Cade McCutcheon is usually familiar with the horses he rides into the winners circle, but made an exception with 15-year-old stallion Smart Lois at the Southwest Reining Horse Association Futurity in the first slate of the Novice Horse Open class.
With a score of 74.5, McCutcheon earned the Novice Horse Open Level 2 Championship and $1,102 for owner Jennifer Greenleaf.
“I wasn’t really planning on showing him, but his owner asked me if I would, and I said ‘Sure!’ I warmed him up [and went]. He’s a show horse, and an old horse like that is fun. He knows exactly what’s happening,” McCutcheon explained.
Smart Louis is a 2007 model stallion sired by Smart Chic Olena and out of Lois Montana. McCutcheon had briefly schooled the stallion for Greenleaf before, but had never tested out the big-fast-to-small-slow controls before.
“Warming up I had a feeling I could go mark a pretty big score. I knew I could go pretty hard and just go have fun. He’s a very fun, very nice old horse and he’s worth his weight in gold,” McCutcheon said. “He’s a horse you want to take out of the stall and go ride every day of the week.”
According to McCutcheon, the stallion’s top maneuver is his stops.
“Running and stopping is really fun on him. I had a mare a few years ago named Shes Got Good Guns that I could turn the corner and pitch the reins to her. I hadn’t really done that [recently], so last night I got to do it again and it was really fun,” McCutcheon said.
McCutcheon thanked Greenleaf for letting him ride Smart Lois and joked that maybe he’d get to catch ride the horse again soon.