02x01 -Cactus Classic
Posted: 09/04/23 14:45
- ♪
- MALE ANNOUNCER: This is setting up to be
just unbelievable, history making.
- TAYLOR: You see this lineup of horses and riders--
- ANNOUNCER: I mean, it's gonna be spectacular.
- [cheers and applause]
- CASEY: As I walk through those gates,
my breathing really slows down,
and I thrive on that pressure.
- MATT: This is the things that you live for.
I mean, this is what you live for.
I'm ready to dance.
- TOM: The Run for a Million, it's a big deal.
Top riders in the country compete for a purse
of a million dollars.
- World-class reiners, million-dollar purse.
Never been heard of, we've never run at money like that.
- CRAIG: I come to work every day
because I want to win, I want to beat them all.
- I have something to prove not for me,
but for women in general.
- The best in our business is considered
by the guy that wins the most money.
- GINGER: No matter how talented you are,
you have to have great horses under you,
and they're hard to find.
- Everybody is scrambling to find the perfect horse.
- He's got a bone bruise and he needs days.
So without him, I'm kind of stuck.
- [indistinct yelling]
- And look out, 'cause we're gonna come a-running.
- CADE: I don't want to be another guy,
I want to be best guy, or what's the point?
- ♪
- TAYLOR: What's unique about reining is...
it involves complete trust between horse and rider.
You're gonna trust the horse to do these
big dynamic moves with almost no cue
and the horse is gonna trust you to go full speed,
having no idea where it's going.
You get on a motorcycle and you can be
a really skilled motorcycle rider,
but the motorcycle doesn't care.
These are extremely intuitive animals
that feed off your emotions and off the signals
that you give them.
To be hooked with a reiner in a pattern is--
it's unlike anything else.
- ♪
- TAYLOR: I've been riding horses my entire life.
I grew up on a ranch, I made money pulling horses,
riding horses, before I had any success
in the movie business whatsoever.
I went to a reining event in Burbank, California,
and I watched it, and I walked up to this cowboy and said,
"Explain this to me." And he did.
Reining evolved from the way a cowboy
would show his horse off to sell it,
he'd show you it could stop on a dime,
he'd show you it could turn on a dime,
and cowboys being cowboys, before long
they made it a competition, and then they elevated it
into an art form.
The recession in was hard on every single equine sport,
and that's really where I came up with the idea for
the Run for a Million.
It needed some kind of shot in the arm.
This competition is that shot in the arm.
The rules are this: there are spots
for riders. They get to go to Vegas.
Bring your best and show it off
and run for the most amount of money ever given
at a horse event.
Welcome everyone to the first annual Run for a Million.
Here we go.
- CRAIG : The first Run for the Million was in .
It's the most exciting thing that's ever happened
to our industry.
- MATT: Having a million-dollar purse
opened everybody's eyes to one of these secrets
that nobody knew about, this little hidden gem
of reining horses and how amazing they are.
- ANNOUNCER: Well, ladies and gentlemen,
we are getting closer and closer to giving away
$ million tonight.
- I mean, this was incredible.
The atmosphere was like electricity pulsing
through that whole place.
- ANNOUNCER: Here they go, they're gonna stand up again.
- ANNOUNCER : Here we go, back at the rock concert,
standing up. - ANNOUNCER: How cool is that?
- CRAIG: Running through the gate,
and hearing the crowd scream and just looking up
in the stands and seeing a packed stadium,
it felt fantastic.
- MAN: Yeah!
- ANNOUNCER: Ladies and gentlemen, Craig Schmersal.
- CRAIG: For me, when it's going right,
the hair will stand up on my neck.
Once you have that happen to you,
that's, it's kinda like your drug,
you keep on searching for it.
- Yow!
- ANNOUNCER: You can't stop any bigger than that.
- TAYLOR: Let me introduce you to your
Run for a Million co-champions,
Craig Schmersal and Cade McCutcheon.
- [cheers and applause]
- I'm happy to be co-champion with that little shit.
And you know, it's--I hope to--
I hope to get him this year, though.
- INTERVIEWER: On the record, am I allowed to use that--
that bite, are we allowed to call it--
- Yes, absolutely. My kids taught him
how to ride a bicycle when he was little.
- GINGER: When Craig won, we were thrilled,
but, you know, in the back of our mind,
it was like, "Okay, well, this is great now,
"but now we have to start all over again
and try and defend that title,"
and you know, to qualify even to defend the title,
that's the kicker to the whole thing
is that we had to start over.
- TAYLOR: You can win the Run for a Million,
and if you don't qualify, you're gonna have to try
and qualify again the next year, and if you don't,
you're out, that's the rules.
There's two ways that you can qualify,
one is at the event itself in the open sh**t.
The top five in that event are automatically qualified
for the next year. If you don't qualify there,
you're gonna have to wait 'til March in Scottsdale,
and try and qualify at the Cactus.
- CRAIG: In order to get qualified
for the next Run for the Million,
I ended up one out, I ended up sixth,
they took the top five and it stung a little bit
because I got beat by Matt Mills
on a horse we sold to him.
He was fifth and I was sixth that week.
- ♪
- MATT: At the first Run for a Million,
I finished dead last, you know, right in the bottom spot,
and it was extremely disappointing,
but the day before, they had the sh**t there,
the top five spots got an a*t*matic entry
into the next Run for a Million.
Come on, Rio, let's go lunge you a little.
The horse I rode in the sh**t was Rio.
Rio's a horse that we bought from Craig and Ginger Schmersal.
Funny to me, probably not so much to Craig.
I ended up beating him with that horse that we got from him.
It's kind of a wild story, I didn't have Rio
at the Run for a Million the first couple days.
- And I said to him, "Matt, why would you leave
the best horse in your barn at home this week?"
And he didn't say a word, but he sent the trailer home,
the five and a half hour drive to Phoenix
to pick up the horse we sold him,
and then he came back and kicked my ass with it.
He was fifth and I was sixth that week.
That's what I get for opening my big mouth.
- GINGER: There's ten more spots that are available,
that's what we're sh**ting for this week,
but you know, so is everybody else out here,
they're all sh**ting for that spot.
