Limited Open Bridle

Coming into the Limited Open Bridle finals last in the draw, Ty Rohrbaugh was nervous. It was only the second year for the 22-year-old trainer to show at the NRCHA World Show. The year before, he showed Hickorys Pepibella when he was working for Kevin Stallings and ended up placing third.

In the spring of 2009, he moved back to his home state of Colorado and set up shop with trainer Blue Allen in Alamosa. Janiejill Tointon was impressed with the young trainer and brought her beloved 1997 mare, Shiners Spumanti, out of retirement for Rohrbaugh to ride. “Ty is a fantastic hand,” Tointon said. “He just goes in there so calm and mellow. And horses really respond to that centeredness when he goes in.”

And that was something “Marilyn” needed. “She’s a very opinionated mare,” Tointon said. “She thinks she knows what she’s doing so she’s always anticipating everything and kind of wants to lean on you and on the bit. One of my goals was to go let her carry some babies to see if that would help her and maybe try to bring her back and get as much earned on her as I could.”

By $3 million NRCHA sire Shining Spark and out of Taris Vintage by Doc Tari, Marilyn had more than $7,000 in earnings before her retirement in 2006. She was bred to some of the top stallions in the industry, such as Diggers Rest, NMSU Truckin Chex, Peptomatic, TR Dual Rey and Lean With Me, to produce six foals, of which two have been shown. But last summer, Tointon decided it was time to start showing Marilyn again.

Her first outing was the 2009 Colorado State Fair Reined Cow Horse Futurity where she was shown not only by Rohrbaugh but also by Tointon and youth rider Donathon Archuleta. “I showed her in non-pro, he showed her in the open and Donathon showed her in the youth and we ended up winning the all-around cow horse saddle. It was incredible,” Tointon said.

The prelims for the Limited Open Bridle on Feb. 3 had 18 entries. Rohrbaugh and Marilyn had the second highest combined score of 434.5 with a 216.5 in the dry work and a 218 on the fence. The leader with a 441 was Rohrbaugh’s previous World Show horse, Hickorys Pepibella, this year ridden by Brad Barkemeyer. On Feb. 5, 10 riders returned for the Limited Open Bridle finals. Third in the draw, Ben And Dun It with Jeremy Meador took the early lead with a 218.5 in the rein work and a 215 in the cow work for a combined score of 433.5. “It went pretty well out there,” the Idaho trainer said. “He felt really good in the rein work and just had a little bit of trouble getting circled in the fence.” The pair retired to the makeup area and watched the remaining riders. “We were sitting there biting our nails,” Meador said. “This was a real special deal for me because it was the last time I’ll get to show this horse. We’ve been close a few times in a lot of different things and today was kind of a win, lose or draw.”

The 433.5 held through the ninth draw. Marilyn was the last horse to show and because of his nerves, Rohrbaugh had ignored the previous rides and scores. “I knew what I had to do, so I just didn’t want to over-show her,” he said. Rohrbaugh was pleased with Marilyn’s dry work. It was the cow work that had the young trainer worried. “She’s got to have the right cow down the fence to look good,” he said. “I wasn’t quite sure about the cow we got and whether I should hold him down there and box a little longer but he kept wanting to go down the fence so I just went with it.” With a short box work, the cow still had plenty of energy and took off fast down the fence. But the palomino mare was up to the challenge and on the first turn, the cow tried to intimidate Marilyn by kicking up his heels.

“He kind of threw a fake right there and kind of acted like he was going to run through her but she just stayed right there,” Rohrbaugh said. With the crowd cheering them on, the pair turned the cow again and then quickly circled him up both ways. “It was such a good cow for her and that’s all part of it,” he said. “You’ve got to have a good cow for your horse.” Marking a 216 in the dry work and a 221 in the fence work gave the pair a combined score of 437 and the world title. “It’s my first and it is so exciting,” Rohrbaugh said. “It all just fell together and everything went well. I really appreciate Janiejill for giving me such a nice horse to ride.” The winnings of $3,495 put Marilyn’s earnings at almost $11,000. —TRG  


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