Jay McLaughlin and CD Dee Vee Dee

Open Hackamore

CD Dee Vee Dee, one of Jay McLaughlin’s favorites, was going home with his new owners after the NRCHA Celebration of Champions, so the Open Hackamore World Championship Finals was their farewell run.

“I trotted to the middle and stopped for a long time there. I was having a conversation with him. I told him it was a pleasure to train him and I just needed one more run. He took a big old breath, and he did it,” McLaughlin said.

Working second-to-last in an extremely competitive class, the 5-year old sorrel gelding turned in a 451 composite score – 225 in the rein work and 226 down the fence.

“He was awesome, the whole way. There’s not one thing I would have changed about anything,” said McLaughlin. After a flawless reining pattern, CD Dee Vee Dee (CD Lights x Shiners Missy Jay x Shining Spark) confronted a sticky cow that refused to give him much play on the end. “I tried to drive it across the pen four or five times and it wouldn’t drive, and I thought we were in trouble,” McLaughlin said. But once it came out of the corner, the cow offered CD Dee Vee Dee a chance to shine, rating perfectly down the fence to set up a powerful right turn.

They headed back for a left turn at top speed, continuing seamlessly into circles to the left, then to the right, cheek-tocheek with the cow. “I’ve never, ever in my life ridden a horse that can make a left-hand turn like he can, and still stay there and circle. Ever. And he stayed right there, an inch from the cow. He didn’t touch it, but he was on it. He was awesome,” McLaughlin said.

His boss, Carol Rose, raised CD Dee Vee Dee and owned him until the end of December 2009, when Shannon and Hershel Reid, Pilot Point, Texas, bought him. He is slated to be Shannon Reid’s non-pro horse. McLaughlin and CD Dee Vee Dee outmarked Reserve Champions Jake Telford and Spark N Loulena (Shining Spark x Mary Lou Lena x Doc O’Lena) by a single point. Telford and the 6-year old mare, owned by Newt White, came out fourth in the set and earned a nearly untouchable 450 composite score, a 222 in the rein work and 228 in the fence work. Telford admitted he would have run the mare harder in parts of his reined work if he had known what was coming later in the set.

“I wasn’t expecting it to be as tough as it was. I kind of wish Jay had gone before me, because then I could have changed my game plan a little bit, but that’s the way it goes. He saw what I did, and he knew what he had to do,” said the Caldwell, Idaho trainer, adding he was pleased with Spark N Loulena’s fence score. “It’s not very often you get to mark a 228. It was pretty fun.” Equi-Stat recorded Telford’s first reined cow horse earnings in 1999. The former professional roper has exceeded $100,000 in annual winnings every year since 2005, and his record prior to the Celebration of Champions was $855,328. —SD


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