InthePast CustomLegend AFappani 07nrbc W

In the Past: NRBC Legends

InthePast CustomLegend AFappani 07nrbc WCustom Legend & Andrea Fappani • Photo by Waltenberry

The National Reining Breeders Classic (NRBC) will be celebrating its 20th anniversary during its April 17-24 show at the Great Southwest Equestrian Center in Katy, Texas.

Ten years ago, Custom Legend (Custom Crome x Dry Doc Bobbie x Dry Doc Bob) and Andrea Fappani laid down two spectacular performances during the Open finals of the 2007 NRBC. The 2001 stallion and Fappani tied Einsteins Revolution and Reuben Vandorp to win the Level 4 Open with a 232 score. Custom Legend and Fappani returned to the pen and scored a 236.5 in the run-off to claim the Championship and $75,000 in prize money. The pair also tied for the NRBC Level 4 Open Reserve Championship in 2005 and earned the Reserve title outright in 2006.

Custom Legend, bred and raised by Steve Simon, of Marietta, Oklahoma, was shown by four trainers – Fappani, Brent Wright, Craig Johnson and Craig Schmersal, with Fappani showing the stallion to the majority of his $228,287 in lifetime earnings. Custom Legend has sired 73 money-earners who have total earnings of $468,125 and average earnings of $6,413. His No. 1 money-earner is Legend Slides Wright, a 2012 gelding out of She Slides Wright by Smart Little Lena, with $109,890 in earnings.

Fappani, an Equi-Stat Elite $4 Million Rider, won his first National Reining Horse Association (NRHA) Futurity title, the Limited Non-Pro, in 1997. In 1998, he returned to his home in Italy to spend his country’s required 10 months in military service. Following his discharge, the three-time NRHA Futurity Open rider headed to Oregon, where he worked for Todd Bergen before going out on his own – first in California and then settling in Scottsdale, Arizona, where he and wife, Tish, and two sons, Luca and Jeremy, now live.

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