Rookie Frank Lee wasted little time in securing a national
championship after just one full year of competing with his
horse.
Rookie Frank Lee wasted little time in securing a national championship after just one full year of competing with his horse.
Lee, 43, was named as one the first ever world champions in the National Reined Cow Horse Association finals in Stephenville, Texas held during the final week of February.
Lee scored a 571 to beat George King of Idaho Falls by one point for the Non Pro Limited championship. The top ten qualifiers from each of the five regions in the United States had the chance to compete for the world championship. And the top ten from the championship trials moved on to the finals.
“It is kind of like the Stock Horse Class at Bolado,” Lee said. “We do a reining pattern and are judged on it. Then they put a cow in the arena, and we use those techniques to control the cow.”
Lee was encouraged to get started in the sport by his wife Sonya, who has been riding horses since she was young while growing up in Kentucky.
“She started showing in the Reined Cow Horse two years ago,” Lee said. “I was watching her show. I got the bug and I knew I had to get myself a horse and show too.”
Lee and his horse Smartcashinvestment (AKA Striker) have put in countless hours each week training. And it has paid off.
“I have a great horse,” Lee said. “I was pretty competitive all year. It took me about two or three months, but I really bonded with the horse. That bond makes a big difference. I guess I got some natural ability, but I got a lot of good people around me who support me.”
Stryker’s professional training didn’t hurt either. The 7-year-old horse was raised and trained by Teddy Robinson, who has won several championships and was the president of the NRCHA. Robinson showed the horse for three years before Lee purchased the horse in January of 2003.
The Lees have six horses they keep on the seven acres by their Hidden Valley home that they bought five and a half years ago when they came to Hollister. Two of the horses are already trained for the competition, and another is being trained. The other two horses are just ranch horses.
Sonya, riding her horse Sugamics Star, finished seven points and two places ahead of her husband in the 2003 NRCHA national standings, she said next year she hopes to defeat her husband for the championship.
She also qualified for the finals in Texas, but didn’t compete because she didn’t want to take the time off from her new business as an Investment Representative for Edward Jones.
“We’re moving up a level, so next year I will kick his butt,” Sonya said. “It is a big-time rivalry – but a friendly one. If I can’t win, I want him to win. And if he can’t, he wants me to win.”
But even still, she admits she has had trouble keeping her eyes off of the polished saddle that her husband was awarded.
“She alone is tough competition,” Lee said. “When she wins life is good at home, but when I win, life isn’t so good at home. But we’ve had a lot of fun with it. The people are great and are always rooting for each other.”
Lee tries to ride his horse about four or five days a week when weather permits. And once a week, the Lees drive to Hanford to train with Jake Gorrell on Friday and Saturday.
The Lees are moving up from the Non Pro Limited Category to the Non Pro level. There are 11 total classes of competition.
At the Pro level, people show and train their own animals. But at the Pro level, they may be paid to ride and show other people’s horses.
“It is not a cheap sport,” Lee said. “But we don’t do it for the money. We just do it for the hobby.”
Lee said he spent about $3,000 to go to the finals – or about the value of the saddle he received. He also was awarded a pair of cowboy boots, a bronze trophy of a rider on a horse and about $700 in cash.
Lee said he hopes to eventually start showing younger horses, where there is more money, but right now he just enjoys the friendly competition with his wife.
But Lee was not the only local represented in Texas.
Ramona Koch, who is a trainer in Paicines, won a Reserve World Championship in the Two-Rein category. Koch was riding her horse Honky Tonic.
The National Reined Cow Horse Association was formed in the early ’80s, but it was originally the California Reined Cow Horse Association, which was formed in 1949.
A group of horsemen and judges gathered at the Milias Hotel in Gilroy in the first meeting in the CRCHA. Cowboys from San Benito County whoattended included Dick Deller, John Brazil, Jim O’Connell, George Rose and Harry Rose.
For more information, go to www.nrcha.com.
