Although Nicholas Dowers has won the Reno Snaffle Bit Futurity Open Futurity three times, the Jimmie Paul/Tenlight Memorial Two Rein once, and the Benny Guitron Memorial Open Hackamore once, he’d never won the Sherri Gilkerson Memorial Open Bridle class.
That is, until, Septemeber 14, 2023.
“I usually try to plus one those circles and he [Santiago Time] did that really well and then I got him turned around really, really good to the right,” Dowers said of his rein work.
Santiago Time (One Time Pepto x Reymanising x Dual Rey) carried Dowers to a fourth place finish last year during the Sherri Gilkerson Memorial Open Bridle class, and is no stranger to the arena in Reno.
“The arena is really conducive for good fence runs. It’s a big wide arena, cattle stay on the fence really good, and it’s usually the same type of cattle that I work at home, more native cattle. And so, it it feels a lot like my arena at home,” Dowers said.
The arena and cattle may have felt good but that didn’t make for the easiest fence run.
“Coming out of that first turn, my rein chain kind of hung up, the cows nose kind of flipped it up. So I had to jockey my rein back down,” said Dowers. “Then I realized I was getting close to the end [of the arena] and that cow wasn’t going to turn, so I had to get away from the cow to get up and around and bring it back.”
Dowers couldn’t be happier with how the 2014 sorrel handled the situation in just split seconds.
“I was super happy with how well he got it off my feet and my hand to come off of that cow and let me put him where I needed to put him to control it. So that was probably the highlight of the run for me as a trainer was when we kind of ended up in that little bit of a tricky spot and he let me put him where I needed to put him to handle the cow,” Dowers said.
The judges also appreciated the pair’s strong reining and smart fence run. With a composite of 443.5, Santiago Time & Nick Dowers took home a check worth $5,824 for owner Clinton Marshall.