- TAYLOR: So the qualifiers for the open sh**t in
are Andrea Fappani, Jason Vanlandingham,
Cade McCutcheon, Matt Mills, and Danny Tremblay.
There are more spots for a total of riders
for the Run for a Million.
- Anything can go wrong, but I think I have a good chance
of qualifying, and this early in the year,
that's all that matters to me, is I want to qualify,
and get back there and see if we can do it again.
- ♪
- JASON: The Cactus Classic has been here
for a long, long time, it's one of the premier events
here at the west coast. This is the only qualifier
for the Run for a Million.
This is it, like if you shit the bed here, it's done,
like you ain't going.
- This is gonna probably be the most exciting reining
we see all year long, for sure, but maybe one of the most
exciting reinings we see, period.
- TOM: I'm here to try and qualify again
for the Run for a Million.
I never go anywhere without thinking that I can be there.
- GEORGE: These are the top horses in the world.
So you better be damned ready when you come here,
or stay home.
- ANNOUNCER: This is setting up to be just unbelievable,
history making.
- TAYLOR: When you see this lineup of horses and riders--
- ANNOUNCER: I mean, it's gonna be spectacular.
- [tractor engine runs]
- ♪
- [water spraying]
- GINGER: So moving day is always crazy around here
because there's so many people, we have vendors coming in,
exhibitors and horses and you know,
everyone's unloading and you know, getting everybody settled,
a lot of these horses have been traveling for a lot of hours,
so it's a busy place today.
- [indistinct male announcer over the PA system]
- ♪
- When I was a little kid, I played around with a dirt bike
and did not care about horses.
In , I saw a guy, Bill Horn,
that was the first million dollar rider.
He was kind of like the Marlboro Man,
he smoked and drank Crown Royal, and was kind of a cool guy
and I watched him ride, and said something to my dad
about riding and he said, "If you ride every day
"from now until the time we come back next year,
I'll buy you a saddle."
I went home and started riding and I rode every day since.
- ♪
- CAROL: George, you want a whiskey?
- I always want some whiskey, what are you talking about?
- I know. - GEORGE: Have ice in it?
- A lot of ice. - Oh yeah.
- There we go.
- There you go.
- BRIAN: I have three Run for a Million horses.
They're worth a couple hundred thousand apiece.
My dad hardly ever sells them, he loves them all. [laughs]
- GEORGE: Brian, you need to tell them how many
generations of these horses we've ridden.
- BRIAN: The mother, the grandmother,
and the great grandmother have been in our family
for even before I started riding.
This is Mr. Hollywood Sea. If you compared him to a car,
he's like a Bentley. I mean, he's big
and got all the horsepower and stuff.
Smooth and easy to ride.
This is See Mr. Stomp. His nickname is Pretty Boy.
He's like Fabio with a mane.
- He is a pretty boy, isn't he?
- Yeah, he's posing for the camera.
- Yeah, he likes the attention.
He's more the lover of the group.
This is Mr. Royal Hollywood.
That is a Porsche.
He's not fun to ride going slow, but when you turn him wide open
and let him rock and roll and do this thing,
that is more fun than you can imagine.
- GEORGE: I think Brian knows more about the mechanics
of a horse than anybody that I know of.
I'm trying to get him to make me a million dollar owner,
and he's working on that, and if he does well
at Run for the Million-- - You're away.
- So if he doesn't get me that ,
I'm gonna sue him for non-support. [laughs]
- CAROL: No pressure.
- ♪
- MATT: It feels to me like Andrea, Cade, and I
are the only ones that are pretty relaxed right now,
'cause we're the three of the five that are already qualified.
- I don't know, it's a little bit different deal this year.
I'm already qualified for the Run for the Million,
so I didn't have to bring horses
for that first big show of the year.
- You know, I have to be in the top ten on Saturday night.
- GINGER: Well, I'm nervous because we've got a lot
of competition here.
- MATT: Looking around, and a lot of these guys
you can tell, I mean, it looks like they're
getting ready to try to qualify for a million dollar dance,
I mean, they're sweating.
- ♪
- SHORTY: Unless you take a raw hat body
and start from scratch, then you really are not
a custom hat maker.
Ours are handmade, you know.
My real name is Levona Cover, I go by Shorty,
I've been in custom making hats for years.
- My name is Bobby Goff, and I've been shaping hats
for about years now.
- ♪
- SHORTY: I stopped shaping hats probably four or five years ago
because arthritis has taken over this thumb,
and any hat shaper knows
the thumb is the most important part.
But I've turned it over to Bobby,
so I've retired from hat shaping,
but I am still the boss.
- MAN: [whistles] - [laughs]
- BOBBY: Don't ever forget that. - Don't ever forget that.
- BOBBY: So some of the top reiners are Andrea Fappani,
Casey Deary, Kole Price. - SHORTY: I'm gonna say %
wear our hats, and we're very grateful.
- BOBBY: There are people that have multiple hats--
- SHORTY: But normally they'll have one that they,
that is their favorite. If they've won in it,
then they want to continue to show in it.
- ♪
- ANNOUNCER: Okay, guys, out in the barns,
warm up out in the barn.
- The money part of this, it's always chasing that goal,
being number one rider. But to me,
I'm always in this because I like to compete
and just try to be the best,
I mean, I've always been that way.
If we were going for a dollar, I'd still try to beat you.
If we were go-kart racing for no money, I'd wreck you.
They usually love this. Do you notice his curls his lip?
- We want to have the prettiest horses,
the fattest horses, the shiniest horses,
we want to be the best.
- Brand-new saddle.
This is actually a saddle that I won on Gunna Stop
last year in the derby.
Just got it, we're gonna go break it in.
- ♪
- What's up, Brian? - How are you?
- Good, how's it going? Oh, I don't have cooties.
- [laughs] - Yes you do.
Where's Kole? You need me to give him some pointers?
- Don't be messing him up.
- Kole, he's one of them younger guys,
he's gotten pretty good pretty fast.
He's not afraid to ask anybody any questions.
In order to do the sport, at our level that we do,
you have to be a little bit cocky in order to do that.
