\n
America<\/em>\u2019s Horse, December 17, 2008 \u2013\u00a0<\/em>As the 50th<\/sup>\u00a0annual Wrangler National Finals Rodeo came to a close, rodeo fans awarded their favorite athletes with a little extra Christmas cash by voting them the Fort Dodge Champion American Quarter Horses of the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n For the second year, the American Quarter Horse Association and corporate partner Fort Dodge Animal Health teamed up to give fans a unique opportunity to interact online and vote for their favorite American Quarter Horses and the cowboys and cowgirls who rode them at this year\u2019s Wrangler NFR.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Fort Dodge<\/span>\u00a0contributed $25,000\u00a0<\/span>in prize money, awarding $2,500 to the horse owner and $2,500 to the competitor receiving the most online votes in each timed event.Rodeo enthusiasts cast votes in steer wrestling, heading, heeling, tie-down roping and barrel racing.\u00a0<\/span>Only contestants riding registered American Quarter Horses and the owners of those horses were eligible to win the added money.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0Congratulations to the 2008\u00a0Fort Dodge\u00a0Champion American Quarter Horses of the Wrangler NFR.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0Steer Wrestling<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n This year\u2019s fan favorite in steer wrestling was\u00a0<\/span>RTR Little Willy, a 22-year-old brown American Quarter Horse gelding owned by Gregory Cassidy of\u00a0Donalda,\u00a0Alberta,Canada. RTR Little Willy carried three riders in each steer wrestling go-round.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n The fans\u2019 favorite competitor,\u00a0<\/span>Luke Branquinho, rode RTR Little Willy to win the average in steer wrestling at the Wrangler NFR. The Los Alamos,\u00a0California, cowboy finished the year as the world champion and set a world record for earnings in steer wrestling with $242,018.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Heading<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n In heading,\u00a0Wranglers Lil Chism<\/strong>\u00a0was the fan favorite and earned the Wrangler NFR bonus for owner Garrett Tonozzi of\u00a0Fruita,\u00a0Colorado. Garrett rode the 16-year-old sorrel American Quarter Horse gelding in eight rounds of heading.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Trevor Brazile<\/span><\/strong>\u00a0received the most fan votes and is the 2008\u00a0Fort Dodge\u00a0fan favorite in heading. Trevor rode American Quarter Horses Lite My Dynamite and Playboys Tough Co at this year\u2019s Wrangler NFR. Trevor also won the all-around title at the 2008 Finals.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Heeling<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n In heeling, the team of\u00a0<\/span>Freckles Taz<\/span><\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0<\/span>Kinney Harrell<\/span><\/strong>\u00a0of\u00a0San Angelo,\u00a0Texas, won both the horse and rider fan favorite awards to earn a $5,000 bonus. Freckles Taz is a 10-year-old bay American Quarter Horse gelding.<\/span>\u00a0Kinney roped off of Freckles Taz in each of the eight rounds.<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Tie-down roping<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Fans chose\u00a0Hickoryote Sue<\/strong>, a 15-year-old bay American Quarter Horse mare, as the Fort Dodge Champion in tie-down roping. Hickoryote Sue\u2019s owner is Stran Smith of\u00a0Childress,\u00a0Texas, who finished first in the final world standings in tie-down.<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n On the competitor side, 18-year-old\u00a0Tuf Cooper<\/strong>\u00a0received the most fan votes. Tuf rode American Quarter Horses Little Bobo Hickory and Smokin Reata at this year\u2019s Wrangler NFR. Tuf also won the PRCA Rookie of the Year award and finished fourth in tie-down roping.<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Barrel Racing<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n The most popular barrel racing horse was\u00a0Andele Cowboy<\/strong>, owned and ridden by fan favorite\u00a0Maegan Reichert\u00a0<\/strong>of\u00a0Mount Pleasant,\u00a0Texas. Andele Cowboy is a 9-year-old black American Quarter Horse gelding. With a 13.76 run, the team earned third place.<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Maegan received a $5,000 bonus check from\u00a0Fort Dodge\u00a0for winning both the horse and competitor fan favorites. Maegan and Andele Cowboy are repeat winners. The duo also won the award in 2007.<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n AQHA news and information is a service of AQHA publications. For more information on\u00a0<\/span><\/span>The American Quarter Horse Journal<\/span><\/em>,\u00a0<\/span><\/span>The American Quarter Horse Racing Journal<\/span><\/em>\u00a0or\u00a0<\/span><\/span>America\u2019s Horse<\/span><\/em>, visit\u00a0<\/span><\/span>www.aqha.com\/magazines<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/em>.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" America\u2019s Horse, December 17, 2008 \u2013\u00a0As the 50th\u00a0annual Wrangler National Finals Rodeo came to a close, rodeo fans awarded their favorite athletes with a little extra Christmas cash by voting them the Fort Dodge Champion American Quarter Horses of the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo. For the second year, the American Quarter Horse Association and corporate […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1866","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aqha","category-industry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ebarrelracing.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1866","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ebarrelracing.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ebarrelracing.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ebarrelracing.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ebarrelracing.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1866"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ebarrelracing.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1866\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1867,"href":"https:\/\/www.ebarrelracing.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1866\/revisions\/1867"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ebarrelracing.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1866"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ebarrelracing.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1866"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ebarrelracing.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1866"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}