Lanham Brown and Hesa Twisted Bet Find Success in Vegas

Marking a total score of 440 points, Lanham Brown and Hesa Twisted Bet (Bet Hesa Cat x RAB Twistin Dodger x Little Twistin Juan), known as Casino, won the National Reined Cow Horse Association (NRCHA) Teton Ridge Stallion Stakes Non Pro Bridle Spectacular on Sunday, March 7, 2024 at the South Point Equestrian Center in Las Vegas, NV. The event, with a $27,220 total purse, paid over $5,000 to the champion.

After the NRCHA World Show, or Celebration of Champions, Brown went right into their R.A. Brown Ranch bull and horse sales, giving Hesa Twisted Bet a few weeks off. Now at a point where Brown feels comfortable on the 8-year-old red roan gelding and in what he’s going to do, he started getting ready about three weeks leading up to the Stallion Stakes.

“Probably three weeks leading up to this, I went back to work on him. He’s kind of to the point where it’s more preparation than it is training now, and he gets easier to prepare all the time,” Brown said. “He’s really come on and made a good bridle horse. He wasn’t my best aged-event horse and honestly didn’t get shown much as a 4- and 5-year old, but the bridle deal is fitting really well. We’ve done a lot of different things on him. We rope on him a bunch. We used him there on the ranch. My wife shows him in the boxing. He’s just very versatile and is good at a lot of different things.”

Stallion Stakes Success

In the second set of six, Brown had quite a few runs to watch and see if theirs would hold up, but their scores of 143.5 in the herd work, 146.5 in the rein work and 150 on the cow proved to be just what they needed to pull of the win a half-point ahead of Tammy Johnston and Helomynamesjohnycash (Cee Mr Hickory x Smart Card Chex x Ill Be Smart).

“I’ve shown this horse enough and know him well enough to have a pretty good idea of how it’s going to go when I ride in there. I rode in there, he felt good with me and he was bright and looked happy to be there. He was pretty solid for me in that rein, and then I knew it was quite a bit of cow. I didn’t stay down there on the end real long, and it didn’t feel like that cow was going to get any better. In a one-go deal like this where there’s no finals, I thought I better go ahead and get out of there. Once I got around the corner, everything just set up. I was pleased with my horse and felt like I got everything out of that run I could,” Brown said.

Winning the event added another title to Hesa Twisted Bet’s list of wins which includes the Two Rein Spectacular in Scottsdale, the Non Pro Bridle Spectacular at the National Stock Horse Association (NSHA) show in Las Vegas and the Year-End National Championship Non Pro Bridle Horse. He was also a finalist at the Non Pro World’s Greatest Horseman in Tulsa and third at the NRCHA world show in the Limited Non Pro Boxing.

“I’ve never known this horse not to try, regardless of the event or what we’re doing. He puts out a lot of effort,” Brown said. “Looking down through the set of horses that are in that Non Pro Bridle class, it’s a tough set of horses. To be able to go compete in that and come out on top, it means a lot.”

Following Tammy Johnston and Helomynamesjohnycash’s second-place 435.5-point score, Debbie Crafton and Hesa Wee Bet (Bet Hesa Cat x Wee Quejana Gal x Quejanaisalena) finished third another half-point behind with a total of 435 points.

Lanham Brown and Hesa Twisted Bet * Photo by Primo Morales