He's a pretty good combination of both.
- Brian is somebody, I would never, ever
count Brian Bell out, 'cause that guy--
that guy can show the crap out of one.
- He's a threat.
But we're not scared.
- Are you nervous? - Did you learn anything?
- Watching you? - Yeah.
- Yeah I'd learn what not to do. - Yeah, bullshit.
- ♪
- KOLE: You can tell it's getting closer
to the big event, because a lot more people
are showing up.
- KELSEY: It's gonna be one of the best classes
of the whole year.
- I think so. No room for screwing up.
- KELSEY: True.
- KOLE: Long trip to come here and suck.
Qualifier is tomorrow, I hope I show late
in the afternoon, which means I'm late in the draw.
Means I got a good draw, but it's out of my reach,
and you step up there and mark a big score
right off the bat, the judges will step up.
- [horse snorts]
- GINGER: The draw is the order in which we
go into the arena on our horse.
Sometimes we have live draws where we get to pick our number
out of a hat, or sometimes a computer
generates the draw.
- You typically want to be towards the end of the event.
Perfect situation would be last one to go,
with fresh ground.
- I've been first a lot, I've been last a lot,
I prefer last.
- [indistinct chatter]
- AMANDA: Can you guys lock that door?
- WOMAN: I'm pretty sure I locked it.
- Okay, so what we'll do is we'll go through
and we'll run a draw-- - TAYLOR: Well, let's do it.
- There it is.
Ooh. - Well, that's a knife fight
right out of the gate. - I know.
- TAYLOR: Look at that friggin' first set.
- AMANDA: Yep. Ooh, that's gonna be good.
- That is nasty. - Yeah.
- TAYLOR: You would want to be late in the draw as you can,
because as a judge, you're sitting there thinking,
"Alright, I've gotta judge people,"
but they're not gonna get that chance with this draw,
because you've got six of the best riders in the game
coming out of the gate.
- And it's interesting that Shawn Flarida drew up first
on the same horse he was first on
in the ' Run for a Million.
This horse is incredible.
- TAYLOR: That's the first horse.
And they don't get a break after that,
the next group has Jordan McBurney, Kole Price,
Cade McCutcheon, Casey Deary, Brian Bell, Craig Schmersal,
it's like starting the Super Bowl in the fourth quarter.
When they see this draw...
they're gonna come out swinging.
There's no playing it safe tomorrow.
- ♪
- ♪
- PA ANNOUNCER: Okay. [unintelligible]
Few minutes here before we start.
- TAYLOR: Well, here we are,
we're gonna start this horse show,
Cactus Reining Classic, and the qualifier
for the Run for a Million, everybody's excited.
You magnify that with the fact that we've got everyone
trying to get ten slots for the Run for a Million,
and you really position yourself to see some scores
that are off the charts.
- ANNOUNCER: If the first several horses come in
and if they are spectacular, you're gonna see the heat
put on the rest of them. - TAYLOR: Yeah.
- ANNOUNCER: You know? Because to be able to win this,
you're gonna have to hang out on the edge,
and when you hang out on the edge,
it works or it doesn't work. - TAYLOR: Yup.
- TAYLOR: In reining, there's patterns.
Every pattern is going to include large fast circles,
a small slow circle,
two lead changes,
at least three stops,
and a spin to the left and the right.
What the judges are looking for is to see that horse
willingly guided through that pattern.
The faster you go, the harder it is to be correct.
The challenge is to max out your speed,
and not have things come apart.
Many times, they come apart. For the best of them.
That's why it's so hard.
- I'm gonna be so glad when today's over.
Since all our draws are in the first half.
Gonna be an early night for us.
Not as bad as Shawn's draw this morning.
Shawn's draw one, talk about a crappy draw.
- ♪
- Well, here we are, we're gonna start
with Shawn Flarida, he's gonna be
our first Run for a Million competitor.
Deja vu all over again. First in the hole,
on the same horse that he was a
at the Run for a Million.
- [cheers and applause]
- ANNOUNCER: Plus situation there.
- TAYLOR: So for those of you who are relatively new
to watching this sport, everybody walks in
with the same score, the way that this is judged,
if you perform the maneuver correctly, it's a zero.
If you perform it good, it's a plus half,
very good is a plus one,
excellent is a plus one and a half.
Likewise, the reverse of that is true.
- [cheers and applause]
- ANNOUNCER: Beautiful. - TAYLOR: Not a problem--
- ANNOUNCER: That wasn't good, that was beautiful.
- ♪
- [cheers and applause]
- ANNOUNCER: Woo! I mean, where could you
change the run? You couldn't change it.
- TAYLOR: You don't, you don't.
- ANNOUNCER: He's gonna put the heat on everybody.
- TAYLOR: There's riders that are about
to shake their heads and go, "Man."
- Great job, Shawn.
- When you gonna take me to work with you, boy?
- FEMALE ANNOUNCER: The score for number ,
[unintelligible] Shawn Flarida, and one half.
- [cheers and applause]
- I'm gonna go ahead and project that's gonna qualify you
for the Run for a Million, Shawn, great job.
- GINGER: Shawn, what did he score? Whoa.
Oh great.
Well, you need to be probably or better to play,
which you can be.
If you stay out of the penalty box.
- TAYLOR: So here is Craig Schmersal,
co-champion of the Run for a Million in .
You know, they sold a horse to Matt Mills
that Matt Mills got qualified on.
Craig is not qualified currently for the Run for a Million.
- TAYLOR: That was a nice-- - ANNOUNCER: That was gorgeous.
- [cheers and applause]
- ♪
- ANNOUNCER: Oh, was that a break of gait?
- TAYLOR: Yup. - ANNOUNCER: I thought it was.
- Watch that.
- ANNOUNCER: And then it was a delayed lead change, too.
- TAYLOR: I don't know that it was a break in gait,
I do think you're late on the lead change.
- ANNOUNCER: 'Kay. I don't know.
TAYLOR: We're gonna find out here in a minute.
- ANNOUNCER: And that's gonna cost him.
- TAYLOR: Yes, that's giving back three points.
- ANNOUNCER: Yep.
