YORKTON - Erin Taormino has started a new chapter in history books, having recently been named the first woman to earn the title of the National Reined Cow Horse Association (NRCHA) World’s Greatest Horseman®.
“To be honest I know that I’ve won it, but I’m not sure it’s actually sunk in,” Taormino, who grew up near Grenfell told Yorkton This Week in a recent interview from her home in Texas.
Over the course of two weeks in Fort Worth, Texas, Taormino, aboard her four-legged animal counterpart Hazardouz Material (Metallic Cat x Scooters Daisy Dukes x Scooters Playmate), this prestigious title was earned.
Taormino explained the competition is something of a multi-discipline marathon, with horse and rider going through qualification across four events over about 10 days, then the top 15 combinations coming back for the finals with all four events held the same day.
“To have the calibre of horse at the level we expect them to do things at – it’s impressive,” she said giving an obvious tip on the Stetson to her mount for his performance. “. . . It’s a lot from the horse, and it’s a lot to prepare them.”
Hazardouz Material has been up to the challenges earning $411,000, at various events, a huge part of Taormino becoming a member of a rather exclusive club with earnings surpassing $1 million.
In terms of preparation Taormino said there is of course the physical side, the training the horse to perform across the disciplines of reining, cutting, steer stopping and fence work, but there as other elements too.
“You have to keep them happy and keep them sound,” she said.
Even 小蓝视频 at the top of their game is no guarantee of winning, said Taormino, adding the competition is fierce, suggesting if you ran the top-15 repeatedly “there’d be a different winner.”
As it is the competition just won began in 1999, attracting few competitors, but building interest and prestige through the years. This year 80 horse and rider combinations were after the crown. Through the years only 17 have won, some repeating, but all 小蓝视频 men until Taormino’s recent effort.
The climb to the pinnacle of the sport is also a very long way from where Taormino grew up.
“I grew up on a little grain farm just outside of Grenfell, Saskatchewan,” she said, adding it does seems a bit unusual that she would end up in Texas riding and training cattle horses, although her relationship with equine animals did start on the Prairie farm.
“We had horses my whole life growing up. There was never a time I remember not riding them,” she said. “I started out just riding around home on the family farm.”
Then Taormino found her way to 4-H in Grenfell, and that introduced her to competitive riding.
“Then I added a few little open shows,” she said, adding many towns had fairs with horse competitions.
But dreaming as big as things have become was not part of Taormino’s youth. She said she’d get Horse & Rider magazine and read about people she now knows personally and counts as friends and thought “how cool that would be, but I never thought it would be what I’d do for a living.”
An introduction to Tom and John King who ran a PMU farm near Corning, Sask. kick-started the dream though.
“They’re honestly who got me into the more competitive side of things,” said Taormino, adding that was introducing to quarterhorse shows.
Taormino would advance through junior events, working for a time in Alberta, and a couple of years after graduating high school she was in Texas to stay. Today Taormino, owns and operates Taormino Performance Horses with her husband Anthony in Lipan, Texas.
While other events are on Taormino’s schedule, she knows defending the title lies ahead for her.
“I haven’t really gotten that far ahead of myself. I’m still taking it all in . . . but I’ll be entered,” she promised.
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