The Open and Non-Pro Freestyle Reining classes are two of the most popular events at the All-American Quarter Horse Congress year after year.
Saturday night, competitors will put their hard work to the test this year in another showdown that involves incorporating a well-planned routine that is well received by the crowd with solid, well-executed reining maneuvers in an attempt to be crowned the winner.
We tracked down three past AQHA Freestyle Reining champions and talked to them about what it takes to create a championship run. While Stacy Westfall, Pete Kyle, and Kathy Burma won’t be competing this year, they definitely know how to win this event and we asked them how they go about planning their routines.
Stacy Westfall
It’s kind of impossible to talk about freestyle reining at the AQHA Congress without mentioning the legendary Stacy Westfall.
As many have seen, Stacy’s video of her 2006 open championship run on Whizards Baby Doll aka “Roxy” that was dedicated to her late father and was set to Tim McGraw’s “Live Like You Were Dying,” went viral and to date has been viewed well over one million times on a variety of YouTube channels.
“Everything with that routine just clicked,” she told us. “It was like all the stars aligned with the music and the dedication. It felt like a movie script and I have to say it was my favorite routine.”
Westfall has competed in the Open Freestyle Reining at the Congress a total of five times and has come out the champion three times. (Roxy and Stacy were also champions in 2005 and in 2011 she secured the top spot aboard TSW Can Can Vaquero.)
When asked how she chooses the music for her routines, Westfall said, “I like to try and match the way the horse moves to the music I choose. For example, the first horse I rode in the freestyle in 2003 and 2004 had a shorter, choppier stride. I wanted to do the song ‘Desperado’ but it really didn’t fit the horse.”
Westfall explained that with Roxy’s elegant movement and her stunning black looks she felt she should choose music that reflected that. Thus, riding to ‘A Moment Like This’ in her wedding gown in 2005 and of course, the Tim McGraw song.
And how she chose her 2011 routine is a little comical.
“Since I ride bridleless a lot, I’ve always joked about what exactly to do with my hands and arms,” Westfall chuckled. “I always thought the ‘Titanic’ theme would be perfect and I could put my arms out like when she is on the bow of the ship.”
Her plan came to fruition on Vaquero of whom she said, “He just really fit the music so well. He’s an explosive spinner so I had to use a saddle, but he just had the perfect maneuver movement to really time it well to the music.”
Westfall, who never practices her routines in their entirety said, “When I show the freestyle I always want to make sure I am really mentally prepared and I make sure to go to other shows and do the paid warm-ups where they will play music for you. If you aren’t totally mentally prepared you can override and mess up your maneuver scores.”
“I think you really have to have a passion for everything in your routine for it to go well,” she continued. “Everything has to feel right. From the horse’s movement to the music, to the costume, and your maneuvers, you want the overall picture to just fit.”
Pete Kyle
Pete Kyle is also a name that is synonymous with the freestyle reining at the Congress as he has shown in the class nearly every year since he began entering it in 1989. Kyle now works for AQHA as Executive Director of Shows.
In addition to taking home the open championship last year (with his son, Reed, taking Reserve), Kyle has also won the class two other times.
“My favorite routine was actually the very first one that I showed,” he said. “I rode a horse called Peppy Sol Anson that was a really great horse for us. I rode to the song ‘La Bamba’ and we won.”
For Kyle, music choice is all about something people can recognize and feel happy about.
“I definitely like to choose music that I personally enjoy listening to as well,” he said. “Because really, I feel like if it’s not fun, you’re not doing it right. It’s important as a rider to buy into what you are selling to the crowd and to the judges, so you have to have fun too.”
As far as his costume goes, Kyle said he likes to try and match the costume to the song and sometimes just a shirt and jeans works better than an elaborate get-up.
“I like for the outfit to blend into the song, so be it a costume or just normal riding attire, whatever works best,” he said.
Beyond song choice and costume, Kyle said what people need to remember about the freestyle reining is it is an actual reining class and you are judged on your maneuvers.
“I always try to use the highest quality horse I can,” he said. “The better horse you have, the better your maneuver scores and that’s what you need to aim for. I also tend to pick older, more seasoned horses that can handle the crowd. Ultimately, you always should be focusing on the quality of maneuvers and getting your horse to perform correctly.”
When it comes to preparation, Kyle also is not one to practice the entire routine unless he absolutely has to.
“The majority of the time I practice the routine in pieces,” he said. “But depending on the song or the horse I may have to put it all together once or twice to see if the timing is right.”
Kathy Burma
For 2015 Non-Pro Freestyle Reining Congress Champion, Kathy Burma, her interest in reining (like many of us) all started with Westfall and Roxy’s famous video.
“I saw Stacy’s video and thought, I just have to get into reining,” she said. “It was an incredibly long process as I was in vet school and then I graduated and the stars just weren’t aligning.”
Burma, a do-it-yourself (DIY) Amateur, eventually purchased her mare, Tejons Shine, aka Kit, as a completely unhandled two-year-old for a song.
“It was a lot of trial and error,” she chuckled. “But I trained her through her three-year-old year and that’s when I decided to try the freestyle for myself at the Congress.”
The dream of going to Congress wouldn’t happen for another two years, but when Burma saw Miranda Lambert’s music video for the song, “Mama’s Broken Heart” she knew instantly that was her song choice.
“I loved the fast and slow parts as I didn’t want to push her the whole way through and just thought it was perfect,” she said.
Burma took great, meticulous care in planning her routine which included splicing videos together of her previous reining runs and setting them to the music so she could get her timing right.
“I originally wanted to use a purse with all the makeup I needed, but figured out I wouldn’t be able to time it right while trying to dig through the purse for everything,” she said. “I ended up using industrial strength velcro on my saddle (pictured below) to stick the various items I needed for the routine.”
Burma also downloaded sounds of people cheering and played them for Kit while she scratched and loved on her before heading to the Congress so she would associate the loud crowds with a pleasantry.
“And Kit is actually the one who picked the dress,” Burma chuckled. “I had picked two different dresses but Kit let me know she was not a fan of the train on the other dress I picked, so I ended up in the green one.”
What’s even more remarkable about Burma’s story is that the 2015 Congress was the first and only time she had shown freestyle up to that point.
She laughed. “I was so brand new, I couldn’t help but think this was the dumbest idea ever.”
Being a Congress newbie, Burma shared that one of her primary concerns was the inability to get Kit into the coliseum prior to the freestyle event.
But like a seasoned pro, Burma had a plan.
“I really wanted to get her in there, so I entered the Ranch Riding,” she said.
Only problem with that?
Burma and Kit had never shown in that class either.
“I read the rule book the night before,” she chuckled, “and we ended up third!”
Burma, like Westfall and Kyle, never practiced her entire freestyle routine, until the morning of the class.
“She’s a smart, sensitive mare,” she said. “I knew if I practiced it more than once she would try to do it for me.”
If nothing else is obvious, it seems that keeping practice to a minimum is a recipe for success in this event!
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What became clear in speaking with these three incredibly talented individuals is that they all take incredible pride in each routine they put together.
The care that goes into choosing everything from the horse, to the music, determining how far to push the maneuvers, and getting the crowd amped up is something that takes a certain amount of creativity and confidence and as is evident, when it all comes together, winning couldn’t be sweeter.