- [cheers and applause]
- TAYLOR: Ate that ground. - ANNOUNCER: Alright, just--
- TAYLOR: It's all down to-- - ANNOUNCER: That lead change.
- TAYLOR: Yep.
- ANNOUNCER: Okay, he was trying to have
as much degree of difficulty as he could--
- TAYLOR: Yep. - ANNOUNCER: In there,
and that's when that happened.
- FEMALE ANNOUNCER: The score for the previous horse,
, Extra Lippy's Catalyst,
of Craig Schmersal is a .
- TAYLOR: That didn't go great, but look,
you can enter three horses in the event.
You can enter three. So he's got two more entered,
he's got two more chances, and hopefully one of them
goes better than that.
- I, %, am a perfectionist.
If I can have everything perfect, I will.
Even though I know that it'll never be perfect,
I'm gonna strive for perfection.
- ♪
- WOMAN ON PA: Next is draw , number , Trendsetter,
owned by Kole Price.
And [unintelligible] shown by Kole Price.
- ♪
- TAYLOR: Oh, that's real pretty right there.
- ANNOUNCER: Isn't it? - TAYLOR: Yeah.
- ANNOUNCER: Kole is probably one of our
best young riders there is.
- TAYLOR: Ooh. - ANNOUNCER: See now--
- TAYLOR: Oh, wow. - ANNOUNCER: We can see
that horse lean into the fence,
but I'll bet they can see it too.
- TAYLOR: Yeah, they saw it there.
- ANNOUNCER: Yeah, 'cause it was quite a bit.
He ain't gonna be very happy when he comes out.
- TAYLOR: No, he's not gonna be very happy with this run.
Look, at the end of the day,
riders are gonna need a score of--
I bet you gotta--I bet you gotta get a to qualify.
- FEMALE PA ANNOUNCER: Score for number , Trendsetter
and Kole Price, . .
- FEMALE ANNOUNCER: Do you think when the riders walk back in
after a run like that, they're thinking, "Oh dear,"
or do you think it doesn't matter?
- Well, I know you're not thrilled with the score ,
what do you take out of this?
- KOLE: The tough thing about this sport
is the highs and lows of it.
You're never gonna have a perfect run on every horse,
but if you don't sh**t the shot, you're gonna miss it,
so I think you've just got to let it go
and go try it again.
- ♪
- ♪
- Oh, it's gonna be a wonderful day.
- It's gonna be a knife fight.
Seventy-nine horses to go.
And we're gonna see some penalties for sure,
but you know, if it was easy, everybody'd do it.
- FEMALE ANNOUNCER: Oh dear. - TAYLOR: Oh, oh.
- ANNOUNCER: That's gonna leave a big mark.
- TAYLOR: Yeah, that's gonna leave a big mark.
- The most important thing about horse showing
is being able to get in and out of trouble
without telling anybody you were in trouble to begin with.
- TAYLOR: It scotched again. - ANNOUNCER: Yeah, it did again.
- CRAIG: There's no owner's manual to it,
you have to adjust and sometimes for sure you make
the wrong decisions, sometimes it just comes together.
- [cheers and applause]
- TAYLOR: Tell you what, a run like that,
we could be following Mr. Schmersal again.
- FEMALE PA ANNOUNCER: Score for number was a . .
- [cheers and applause]
- FEMALE PA ANNOUNCER: Second in the Run for the Million.
- Takes a little, takes a little bit of pressure off.
- Yeah, takes a lot of pressure off.
- FEMALE PA ANNOUNCER: Alright, this is draw ,
number , Here to Trash the Place, being shown by
Matt Palmer.
- TAYLOR: When a horse walks in that slow,
it makes a statement.
- ♪
- TAYLOR: That was very, very nice!
- ANNOUNCER: Kind of took the slow walk away, didn't it?
- [cheers and applause]
- Three years ago, we came here and my dad had stage four cancer
and he was like my best friend.
That morning, I got a call at a.m.,
and uh, my mom said, "Your dad's dying,
he's not gonna make it."
And, uh, I just didn't know
I could even come back to this place.
It haunts me every day,
so to be able to accomplish this...
it's just amazing.
- TAYLOR: He's putting together a nice run.
- FEMALE ANNOUNCER: Just gotta get one more stop.
- [cheers and applause]
- FEMALE ANNOUNCER: That was really nice.
- ANNOUNCER: That's a good run.
- FEMALE PA ANNOUNCER: ..
- ANNOUNCER: That was a good run,
there was a lot of nice things. - TAYLOR: It was a nice run.
Now Matt, he's gonna be up there on our logjam.
- ♪
- FEMALE PA ANNOUNCER: Now our man that drew ,
America's Next Top g*n, being shown by Casey Deary.
- TAYLOR: Here comes Casey. - ANNOUNCER: And he's not
qualified yet, is he? - TAYLOR: Not yet.
Yeah. - ANNOUNCER: There you go.
- TAYLOR: Tell you what though, he locked it right there.
You know, Casey had a pretty bad wreck last year and..
broke his neck.
- It was one of those stupid mistakes,
I had a horse that was in trouble,
and I ended up breaking my neck.
The next week was our biggest competition.
Against doctor's orders, I competed anyway.
It worked out really, really well,
I was third and fifth there and we won a whole bunch of money.
- TAYLOR: He jokingly told me, "I should've broke my neck
years ago." That's a competitor,
when you look at the advantage you got out of getting
your neck broke.
- [cheers and applause]
- TAYLOR: Very, very, very nice run.
- ANNOUNCER: Very, very nice. - TAYLOR: Very nice run.
- ANNOUNCER: Absolutely.
- FEMALE PA ANNOUNCER: The score for Casey Deary, . .
- [cheers and applause]
- WOMAN ON PA: And unofficially that sets Casey Deary in second,
folllowed by [unintelligible] qualifier.
- We're in a good spot, but we're not in a great spot.
- It's a long day still, and I'm just hoping that
we can be one of the ones to get in,
but I'm definitely not feeling great, you know,
that that's gonna hold up.
- ♪
- ANNOUNCER: Well, one thing about it,
you can't add more drama than we've had.
