The momentum keeps building in Fort Worth as competition heats up across both arenas at the 2025 NRCHA Snaffle Bit Futurity® presented by Metallic Cat!
In the Watt Arena, action kicks off at 8:00 a.m. with sets 17 through 24 of the Open Futurity herd work, which will wrap up Friday, October 9. Currently, Von Jovii (Stevie Rey Von x She Wood In Time x One Time Pepto), owned by Bar One Land & Cattle and shown by Corey Cushing, have the high herd score after marking an impressive 222 points.
Meanwhile, over in the John Justin Arena, another full day of horse show classes is underway with both the reined and cow work for the Non Pro Boxing, and the day wraps up with the reined and cow work for the Non Pro Two Rein classes.
Non Pro Hackamore Champions
More champions were crowned yesterday morning in the Non Pro Hackamore classes at the 2025 NRCHA Snaffle Bit Futurity®!
In the Non Pro Hackamore, Tylor Todd rode Tiny Dancr (Smooth Talkin Style x Peptos Little Dancer x Peptoboonsmal) to the top spot with an impressive 294.5 composite, scoring a 144 in the reined work and 150.5 down the fence.
Taking home the Intermediate Non Pro Hackamore Championship was Maisen Avent aboard Stylin Trixie (Stylin Cat x Miss Acre San x Peppys King Chex). The duo earned a 287.5 composite, and marked 141 in the reined work and 146.5 in the cow work.
Non Pro Boxing Champion
Amanda Friesen and her 2006 blue roan stallion Judge Boon captured the titles in both the Intermediate and Limited Non Pro Boxing divisions. The pair delivered a consistent performance across both events, earning a combined score of 292.5 after marking a 144 in the reined work and a 148.5 in the cow work. Judge Boon, sired by Peptoboonsmal and out of Missuma by Smart Little Lena, and Friesen made their mark in the John Justin yesterday afternoon.
Gunna Be A Smartie’s Legacy Carries Forward at NRCHA Snaffle Bit Futurity®
When a standout futurity horse hits the arena floor, its quick feet naturally finding the right places to step and its shifting muscles already knowing the exact movements to make, it's no accident. Talented horses don’t simply emerge out of thin air but rather have been made by the combined efforts of breeders, owners, trainers and, perhaps most importantly, broodmares.
Gunna Be A Smartie (Very Smart Remedy x Gunna Be Mine x Gunna Smoke), 2021 World’s Greatest Horseman® Champion, had an impressive career of her own and is just beginning to build her run as a producer with her very first foal debut at the NRCHA Snaffle Bit Futurity®. Linda McMahon of McSpyder Ranch is the proud owner of that filly and owned Gunna Be A Smartie, affectionately known as “Val,” from when she was a 2-year-old until around age 10.
“Shane Steffen found Val for me through Annie Reynolds,” McMahon said. “Annie and Joyce Pearson bred her. When she was a 2-year-old, Shane came to me and said, ‘You know, I think we've got a really good horse here.’”
While that intuition wasn’t wrong, Val was a slow starter at first, performing respectably in the early futurities and derbies but not particularly outstanding.
“She wasn't fast and furious in the beginning,” McMahon said. “But once that ambition was unleashed, boy, she never looked back. Once she started winning, it didn't stop. For me, owning Val was an experience of a lifetime. She took me places that a girl from Brooklyn, New York, would never have thought she could go.”
Val hit a winning streak of collecting accolades in 2018, specifically within the hackamore, two rein and bridle divisions beneath Steffen. In that year alone, they won the Open Hackamore World Championship at the NRCHA Celebration of Champions, the Open Two Rein Spectacular Championship at the NRCHA Stallion Stakes and NRCHA Derb, and both the World’s Richest Open and Intermediate Open divisions at the National Stock Horse Association Futurity show.
“She has such tenacity,” McMahon said. “I don't think she thought that she couldn't do it. And Shane knew she could do it—she just became an extension of him when he rode her. She had a star presence and had the crowd in the palm of her hand whenever she worked.”
The buildup of success reached its pinnacle when the team won the 2021 NRCHA World’s Greatest Horseman®, marking the highest score of 227 points in the cow work and, at the time, the highest score of the entire show.
“I couldn't breathe when they won that,” McMahon said. “I never expected it. It's like winning the lottery—in status, in achievement, in recognition. It was a euphoric feeling. Her performance there changed many’s expectations about what was possible for a mare, and I’m hoping her breeding career meets that standard as well.”
In the year or so following that prestigious win, the mare was retired to the breeding shed after winning over $150,000 in her career. McMahon decided she’d best excel in the hands of Renee Dubois of Kandu Ranch, but not before getting her own foal out of her. Gunna B Smart N Tuff, a 2022 mare by Woody Be Tuff and out of Val, is owned and bred by McSpyder Ranch. At this year’s Futurity, the filly has been shown by Todd Bergen.
