The Stars Aligned for A Starlights Magnum and Kyle Trahern at the $200,000 Cow Horse Challenge
The Run For A Million $200,000 Cow Horse Challenge was chock full of excitement on August 16 in the South Point Equestrian Center. A class with top dogs and underdogs all competing for a piece of the $200,000 left more than a few riders happy with their horse’s performances. But none could be more proud than Kyle Trahern who rode A Starlights Magnum.
A Starlights Magnum (Magnum With A Dream x Shiny Starlight x Grays Starlight) had a slow start to his show career but does not disappoint when he steps into an arena now.
“We’ve had him for two or three years and bought him as a rope horse, possibly a non-pro horse later down the road, but we needed him too for the ranch,” Trahern explained. “So we turned him out with some other geldings, and we just used him, and we ranch rodeoed on him. I started showing him as a five year old.”
Then the light came on for Trahern. After qualifying for the National Reined Cow Horse Association (NRCHA) World Show in the Hackamore Class and finding some success there, Trahern realized that the horse was something special.
His light was shining through but, A Starlights Magnum wasn’t a client horse, so he continued to live out with the other geldings and do ranch work more days than not. He has attended under 20 shows according to EquiStat.
“He’s a little bit unique in this event, because he didn’t go through the futurity and the derby stuff, he hadn’t had a ton of exposure,” Trahern said.
Ready for the Big CityHe didn’t change the horse’s training routine before qualifying or coming to The Run For A Million. He rode the big sorrel horse three or four days a week to work on training and the horse was used for ranch work or other riding on the off days.
“We started bringing him inside in the daytime so his coat didn’t get sunburned,” Trahern said with a laugh. “He’s as trained as I know how to get one so I just keep him happy, there’s not much prepping.”
“The qualifiers are just ridiculously tough,” Trahern said of the process it takes to make it to the $200,000 Cow Horse Challenge. “All of a sudden every open bridle class at those major events have 100 head of horses in them and every one of them things are tough. So, the qualifiers were a lot of fun, but I didn’t realize ’till we got out here, the energy and the spotlight that this put on the cow horse as a whole, so that is unbelievable.”
The duo marked a 227.5 during the rein work portion of the event on Thursday morning. Then they waited until Friday night to take their cow down the fence and marked a 224.5.
Their composite score of 452 earned the championship title and a check for $50,000, which almost doubled A Starlight Magnum’s lifetime earnings and pushed him over $100,000 in earnings.
Other Big Winners
Erin Taormino scored a 451 on Hazardouz Material (Metallic Cat x Scooters Daisy Dukes x Dual Smart Rey) for the Reserve Championship and a check worth $35,000. That money propelled Taormino to becoming an NRCHA $1 Million Rider.
Sarah Dawson marked a 449.5 on Smart Chic An Tari (Smart Chic Olena x Shiney Tari x Shining Spark) for the third place honors and a check worth $30,000. Smart Chic An Tari was also voted the American Quarter Horse Association (AQHA) Fan Favorite of the $200,000 Cow Horse Challenge. For the AQHA honor they took home an AQHA trophy modeled after the Dogwood Horse.
Sarah Dawson receiving the AQHA Fan Favorite trophy. * Photo by Amy Olson