- This has been as good a rein as you can see
in your lifetime. - TAYLOR: Yup.
- FEMALE ANNOUNCER: And we're not even halfway through.
- I try to keep my mental state lighthearted and relaxed.
I'm pretty cool as a cucumber most of the time,
but with my dad, if he sees something going wrong
he starts to freak out, you know,
"He needs to stomp harder, he needs to this and that,"
and I'm like, "I know. Leave me alone."
- GEORGE: This is years and years of work,
to get here. I mean, it's many, many years
put into that colt right there.
And then this is the moment to qualify.
- BRIAN: If I won the Run for the Million for my dad,
you know, I think that would blow our socks off for sure.
- FEMALE PA ANNOUNCER: This is Mr. Royal Hollywood,
being shown by Brian Bell.
- TAYLOR: Brian Bell's never been accused of playing it safe.
- [cheers and applause]
- BRIAN: Whenever I feel like I'm behind in a run,
I know I need to up the speed a little bit,
get the judges' attention.
- [cheers and applause]
- That's right!
- FEMALE ANNOUNCER: Now that is that horse's maneuver, isn't it?
- TAYLOR: Tell you what. - ANNOUNCER: Wow.
- FEMALE PA ANNOUNCER: The score from the previous horse, ,
Mr. Royal Hollywood with Brian Bell was a .
That unofficially puts him third in the qualifier.
- BRIAN: That's a sigh of relief, that'll--
that'll for sure make it for the Run for the Million.
- Good job, baby!
- GEORGE: Good job, B.
- It's good, you got it.
- FEMALE PA ANNOUNCER: Our next horse [unintelligible]
this is draw , number ,
this is , Gunna Stop.
- TAYLOR: Well, if you name one Gunna Stop, it better stop.
- [announcer laughs]
- TAYLOR: That's a really nice turn.
- ANNOUNCER: That was really pretty.
- TAYLOR: If I remember right, this horse circles really well.
Oh yeah.
- KOLE: When it's going good, it feels like that teammate
on your basketball team that you know you're gonna pass
the ball to, and they're gonna make the shot.
When it's right, feels like you can't be beat.
- [cheers and applause] - ANNOUNCER: Wow.
That had to look great from the side,
'cause it looked great from here.
- TAYLOR: Oh, fantastic.
- FEMALE PA ANNOUNCER: The score for number ,
Gunna Stop with Kole Price,
unofficially a . - [cheers and applause]
- Kole, I gotta tell you,
when you watch this horse walk in,
you don't get an indication of what it's capable of.
Incredible stops and turns today, you had to love it.
- Are you making fun of him because he's fat?
- No. - I'm a little pudgy, too.
- ♪
- My dad is-- he's a legend in our business.
Gold medals. He's roped, he's ridden bulls,
he's done everything, so it's a lot to live up to
and keep the family name going.
- TOM: Mandy's won more than any non-professional
in history. Mandy has the confidence
that when she walks in that show pen,
she can beat anybody.
- TAYLOR: Well, here comes one of my favorite people,
Mandy McCutcheon. She's a two million dollar
rider in the non-pro that's gonna go ahead
and chip it in here in the open.
- ANNOUNCER: I think Mandy can ride anything.
- TAYLOR: Yes. - ANNOUNCER: Believe me.
- TAYLOR: You know, all three of them,
Tom, Cade, and Mandy, they're just so competitive.
- MANDY: It's in my blood, wanting to compete and show,
and be the best I can be is what I do.
It's our family against the rest of the world,
that's kinda how we look at it.
- TAYLOR: This is one of the things that
the Run for a Million's done, you know?
You've got a couple of non-pros that are chipping in there
and go show with the older horses.
- GINGER: A non-professional is basically someone
who doesn't get paid to train horses.
Many of them are women, you know obviously
Mandy McCutcheon and Gina Schumacher.
- I'm German, but my family and me, we live in Switzerland,
and I started riding when I was like two or three.
Had like little Shetland ponies.
I like the horses, I don't know.
They make me happy. [laughs]
- ♪
- FEMALE ANNOUNCER: This girl's won every major event in Europe.
I mean, she's an excellent rider and this family are competitive
to the nth degree, I mean, they are
a super competitive family in everything they do.
- [cheers and applause]
- TAYLOR: Tell you what. Wow.
- FEMALE ANNOUNCER: Yeah. That was beautiful.
- TAYLOR: Woo! She's gonna have to buy a little beer
at the barn later.
- ANNOUNCER: You gotta buy a case of beer
when you lose your hat. - TAYLOR: That's a case of beer.
She's having a really, really nice run.
- FEMALE ANNOUNCER: She's having a really good run.
- ANNOUNCER: She's gonna finish. It's all about the finish.
- FEMALE ANNOUNCER: Come on, Gina.
- [cheers and applause]
- FEMALE ANNOUNCER: Wow.
- ANNOUNCER: That was a great run we just witnessed.
- FEMALE ANNOUNCER: That was a great run.
- TAYLOR: I think we might see her in Vegas.
- FEMALE PA ANNOUNCER: , Gina Schumacher, with a .
- [cheers and applause]
- GINGER: So it's not looking very good for us.
Our last horse is just a four-year-old,
and I don't believe he's strong enough to compete
with so many of the older horses,
so I don't think it's gonna happen.
- ♪
- GINGER: Oh, this little horse. I'm afraid he's gonna get
a little more than he bargained for, I tell you.
- Time to step up. - [cheers and applause]
- FEMALE PA ANNOUNCER: Our next horse you've seen before,
[unintelligible], being shown by Craig Schmersal.
- ♪
- [cheers and applause]
- ANNOUNCER: That was pretty. Right on the track. Very pretty.
- TAYLOR: I'll tell you what, he's not leaving it
to the judges to wonder if that's a plus half,
he's gonna run.
- Oh my god, he looks better than I thought
he was gonna be.
- [cheers and applause]
- ANNOUNCER: That's good.
- FEMALE ANNOUNCER: Nice rollback, too. A true rollback.
- WOMAN: Yeah! Come on, Craig! Woo-woo!
- CRAIG: The family part for me is they're with me
good or bad.
They don't care if I win.
