Under Saddle earning the Reserve Champion title and bringing home $9,000 in his first outing. He was also top five and top ten in the Three-Year-Old Level Three Hunter Under Saddle.

“It’s been an amazing ride so far,” says Rassinoux. “Farley and Amber have done an incredible job with him. McLendon adds, “Amber and Dwayne did a great job with him. I’ve followed what they had done and just try to stay out of his way and let him do his job.”

Prior to the NSBA World Show in August, McLendon sustained a foot injury that kept her out of the irons. Scott Suggs stepped in to help prepare her horses for the event. “Scott stepped up to help me. I knew he could follow me. It was quite the undertaking, and he helped me out in a big way,” she says.

With assistance from Suggs and several catch riders, Kenny and Rassinoux didn’t miss a beat and made their debut at one of the year’s largest shows. “Kenny was so well prepared for NSBA,” says Rassinoux. “He was so fun to show, you just put him in the ring and let him do his job.”

Dawn Baker piloted the gelding in both the Three-YearOld Novice Horse Hunter Under Saddle earning a reserve championship, and the Three-Year-Old BCF Open Hunter Under Saddle earning third. Brian Isbell Garcia took the irons in the Three-Year-Old BCF Limited Open Hunter Under Saddle earning a top ten finish. In her non-pro debut with Kenny, Rassinoux earned multiple impressive third place finishes in the ThreeYear-Old BCF Open Non-Pro Hunter Under Saddle, Three-YearOld Open Non-Pro Hunter Saddle, and Three-Year-Old Limited Non-Pro Hunter Under Saddle. They were also top ten in the Three-Year-Old BCF Limited Non-Pro Hunter Under Saddle.

McLendon especially was impressed with how the young horse handled all that was thrown his way in a short amount of time. “I need a barn full of Kennys. He was super patient with Allison showing him for the first time. She’s learned how

to show better because of him. To be a three-year-old and handle everything that well and be so successful says a lot about his nature,” she says.

Coming from a successful NSBA World Show, the team is gearing up for the major fall shows including the AllAmerican Quarter Horse Congress. “I won’t be riding in time for the Congress,” says McLendon. “We’re lining up catch riders for the open events. I think Allison will be able to do well at Congress and have the same success if not more than she did at the NSBA World.” At the

Congress Rassinoux will show Best Bea Goodtime in the Three-Year-Old Limited and Open Non-Pro Hunter Under Saddle Events. Kenny is also entered in the Three-Year-Old Open Hunter Under Saddle and the Green Hunter Under Saddle events.

Rassinoux and McLendon agree that their strategy for Kenny is to set him up to be a long-term partner. “We want to save him and be smart about what we do with him. NSBA is a grueling show, and he handled it well,” says McLendon.

Rassinoux adds, “We’re looking at possibly doing the AQHA World Show after the Congress where Kenny would show in the open hunter under saddle events, and I would show him in the nonpro stakes class.”

Rassinoux has always had a love for the hunter saddle classes. “I love watching the horses move. The long trot is my favorite, I could ride a long trot all day long. It’s just incredible to sit and watch the flow of a great hunt seat horse. The elegance is just a chef’s kiss for me.”

Previously, Rassinoux has also shown the equitation, which she says speaks to her type A personality. “I like having a plan, which is why I love the pattern classes, especially equitation. You know that you do this at A and this at B. It really speaks to my personality type.”

Looking into the future for Kenny, Rassinoux says that Scott Suggs believes the gelding has a promising future as a driving horse. “Scott is itching to get him in front of a cart. We’ll see, but I would love to get back in a cart again.”

Reflecting on her early days as an equestrian, Rassinoux says, “I was not supposed to get into horses. It kind of happened by accident. A neighbor friend of my mom’s was taking her daughter to a riding lesson in Nashville. She didn’t want her daughter to go by herself, so my mom and I went

along. The neighbor’s daughter stopped after first lesson, but I did not,” she shares. After some time spent showing Arabians and Tennessee Walking Horses, Rassinoux got her first Quarter Horse in 1997. “I haven’t looked back since,” she says. “My first horse was an appendix gelding who had Secretariat on his papers. His name was Royally Teed and he loved to race anyone in the pen,” laughs Rassinoux. Later in her youth career, she showed the gelding IBM Icy Silhouette who competed in everything. “Benny Sargent showed him in the pleasure driving and I did all the other things from showmanship to horsemanship and hunter under saddle. That’s where I really caught the bug for the hunt seat events,” says Rassinoux. In 2003, she competed at the AQHYA World Show with her hunt seat mare The Artful Indian.

After graduating from college at the University of Tennessee, Rassinoux stayed to go on to vet school. After completing vet school, she moved to New Hampshire to do a mixed animal internship in Rochester. It was there that she met her husband, Sebastien, who is originally from Paris, France, through the online dating site eHarmony. “We’re a success story for sure,” she says.

After several moves, the couple landed back in Tennessee where they currently reside and Rassinoux practices small animal medicine. “I had to decide between treating horses or riding and showing my own. I took the latter option and became a small animal vet because it gives me the ability to ride and show,” she explains.

Prior to Kenny, Allison had a long-term show partner in Talk Southern To Me or Puddin. “Puddin was my main guy for quite a while. He was the first one I placed at the Congress on. I showed him in the equitation and the hunter under saddle and we dabbled in the showmanship,” she says. Puddin brought Rassinoux’s show experience full circle in many ways. She shares, “I bought Puddin from Farley and first showed him under the guidance of Ryan Cottingim and Amanda Gately for several years. We had a lot of success together. We then spent a year with Keith Miller. Both Mandi and Keith had quite a few top tens at the Congress and World show with him.”

The pair closed out their time together as finalists in the Maturity Open Non-Pro Hunter Under Saddle Stakes at the 2023 Congress. Rassinoux says, “We sold Puddin to a great family last fall at the Congress.”

Now Rassinoux and McLendon are focused on the future and building a strong partnership with Best Bea Goodtime. “Kenny has only been with me a for a short amount of time, but he’s already shown me that I was right to fall in love with him from the start,” says Rassinoux.

When she’s not taking care of her four-legged clients or showing, Rassinoux enjoys reading and spending time with her husband and their three dogs, April, Mae, and June.

Article Written by: Elizabeth Arnold Photography by Cody Parmenter Photography & Premier Sires