The National Snaffle Bit Association has announced a quartet of professional trainers who have become the newest members of the association’s Quarter Million Dollar Club. Brian Baker, of Sunbury, Ohio; Angie Rigdon Cannizzaro, of Purcell, Oklahoma; Andy Cochran, of Roberts, Georgia; and Bret Parrish, of Pavo, Georgia, have become the newest members of the association to earn $250,000 in lifetime NSBA earnings, bringing the total number of riders in the distinguished group to 24.
Parrish, an AQHA Professional Horseman and multiple All American Quarter Horse Congress and NSBA world champion, has accumulated lifetime NSBA earnings of $250,934.12 as of the end of 2014, including $3,806.11 in non-pro events, $2,741.50 in longeline events and $247,128.01 in open western pleasure money. He became the first exhibitor to earn $100,000 in a single western pleasure event in 2004 when he won the Reichert Celebration showing the AQHA stallion RL Best Of Sudden. With his wife, Candy, and sons Cody and Chase, he operates Parrish Quarter Horses in Pavo, Georgia.
Arkansas native Cannizzaro found success first as a non-pro competitor and continued her winning ways as a professional trainer in NSBA open events. She rode with trainer Troy Compton for 10 years prior to starting CAC Show Horses with her husband, Charles, in Purcell, Oklahoma. She has earned $259,130.74 through the end of 2014. Her earnings include $52,896.67 in non-pro events, nearly $3,000 in hunter under saddle earnings and $206,234.07 in open western pleasure money.
Baker, a native of Joplin, Missouri, discovered his passion for horses while attending Texas A&M University. Before starting his own training business in Sunbury, Ohio, with his wife, Dawn, he worked as an assistant trainer to Jay Jordan, Jess Herd and Gil Galyean. At the end of 2014, Baker had earned $254,992.80 in NSBA lifetime earnings, nearly all of which was earned in open western pleasure events. In addition to his western pleasure earnings, he has earned $141.94 in NSBA western riding events.
Multiple All American Quarter Horse Congress, AQHA and NSBA world champion Cochran topped the $250,000 threshold with a strong year in 2014 that included several futurity wins with the AQHA stallion Suddenly Extreme. His lifetime NSBA earnings at the end of the year totaled $252,219.58, all of which was earned in open western pleasure events. Cochran currently trains at CT Quarter Horses, Roberts, Georgia, in conjunction with Carl and Trisha Yamber.
The four professionals will be recognized during the National Snaffle Bit Association’s awards banquet on Wednesday, August 12, at the Doubletree Hotel in Tulsa, Oklahoma, during the association’s Breeders Championship Futurity and NSBA World Championship Show.
