If Europe’s top riders bring their best open horses it will be like the “Gunfight at the OKC Corral.” Why? The winner will earn about $30,000 and that will definitely affect the 2010 Open Top 10 standings – perhaps even the NRHA Open World title.

In 2003, A Smart Enterprise ridden by Brian Bell for Bob LaPorta was the NRHA Open World Champion. Thanks to two or three annual big-money NRHA-approved reinings across the pond, every Open World title since has been won by a European. In fact, at the end of each year, the majority of top 10 open riders have also been from Europe.

For North American reiners, this is a touchy subject. No one likes that a horse can win a prestigious NRHA Open title or be listed in the top 10 rankings by winning one big paycheck.

NRHA addressed part of this problem a few years ago when they upped the number of shows a horse had to earn money to qualify for a World title. It used to be three – now it’s seven.

But until this year, nobody came up with the money to make hauling for an Open title worthwhile. Think about it. How many weekend shows would you have to haul to in order to make $30,000 in open paychecks. Why bother?

I’m going to love this Open reining at the NRHA Futurity. It will be one fabulous class –loaded with legitimate contenders – from all over the world. I can’t wait.

The only thing better would be if the class was coupled with a comparable NRHA Non-Pro – maybe next year!