Americasnexttopgun & Deary Performance Horses
Casey Deary visits Oswood Stallion Station often to watch the young prospects as they grow and mature. In 2016, he had a special one to watch. Americasnexttopgun, by Walla Walla Whiz, is out of Americasnextgunmodel, both in a line of horses that have carried Deary to tremendous success.
On the dam, Deary never placed below 15th, and only showed in major aged events. Americasnextgunmodel finished at the top of the 2012 High Roller Reining Classic Futurity, the 2012 NRHA Futurity, and the 2014 NRHA Derby. With only seven shows on her record, she earned nearly $280,000.
“That family has so much ability that if you can just make sure to get it channeled in the right direction, they are hard to beat,” Deary said.
Americasnexttopgun, lovingly called “Maverick,” stood out amongst the other foals because of his quality of movement early on. “I would go and check on all my other horses there at Oswood’s, so I was able to watch that colt from the time he hit the ground,” Deary said. “The thing that always stood out most about him was what a good loper he always was. It was very easy for him to pick his withers up. Everywhere he went, every direction he went, he was collected. He just naturally carried himself that way.”
Arcese Quarter Horses owned the promising young stallion when he was born, but Deary had some other clients looking for just such a prospect. Jody and Jolan Puno purchased him during his yearling year and he was moved to Deary Performance Horses after the Futurity in 2017. He has lived at Deary Performance Horses since.
While Deary generally leaves young horses, mostly, in the hands of one of his assistants until the end of their two-year-old year, he took Maverick’s reins in late May or early June. “I could just see so much potential there. He was such a good mover, and I just really wanted to ride him myself,” Deary admitted.
It seems that the champion-to-be was only limited by his own greatness. “He was one of those horses that never really challenged me,” Deary explained. “I feel like part of the reason that he didn’t do better at the Futurity was that I didn’t have him broke enough. In the finals with the crowds and the bright lights and stuff, I think that was the only time that the horse ever said, ‘Hang on, I’ll get back to you.’ He still finished sixth, and I still believe that he was the best horse there. I just didn’t have him prepared.”
Deary took that information as a challenge and made sure the colt was ready when he showed him to the National Reining Breeders Classic Championship the following year. Maverick’s earnings at that show helped to send Deary over the NRHA $2 Million Rider milestone.
Going into the 2022 6666 NRHA Derby presented by Markel, the talented colt had more than $266,700 in earnings. The $73,150 check earned for leading the prelims and winning the championship pushed him over $339,000 in total NRHA lifetime earnings and boosted Deary past the next million dollars.
Magnums Custom Dream & Devin Warren
Devin Warren grew up with a passion for horses and got his feet wet in 4-H all-around events before eventually finding his place on the back of a reining horse, or several reining horses, that is. He opened his first training facility in 1999 which has now grown to be one of the largest training and breeding farms of reining horses outside of the Oklahoma and Texas areas. The beautiful farm, located in Franktown, Colo., is home to about 110 horses many of which bear major titles including World Champions and Reserve Champions.
Devin Warren Performance Horses is a full-service operation where mares are bred, foaled out and youngsters are brought up all the way to the show pen in some instances. Warren’s colt starting program is unique in its speed. Warren takes pride in how slowly colts are started in his program. “We don’t even bring them into the barn until summer of their two-year-old year. They spend most of their time out with each other just being horses, and I think that is really good for their minds and for their soundness,” he said. “We are just now putting sliders on some of them. We just like to go their pace and keep them confident.”
One of the horses that were born there and went through Warren’s program was 2022 NRHA Level 3 Open Derby Champion Magnums Custom Dream, ridden by Casey Hinton. By Magnum Chic Dream, he is out of Gunna Be Custom, a daughter of Gunner that Warren owns himself.
“I struggled a lot with selling that horse; he was so nice,” Warren admitted. “I don’t like debt, and when people start throwing numbers at you… Casey knows my horses well. He’s had a lot of success on horses he got from me, and I’ve had a lot of success on horses I’ve gotten from him. So, I felt good about letting him go to Casey.”
