5 Highlights from the Kentucky Reining Cup

Rolex wasn’t the only big event taking place this weekend…

[top image: Wikimedia Commons, Becky Hanson. All gifs from the USEF Network Kentucky Reining Cup coverage]

While many riders have been glued to Eventing Nation and the Rolex leaderboards all weekend (at least, when we weren’t Facebook-stalking friends who were lucky enough to make the trip to Kentucky), there was a very different show simultaneously going on at the Kentucky Horse Park–the $120,000 Kentucky Reining Cup at the Alltech Arena.

Of course, top names like Sean Flarida were competing (and winning):

[Sean Flarida and Spooks Gotta Whiz]

And throughout the weekend there were special crowd-pleasing acts like Valiant the blind 4th level dressage and trail horse, trained by Jeanette Sassoon and John Lyons.

But I have to say that the reining musical freestyle is the most fun to watch. The costumes range from patriotic…

[Jessica Dooley and Footwork Dun It]

To kind of topical…

[Dan James as Tonto from the recent Lone Ranger movie, and Smart Little Elan]

To just flat-out weird.

[Shane Brown and Kita Whiz riding to “Pour Some Sugar on Me”]

That is possibly the SCARIEST gingerbread man and the sparkliest cookie I’ve ever seen. But they won!

You can find even more from this weekend’s world-class reining at the USEF Network website.

Go Riding!