“It's pretty extraordinary to watch her work in the show pen with Todd,” McMahon said of the Futurity mare. “It’s exciting for me, and I'm very honored.”
Beyond Gunna B Smart N Tuff, Val has a couple of other foals now on the ground under the ownership of Kandu Ranch. And although Val has now passed that competitive torch onto her first batch of hopefuls, the direct impact she left on McMahon’s life will never retire.
“That mare taught me perseverance and love of the sport,” McMahon said. “I never wanted the fact of winning to take over what a horse means to me. That is always first and foremost in my mind—the wellness and the well-being of the horses that I own, and I want that to continue. But if I can be part of this legacy, I'm gonna be really, really excited about it.”
Gunna B Smart N Tuff is beginning the next steps of that legacy, marking a 217 in the reined work of the Open Futurity earlier this week. As the herd work continues to unfold, Bergen will return to the pen in set 28 on Thursday, October 9, with the class wrapping up Friday, October 10.
Cow Horse Community Rallies in Support for Last Minute Entry at the NRCHA Snaffle Bit Futurity®
For many exhibitors, attending the NRCHA Snaffle Bit Futurity® is an extensively planned-out process, with owners and trainers spending months preparing for one of the largest reined cow horse shows in the nation. But for Tuff And Arising (BadBoonaRising x CR Rosie Tuff Stuff x Woody Be Tuff), shown by Hawkinson, Washington, resident Trent Pederson for owner Kelly Lindel, this was a spur-of-the-moment decision that has paid off immensely.
“We don't come down here often because of the distance,” Pederson said. “We were going to Reno, Idaho and Paso Robles [for futurities].”
However, while showing at the Reno Snaffle Bit Futurity in September, friends, family and fellow competitors rallied together in an attempt to convince Pederson to travel south to the 2025 NRCHA Snaffle Bit Futurity®.
“They told me I had two really good horses, which I believe I did, and they really encouraged me to come here and show because I had a good shot,” Pederson said.
Both Pederson and his two horses, Tuff And Arising and Covered Me Tichy (CR Gotcha Covered x Starstruck Ichi x Cat Ich), owned by Quail Run Ranch/Shelie Hartman Gibbs, surpassed prior expectations, and after each pre-futurity, the number of supporters encouraging Pederson grew and grew.
“They were both really good in the reined work in Reno,” Pederson said. “People started casually saying that I should go, and then after the herd work, more people and friends were telling me.”
Pederson's friends even roped his family into the effort, and together they worked to plan out how to get the Washington cowboy down to Fort Worth.
“All of his friends there encouraged him, and everybody was kind of scheming behind his back on how to get him there and how to make it happen, because it was so last-minute,” Pederson's wife, Stephane, said. “It was really special, because it was a huge group of people that were like, ‘How do we get this done? Who's going to help?'”
On the last day of the Reno Snaffle Bit Futurity, and the last day to enter the NRCHA Snaffle Bit Futurity®, Pederson and Tuff And Arising placed fourth overall in the Intermediate Open Futurity at the Reno Snaffle Bit Futurity, and Pederson finally made the call to the owners.
“We talked to the owners, and they said, ‘Yeah, see if we can find some slots, and let's go.'” Pederson said. “So we bought a couple slots, and my friends got me here.”
According to Pederson's wife, Pederson's supporters did more than just encourage him to go to the show. Before he had even made a call to the owners, his friends were already rapidly searching for slots and a way to help out their fellow competitor.
“We had friends haul the horses to Arizona, so they didn't have to go all the way home to Washington,” Stephane said. “Trent drove down to Arizona and picked them up. It was all a huge group effort.”
In addition to his fellow competitors, Pederson also received support from a local trailer dealership, KMR Trailer Sales, which lent the family a trailer to take to the show.
“I didn't want to haul my big eight-horse down here, and I'm trying to find a room and all that kind of stuff,” Pederson said. “I called them through a friend of mine, and asked if they had a living quarters trailer that I could rent, and they said, ‘Well, you can just take it and use it down there, and good luck.'”
On Day Two of the 2025 NRCHA Snaffle Bit Futurity®, Pederson and Tuff And Arising scored a 220 in the reined work, landing them second in the Intermediate Open reined work prelims.
“I've never been around a group of people who are so supportive of each other,” he said. “It doesn't matter if you only see them at the horse show; you're always happy to see them. People don't realize how unique the cow horse community is; they have no idea. And I think sometimes we might take it for granted, but it's unbelievable. It really is.”
Pederson and Tuff And Arising will continue to give it their all today in the Open Futurity herd work.