Early on, Magnums Custom Dream was all colt, and Warren was careful with him for the first few weeks under saddle. “Then he leveled out and was phenomenal from then on,” Warren said.
“The foundation is crucial to a colt’s career,” Warren said. “It is these early stages that determine how they will be as horses. You can’t take it too slow, and you can’t give them too much confidence. You absolutely have to go at the speed each individual horse learns at.”
Magnums Custom Dream was Gunna Be Custom’s first foal, but Warren has since ridden several more of her babies and their common factor is pure, raw athleticism. “That colt was so fun to ride. He just has so much ability and talent. He makes things look easy. He just had that look to him real early. He was the one that people would point to in the pasture and ask, ‘What is that one?’”
Warren was present at the Derby when Hinton won on the colt. He said, “It’s always fun when one that you raised and trained goes on to do great things. I was so happy for him and for Casey. It was amazing to watch that horse work out there.”
My Whizard Dream & Andre Lauzon
Andre Lauzon started his riding career at 10 years old, finding his place in competition in barrel racing at 14. A few years later, he began riding under the tutelage of Guy Gauthier and his brother, Gaëtan. After a few years of lessons, Gaëtan made a staunch observation. He said, “There are a lot of people reining who should be barrel racing, but you are a barrel guy who should be reining.”
Andre took that advice to heart and changed his focus to reining, evolving later to breeding, but even as he found more and more success as a showman and breeder, he never gave up starting his own two-year-olds. “I went to clinics with many good riders: Shawn Flarida, Andrea Fappani, Craig Schmersal, Dany Tremblay, and Jason Vanlandingham. They all helped me get better.”
Nearly 40 years after he rode his first horse, Lauzon started My Whizard Dream, a bay son of Magnum Chic Dream out of Miss Poco Whizard. My Whizard Dream’s success was even more special to Lauzon because he raised and trained his dam and rode her to many successful finishes. Miss Poco Whizard never placed lower than 6th with Lauzon in the saddle and currently boasts more than $360,000 in NRHA offspring earnings.
One thing that most of the mare’s foals have in common with their dam is the ability to take pressure and turn it into performance. “Most of the time, the mother was better in the finals than she was in the first go,” Lauzon shared. “Like when Abby Mixon showed My Whizard Dream to a 216 in the first go, then a 220.5 in the finals. That is a big quality of all the babies out of that mare; when you put a little pressure on them, they don’t run off, they give you everything they have. They are show horses.”
Knowing that about the mare’s foals was key in the first couple of weeks of My Whizard Dream’s training. “He was a little bit of a bad boy. He wanted to buck every time we saddled. We had to be careful with him for the first week or week and a half. As soon as he figured out that we are going to stay in the saddle and he was going to have to work, he was really good, and we had fun with him. Once he figured it out, he got better and better with every ride.”
Lauzon showed him in the AQR Futurity, but due to the COVID restrictions at the time, he could bring the colt to the bigger shows in the United States, so he passed the reins to Tremblay Reining Horses where assistant trainer Mandy Faust showed him in the NRHA Futurity before he was sold to Michelle George.
“I’m so pleased that Abby got him because she looks like she understands him, and they go well together. It is very good for my mare so that is why I try to sell the horse to good riders,” Lauzon said.
Also adding to the mare’s prestige was her other son, Smart Whizard Spook, by Smart Spook, which made the finals in all levels of the Non Pro Derby and earned the Story Book Stables Amateur Derby Championship with Christine Trautman in the saddle.
“I was so proud. Very proud of the two horses and my broodmare too,” Lauzon said smiling. While he couldn’t be at the Derby to watch their successes in person, he followed on the live feed. “I was excited and nervous at the beginning. I was as nervous as when I show. I knew there was a little problem with the left spin [on My Whizard Dream], but when I saw the left spin going well, I was so excited. I was up and yelling and clapping.”
Together My Whizard Dream and his half-brother contributed more than $34,700 to Miss Poco Whizard’s offspring earnings with their accomplishments at the 6666 NRHA Derby presented by Markel.