But I want to win.
I want to make them proud, for sure.
- [cheers and applause]
- FEMALE PA ANNOUNCER: The score for number is a . .
- [cheers and applause]
- I didn't expect that.
Congratulations. - Thank you.
- He is such a little show horse, isn't he?
Oh my god.
You never cease to amaze me, I swear.
- Come on. - I know, right?
- ♪
- TAYLOR: This is one that could upset the applecart,
right here.
- FEMALE PA ANNOUNCER: and a half.
- MARTIN: Well, I don't want to jinx it,
but I hope it holds, so I don't know,
find me afterwards, it's gonna be fun.
- ♪
- [cheers and applause]
- FEMALE PA ANNOUNCER: [unintelligible] number ,
Annie Shot a g*n with Gabriel Borges,
was a and a half. and a half.
- ♪
- ANNOUNCER: This has been a great reining--
- TAYLOR: Yup. - ANNOUNCER: Whatever happens,
happens here in this last part. Matt Palmer, I mean
look how far he came for this.
And he's tied for tenth right now.
- AMANDA: Tom McCutcheon, Mandy McCutcheon, and
Franco Bertolani, if they score a or higher,
they knock you both out. If they don't,
you guys gotta run it off.
- ♪
- MATT: If we actually have to do this run off,
I mean, this is the things that you live for,
I mean, this is what you live for.
So, if it holds up, I'm ready to dance.
- HANNAH PALMER: Tom McCutcheon and Mandy McCutcheon
are still left so there's still some good runs left,
but we're just trying to be ready,
in case they gotta battle it out for that tenth spot.
- Ready?
- FEMALE ANNOUNCER: How cool is that?
To have mother, father, and son show like that?
- ANNOUNCER: That is cool. - Comes out of the mix,
that's an incredible thing.
- TOM: If we could all get in, I mean, as much as anything,
it would just be unprecedented.
- FEMALE ANNOUNCER: And Tom can do it.
- TAYLOR: He can do it, but he's gonna have to put
the hammer down.
- TOM: When you put a showman on there
and close that gate behind them,
they always have a chance.
- TOM: Well, I don't know what's about to happen,
but I'm gonna try to qualify for the million.
- FEMALE ANNOUNCER: So you've got three major contenders.
- [cheers and applause]
- TAYLOR: Wow, he did it.
- I think what gave me my edge in the Run for a Million
was just I am and I was just very hungry.
- Literally any one of those other can win this thing.
- If there's a royal family of reining, it's the McCutcheons.
- TOM: It's great to compete with Cade,
but he kicks my ass every time and I'm getting sick of that.
- ♪
♪♪
- MAN: ♪ MTV
- MALE ANNOUNCER: This is setting up to be
just unbelievable, history making.
- TAYLOR: You see this lineup of horses and riders--
- ANNOUNCER: I mean, it's gonna be spectacular.
- [cheers and applause]
- CASEY: As I walk through those gates,
my breathing really slows down,
and I thrive on that pressure.
- MATT: This is the things that you live for.
I mean, this is what you live for.
I'm ready to dance.
- TOM: The Run for a Million, it's a big deal.
Top riders in the country compete for a purse
of a million dollars.
- World-class reiners, million-dollar purse.
Never been heard of, we've never run at money like that.
- CRAIG: I come to work every day
because I want to win, I want to beat them all.
- I have something to prove not for me,
but for women in general.
- The best in our business is considered
by the guy that wins the most money.
- GINGER: No matter how talented you are,
you have to have great horses under you,
and they're hard to find.
- Everybody is scrambling to find the perfect horse.
- He's got a bone bruise and he needs days.
So without him, I'm kind of stuck.
- [indistinct yelling]
- And look out, 'cause we're gonna come a-running.
- CADE: I don't want to be another guy,
I want to be best guy, or what's the point?
- ♪
- TAYLOR: What's unique about reining is...
it involves complete trust between horse and rider.
You're gonna trust the horse to do these
big dynamic moves with almost no cue
and the horse is gonna trust you to go full speed,
having no idea where it's going.
You get on a motorcycle and you can be
a really skilled motorcycle rider,
but the motorcycle doesn't care.
These are extremely intuitive animals
that feed off your emotions and off the signals
that you give them.
To be hooked with a reiner in a pattern is--
it's unlike anything else.
- ♪
- TAYLOR: I've been riding horses my entire life.
I grew up on a ranch, I made money pulling horses,
riding horses, before I had any success
in the movie business whatsoever.
I went to a reining event in Burbank, California,
and I watched it, and I walked up to this cowboy and said,
"Explain this to me." And he did.
Reining evolved from the way a cowboy
would show his horse off to sell it,
he'd show you it could stop on a dime,
he'd show you it could turn on a dime,
and cowboys being cowboys, before long
they made it a competition, and then they elevated it
into an art form.
The recession in was hard on every single equine sport,
and that's really where I came up with the idea for
the Run for a Million.
It needed some kind of shot in the arm.
This competition is that shot in the arm.
The rules are this: there are spots
for riders. They get to go to Vegas.
Bring your best and show it off
and run for the most amount of money ever given
at a horse event.
Welcome everyone to the first annual Run for a Million.
Here we go.
- CRAIG : The first Run for the Million was in .
It's the most exciting thing that's ever happened
to our industry.
- MATT: Having a million-dollar purse
opened everybody's eyes to one of these secrets
that nobody knew about, this little hidden gem
of reining horses and how amazing they are.
- ANNOUNCER: Well, ladies and gentlemen,
we are getting closer and closer to giving away
$ million tonight.
- I mean, this was incredible.
The atmosphere was like electricity pulsing
through that whole place.
- ANNOUNCER: Here they go, they're gonna stand up again.
- ANNOUNCER : Here we go, back at the rock concert,
standing up. - ANNOUNCER: How cool is that?
- CRAIG: Running through the gate,
and hearing the crowd scream and just looking up
in the stands and seeing a packed stadium,
it felt fantastic.
- MAN: Yeah!
- ANNOUNCER: Ladies and gentlemen, Craig Schmersal.
- CRAIG: For me, when it's going right,
the hair will stand up on my neck.
