Rave On Stevie has always been one of Lauren Minshall’s favorites in the barn. Now, he’s her latest futurity winner.
Minshall, of Vine Grove, Kentucky, on Saturday, Jan. 23, rode the stallion by Stevie Rey Von to the 4-Year-Old Non-Pro Championship at the Augusta Futurity. Their 222 bested Reserve Champions Hold My Patron and Missy Jean Etheridge, who marked a 218.5.
“He’s just this kind of a pet and tries really hard, wants to do his job,” Minshall said of the horse, who they bought as a yearling and put in training with Gabe Reynolds. “He’s not a very big horse, but he has his own way of getting around and he makes it real stylish. He likes getting real low to the ground, and he’s a lot of fun show.”
Rave On Stevie exited the show a winner, but he did have to overcome some challenges during the course of the show. Minshall said she learned a lot from the show’s 4-Year-Old Non-Pro Intermediate finals, where Rave On Stevie didn’t fare so well, realizing afterward that she needed a different approach for the wide pen at the Georgia National Fairgrounds in Perry, Georgia.
She and the team came up with a new game plan for the 4-Year-Old Non-Pro, and it worked out.
“Gabe Reynolds and Craig Thompson, they picked some really, really nice cows for us,” she said, of the 4-Year-Old Non-Pro. “That just allowed me to go have a really nice, pretty controlled run in the middle of the pen. And it couldn’t have worked out any better.”
Minshall said she was proud of the way Rave On Stevie handled the experience. He came to bat every time that she showed him, she said.
“In the Intermediate finals, I didn’t cut him good cows and it just got to be a foot race and he had a hard time keeping up,” she said. “But every other time, if I did my job and found him some decent cows, he did his best to to kind of pull through for us. So, it was nice to be able to get it all done last night [in the 4-Year-Old Non-Pro].”
Minshall was appreciative of all her show pen help during the Augusta Futurity, which included Gabe Reynolds, Matt Williams, Walt Erwin, Bill Pierce and Craig Thompson.
“They’re just so good and keeping me focused and keeping me calm – I get a little revved up at times,” she said. “I was just proud of my horse and just happy to be able to get him showed.”
Rave On Stevie is from the first crop of 2015 NCHA Futurity Open Champion Stevie Rey Von, whose oldest foals reached futurity-age last year. His leading earner, Janie Wood, duplicated her father’s winning effort by taking the 2021 NCHA Futurity Open Championship in Fort Worth.
Bred by Jandon, Ltd, of St. Jo, Texas, Rave On Stevie is one of seven money winners out of the mare CD Royal Joyful (by CD Royal). His $10,500 first-place paycheck at the Augusta Futurity pushed his dam’s lifetime progeny earnings to more than $145,000.