Gunners Deja Girl & Fernando Salgado
From the first time he laid eyes on Gunners Deja Gal, NRHA Professional Fernando Salgado saw promise. Bred in the purple, the buckskin filly by Gunner out of Dun Its Deja Vu was an awkward-looking yearling, but Salgado’s client, Pedro Pastor Hernandez, trusted his trainer’s instincts and he purchased the filly from the Legacy Sale at a bargain bid.
“We bought her as a yearling, but it was as a two-year-old when we were starting her that she transformed,” Salgado said. “She really shined up and filled out and started looking like what I knew she was.”
With her friendly outgoing nature and good mind, she quickly became a barn favorite, and starting her was a breeze. The filly was always eager to please and willing to learn. She was easily in Salgado’s top three prospects for the NRHA Futurity until disaster struck.
“Early in her three-year-old year, she started having some soundness issues, and although we treated her as best as we could, it became evident that she wasn’t going to make a futurity horse,” Salgado shared. “It was really devastating for us. We had such high hopes for her futurity year. We treated her one more time, then turned her out for a year.”
At the beginning of the filly’s 4-year-old year, Salgado carefully legged her back up and showed her once himself. “She did okay at the Wild Card Reining,” he said. “She placed fifth or sixth there, but I felt like it was better for the filly to let Daniel [Martins] Cruz start showing her because he is eligible for all levels. I still believe that she is a level four horse, but this way, there isn’t so much pressure on her to perform at her best every time.”
Cruz and Salgado worked out a light exercise program for Gunners Deja Girl always conscious of keeping her sound and comfortable. “I know that we are not showing her to her full potential, but I feel like with this program, we are respecting her, and happy that we still get to show her,” Salgado admitted.
Salgado showed the filly in the APHA World Reining after the Derby, but now she will be turned out until January when she will again be in Cruz’s string for the 2023 show season. Ultimately, though, once she has proven her merit through performance, Gunners Deja Girl will be a broodmare. “If her babies just have her heart and mind, they are going to go far. She is well-bred, and so far, she is throwing lots of color and conformation in her colts. I’m looking forward to when we can start training them.”
At the 6666 NRHA Derby presented by Markel, Cruz rode Gunners Deja Girl to a level 1 Co-Championship and a $6,493 check.
She Whiz Shiney & Ruben Vandorp
She Whiz Shiney was a small, immature 2-year-old when she joined the Vandorp Reining Horses training program. Not many people would have seen her potential at that stage in her life, but she was a champion by birth. The flashy buckskin mare is sired by Shine Chic Shine and out of Dun Dry Whiz.
“She was a little bit small when we first started, so we went pretty slow with her in the beginning, and that paid off big time for her in the end,” Vandorp Reining Horses owner and head trainer Ruben Vandorp said. “She was so good-minded and one of the sweetest fillies you’ll ever start, and she has always had a huge stop on her – just a monster stopper.”
The two-year-old program at Vandorp Reining Horses centers on moving only at the speed the individual colts and fillies are able to handle. “Some horses mature early, and they can take a little bit of heat early on in their career and other horses are a little slower maturing. With those, we just try to protect them and take our time with them. At the end of the day, it’s our job to make them as good as they can be,” Ruben said.
The little mare was always sweet even from the beginning of her training. She wanted to learn and get along and stood out amongst her four-legged peers for her incredibly good mind. “She was a little bit limited in the turnaround department,” Vandorp shared. “But she would go work at it every day, and like any other of that type of horse, if they are not really gifted in one area, but they don’t mind doing it, they will figure it out with time, and she did.”
Vandorp was happy that She Whiz Shiney was placed in the capable hands of Jack Daniels. He said, “I thought he did a great job in the finals. He really challenged her on the stops. He really dropped his hand, that mare just… it was really, good. He is the right person to let that mare shine.” Vandorp was on site at the Derby when Daniels showed She Whiz Shiney to an Open Level 1 Co-Championship and said that there is no better feeling. “There is no better thing in this industry than getting to start one and then see other people win with them later,” he explained. “I mean it’s one thing if you can train one for yourself to ride, but if you can train one where other people can hop on and go have fun with them, and do what they want to do with them, that’s pretty cool.”