Once you have that happen to you,
that's, it's kinda like your drug,
you keep on searching for it.
- Yow!
- ANNOUNCER: You can't stop any bigger than that.
- TAYLOR: Let me introduce you to your
Run for a Million co-champions,
Craig Schmersal and Cade McCutcheon.
- [cheers and applause]
- I'm happy to be co-champion with that little shit.
And you know, it's--I hope to--
I hope to get him this year, though.
- INTERVIEWER: On the record, am I allowed to use that--
that bite, are we allowed to call it--
- Yes, absolutely. My kids taught him
how to ride a bicycle when he was little.
- GINGER: When Craig won, we were thrilled,
but, you know, in the back of our mind,
it was like, "Okay, well, this is great now,
"but now we have to start all over again
and try and defend that title,"
and you know, to qualify even to defend the title,
that's the kicker to the whole thing
is that we had to start over.
- TAYLOR: You can win the Run for a Million,
and if you don't qualify, you're gonna have to try
and qualify again the next year, and if you don't,
you're out, that's the rules.
There's two ways that you can qualify,
one is at the event itself in the open sh**t.
The top five in that event are automatically qualified
for the next year. If you don't qualify there,
you're gonna have to wait 'til March in Scottsdale,
and try and qualify at the Cactus.
- CRAIG: In order to get qualified
for the next Run for the Million,
I ended up one out, I ended up sixth,
they took the top five and it stung a little bit
because I got beat by Matt Mills
on a horse we sold to him.
He was fifth and I was sixth that week.
- ♪
- MATT: At the first Run for a Million,
I finished dead last, you know, right in the bottom spot,
and it was extremely disappointing,
but the day before, they had the sh**t there,
the top five spots got an a*t*matic entry
into the next Run for a Million.
Come on, Rio, let's go lunge you a little.
The horse I rode in the sh**t was Rio.
Rio's a horse that we bought from Craig and Ginger Schmersal.
Funny to me, probably not so much to Craig.
I ended up beating him with that horse that we got from him.
It's kind of a wild story, I didn't have Rio
at the Run for a Million the first couple days.
- And I said to him, "Matt, why would you leave
the best horse in your barn at home this week?"
And he didn't say a word, but he sent the trailer home,
the five and a half hour drive to Phoenix
to pick up the horse we sold him,
and then he came back and kicked my ass with it.
He was fifth and I was sixth that week.
That's what I get for opening my big mouth.
- GINGER: There's ten more spots that are available,
that's what we're sh**ting for this week,
but you know, so is everybody else out here,
they're all sh**ting for that spot.
- TAYLOR: So the qualifiers for the open sh**t in
are Andrea Fappani, Jason Vanlandingham,
Cade McCutcheon, Matt Mills, and Danny Tremblay.
There are more spots for a total of riders
for the Run for a Million.
- Anything can go wrong, but I think I have a good chance
of qualifying, and this early in the year,
that's all that matters to me, is I want to qualify,
and get back there and see if we can do it again.
- ♪
- JASON: The Cactus Classic has been here
for a long, long time, it's one of the premier events
here at the west coast. This is the only qualifier
for the Run for a Million.
This is it, like if you shit the bed here, it's done,
like you ain't going.
- This is gonna probably be the most exciting reining
we see all year long, for sure, but maybe one of the most
exciting reinings we see, period.
- TOM: I'm here to try and qualify again
for the Run for a Million.
I never go anywhere without thinking that I can be there.
- GEORGE: These are the top horses in the world.
So you better be damned ready when you come here,
or stay home.
- ANNOUNCER: This is setting up to be just unbelievable,
history making.
- TAYLOR: When you see this lineup of horses and riders--
- ANNOUNCER: I mean, it's gonna be spectacular.
- [tractor engine runs]
- ♪
- [water spraying]
- GINGER: So moving day is always crazy around here
because there's so many people, we have vendors coming in,
exhibitors and horses and you know,
everyone's unloading and you know, getting everybody settled,
a lot of these horses have been traveling for a lot of hours,
so it's a busy place today.
- [indistinct male announcer over the PA system]
- ♪
- When I was a little kid, I played around with a dirt bike
and did not care about horses.
In , I saw a guy, Bill Horn,
that was the first million dollar rider.
He was kind of like the Marlboro Man,
he smoked and drank Crown Royal, and was kind of a cool guy
and I watched him ride, and said something to my dad
about riding and he said, "If you ride every day
"from now until the time we come back next year,
I'll buy you a saddle."
I went home and started riding and I rode every day since.
- ♪
- CAROL: George, you want a whiskey?
- I always want some whiskey, what are you talking about?
- I know. - GEORGE: Have ice in it?
- A lot of ice. - Oh yeah.
- There we go.
- There you go.
- BRIAN: I have three Run for a Million horses.
They're worth a couple hundred thousand apiece.
My dad hardly ever sells them, he loves them all. [laughs]
- GEORGE: Brian, you need to tell them how many
generations of these horses we've ridden.
- BRIAN: The mother, the grandmother,
and the great grandmother have been in our family
for even before I started riding.
This is Mr. Hollywood Sea. If you compared him to a car,
he's like a Bentley. I mean, he's big
and got all the horsepower and stuff.
Smooth and easy to ride.
This is See Mr. Stomp. His nickname is Pretty Boy.
He's like Fabio with a mane.
- He is a pretty boy, isn't he?
- Yeah, he's posing for the camera.
- Yeah, he likes the attention.
He's more the lover of the group.
This is Mr. Royal Hollywood.
That is a Porsche.
He's not fun to ride going slow, but when you turn him wide open
and let him rock and roll and do this thing,
that is more fun than you can imagine.
- GEORGE: I think Brian knows more about the mechanics
of a horse than anybody that I know of.
I'm trying to get him to make me a million dollar owner,
and he's working on that, and if he does well
at Run for the Million-- - You're away.
- So if he doesn't get me that ,
I'm gonna sue him for non-support. [laughs]
- CAROL: No pressure.
- ♪
- MATT: It feels to me like Andrea, Cade, and I
are the only ones that are pretty relaxed right now,
'cause we're the three of the five that are already qualified.
