Posted, Sunday, June 25, 2006

2006 Adequan®/USEF® Open Reining Championship Decides Team for FEI World Equestrian Games - Aachen

Aaron Ralston and Smart Paul and Tim McQuay and Mister Nicadual Tie for Second with Quarter Horse Stallions

Tied for reserve champion this evening were Aaron Ralston and Tim McQuay with a score of 229.5. Ralston’s horse Smart Paul Olena is a 12-year-old Quarter Horse stallion, owned by Meg Griffith-Ralston. Ralston and his wife have owned him for some time; they pulled him out of a pasture on a mountainside where his sole job was to breed mares all day long. Ralston agreed his horse is certainly known for his beautiful stops. “That’s his deal. If you can just get him to run, you can get him to heal. Sometimes I am not strong enough.”

He is also known for his bareback freestyle. When asked about going bridleless and bareback Ralston said, “You know I did that, but I got in a lot of trouble because I did it at the National Western Stock Show and it was the first time I did this routine. I was doing it with my bridle, and I stopped in the center and was really getting into the crowd because there are like five or six thousand people at the stock show. They’re all yelling and screaming and I am thinking I just can’t do anything wrong. I am superman. So I pulled my bridle off and threw it on the ground, and I’d never practiced it at home and I’m doing it in front of all these people. So I lope off in the left lead, and all I had to do was lope off to the left, change leads and stop, so I lope off to the left lead and I kind of start fading to the right. So I just changed leads and drug a lead and got it, and came around and stopped but my wife got kind of mad at me.”

McQuay’s horse, Mister Nicadual, earned a big pat when they completed their ride that told the crowd immediately he was happy with his ride. Mister Nicadual is a six-year-old Quarter Horse stallion, owned by Jerry Kimmel. McQuay is the currently the NRHA’s all time money winner.