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NRCHA Celebration of Champions


Girl Power: Sarah Dawson & Travelin Miss Jonez take Derby Open


Contributed by Kasha Ford, Silver Buckle Services


The 2017 National Reined Cow Horse Association Celebration of Champions sched- ule in Fort Worth, Texas, kicked off with the Peptoboonsmal Cow Horse Classic Derby, sponsored for the fourth year by Aaron Ranch, Commerce, Texas. This year, the Derby was named for Aaron Ranch’s legendary stallion, Peptoboonsmal, a household name in the Western performance industry as an NRCHA Million Dollar Sire and $25 Million Sire in all disciplines.


The Peptoboonsmal Cow Horse Classic


Derby drew a field of 83 entries - 23 more than last year, for an almost 9 percent growth over 2016. The added money had also expanded by 40 percent compared with last year. The robust field of 4- and 5-year-old hors- es, many of which had excelled in the 2015 and 2016 futurities, made the action as tough as any NRCHA Premier Event.


Competitors were judged in herd work, rein work and cow work, and unlike past edi- tions of this Derby, there were no finals, with just a single go-round determining the cham- pions.


DERBY OPEN


For a second consecutive year, the Der- by Open Championship stayed in the Dawson household, as Aubrey, Texas, professional Sar- ah Dawson, riding Travelin Miss Jonez (Trav- elin Jonez x Playin With Rubies x Lectric Play-


boy), won the title that her husband, Chris, had claimed in 2016 aboard Shiney Sparklette (Shining Spark x Docs Sulena x Doc O’Le- na), owned by Carol Rose and Dickson Varner.


Sarah piloted the 2013 mare to a 438 composite (145 herd/147 rein/146 cow), winning the $19,479 championship paycheck for Travelin Miss Jonez’ owner and breeder, Steve Roseber- ry, Circleville, Ohio. “This is actually my first, straight Open


Derby win. I’ve been in the finals many times, and I’ve won the other divisions, but to actually win the Open, this is my first time, so it’s very exciting,” Dawson said. She has a particular fondness for Trav- elin Miss Jonez, a gifted athlete whose natural stop and mastery of the fence work makes her a contender in even the toughest competition. “I’ve had her since she was a 2-year- old,


Lyle Proctor & SJR All Time Cash


and she was always my best one,” Dawson said. “I’m glad she was able to have the spot- light at this horse show. It’s so tough these days. When you come to these derbies, you want to come on something that you think, ‘yeah, this horse can win.’ I came into this thing knowing she was a good one, and if the stars aligned, she could win it.”


The rein work was the


first event on the agenda at the Will Rogers Equestrian Center.


“I was really hap-


py with the reining. She stopped huge and turned huge, and she circled cute. That mare, her big thing is, she’s a huge stopper. She went out there and did that,” Dawson said.


In the herd work,


Dawson and the bay mare drew up in the middle of the fifth set of cattle, adding


14 SouthWest Horse Trader April 2017


Sarah Dawson & Travelin Miss Jonez


a respectable 145 score to their composite and keeping them in the hunt for the championship. With the all-important fence work still ahead, Dawson took confidence from knowing Trav- elin Miss Jonez could handle more than the average 4-year-old. “She’s an awesome fence horse. She’s


very, very special down the fence. I would describe it as a very unconventional-type run that she had. She handled everything the cow threw at her like an older, broke bridle horse,” Dawson said. They drew a leggy black steer with the lungs of a long-distance runner. Its feet hardly slowed down for the entire run.


“Of all the horses that I have, she is the only one that could have handled it. After we boxed, it ran super hard down to that first turn. She made a huge turn, and then it shot out into the middle of the arena very hard and very fast, so we had to loop it back around. We kind of made a mid-field turn on our second turn, and then we had to make a third turn before we cir- cled up. The cow never let up the whole time. It stayed extremely fast. I think we used the whole arena in that fence run,” Dawson said, laughing. “But she was there for me the whole time, stayed in my hands every time I called on her, which is why I think they rewarded her for it.”


The win on Travelin Miss Jonez carried


extra significance because the mare is sired by the Dawsons’ stallion, Travelin Jonez (Smart Chic Olena x Travelin With Sass x Travalena), who Chris rode to the 2017 World’s Greatest Horseman finals in Fort Worth. Travelin Miss Jonez’ owner, Steve Roseberry, previously Continued on page 16


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