- I don't know, it's a little bit different deal this year.
I'm already qualified for the Run for the Million,
so I didn't have to bring horses
for that first big show of the year.
- You know, I have to be in the top ten on Saturday night.
- GINGER: Well, I'm nervous because we've got a lot
of competition here.
- MATT: Looking around, and a lot of these guys
you can tell, I mean, it looks like they're
getting ready to try to qualify for a million dollar dance,
I mean, they're sweating.
- ♪
- SHORTY: Unless you take a raw hat body
and start from scratch, then you really are not
a custom hat maker.
Ours are handmade, you know.
My real name is Levona Cover, I go by Shorty,
I've been in custom making hats for years.
- My name is Bobby Goff, and I've been shaping hats
for about years now.
- ♪
- SHORTY: I stopped shaping hats probably four or five years ago
because arthritis has taken over this thumb,
and any hat shaper knows
the thumb is the most important part.
But I've turned it over to Bobby,
so I've retired from hat shaping,
but I am still the boss.
- MAN: [whistles] - [laughs]
- BOBBY: Don't ever forget that. - Don't ever forget that.
- BOBBY: So some of the top reiners are Andrea Fappani,
Casey Deary, Kole Price. - SHORTY: I'm gonna say %
wear our hats, and we're very grateful.
- BOBBY: There are people that have multiple hats--
- SHORTY: But normally they'll have one that they,
that is their favorite. If they've won in it,
then they want to continue to show in it.
- ♪
- ANNOUNCER: Okay, guys, out in the barns,
warm up out in the barn.
- The money part of this, it's always chasing that goal,
being number one rider. But to me,
I'm always in this because I like to compete
and just try to be the best,
I mean, I've always been that way.
If we were going for a dollar, I'd still try to beat you.
If we were go-kart racing for no money, I'd wreck you.
They usually love this. Do you notice his curls his lip?
- We want to have the prettiest horses,
the fattest horses, the shiniest horses,
we want to be the best.
- Brand-new saddle.
This is actually a saddle that I won on Gunna Stop
last year in the derby.
Just got it, we're gonna go break it in.
- ♪
- What's up, Brian? - How are you?
- Good, how's it going? Oh, I don't have cooties.
- [laughs] - Yes you do.
Where's Kole? You need me to give him some pointers?
- Don't be messing him up.
- Kole, he's one of them younger guys,
he's gotten pretty good pretty fast.
He's not afraid to ask anybody any questions.
In order to do the sport, at our level that we do,
you have to be a little bit cocky in order to do that.
He's a pretty good combination of both.
- Brian is somebody, I would never, ever
count Brian Bell out, 'cause that guy--
that guy can show the crap out of one.
- He's a threat.
But we're not scared.
- Are you nervous? - Did you learn anything?
- Watching you? - Yeah.
- Yeah I'd learn what not to do. - Yeah, bullshit.
- ♪
- KOLE: You can tell it's getting closer
to the big event, because a lot more people
are showing up.
- KELSEY: It's gonna be one of the best classes
of the whole year.
- I think so. No room for screwing up.
- KELSEY: True.
- KOLE: Long trip to come here and suck.
Qualifier is tomorrow, I hope I show late
in the afternoon, which means I'm late in the draw.
Means I got a good draw, but it's out of my reach,
and you step up there and mark a big score
right off the bat, the judges will step up.
- [horse snorts]
- GINGER: The draw is the order in which we
go into the arena on our horse.
Sometimes we have live draws where we get to pick our number
out of a hat, or sometimes a computer
generates the draw.
- You typically want to be towards the end of the event.
Perfect situation would be last one to go,
with fresh ground.
- I've been first a lot, I've been last a lot,
I prefer last.
- [indistinct chatter]
- AMANDA: Can you guys lock that door?
- WOMAN: I'm pretty sure I locked it.
- Okay, so what we'll do is we'll go through
and we'll run a draw-- - TAYLOR: Well, let's do it.
- There it is.
Ooh. - Well, that's a knife fight
right out of the gate. - I know.
- TAYLOR: Look at that friggin' first set.
- AMANDA: Yep. Ooh, that's gonna be good.
- That is nasty. - Yeah.
- TAYLOR: You would want to be late in the draw as you can,
because as a judge, you're sitting there thinking,
"Alright, I've gotta judge people,"
but they're not gonna get that chance with this draw,
because you've got six of the best riders in the game
coming out of the gate.
- And it's interesting that Shawn Flarida drew up first
on the same horse he was first on
in the ' Run for a Million.
This horse is incredible.
- TAYLOR: That's the first horse.
And they don't get a break after that,
the next group has Jordan McBurney, Kole Price,
Cade McCutcheon, Casey Deary, Brian Bell, Craig Schmersal,
it's like starting the Super Bowl in the fourth quarter.
When they see this draw...
they're gonna come out swinging.
There's no playing it safe tomorrow.
- ♪
- ♪
- PA ANNOUNCER: Okay. [unintelligible]
Few minutes here before we start.
- TAYLOR: Well, here we are,
we're gonna start this horse show,
Cactus Reining Classic, and the qualifier
for the Run for a Million, everybody's excited.
You magnify that with the fact that we've got everyone
trying to get ten slots for the Run for a Million,
and you really position yourself to see some scores
that are off the charts.
- ANNOUNCER: If the first several horses come in
and if they are spectacular, you're gonna see the heat
put on the rest of them. - TAYLOR: Yeah.
- ANNOUNCER: You know? Because to be able to win this,
you're gonna have to hang out on the edge,
and when you hang out on the edge,
it works or it doesn't work. - TAYLOR: Yup.
- TAYLOR: In reining, there's patterns.
Every pattern is going to include large fast circles,
a small slow circle,
two lead changes,
at least three stops,
and a spin to the left and the right.
What the judges are looking for is to see that horse
willingly guided through that pattern.
The faster you go, the harder it is to be correct.
The challenge is to max out your speed,
and not have things come apart.
Many times, they come apart. For the best of them.
That's why it's so hard.
- I'm gonna be so glad when today's over.
Since all our draws are in the first half.
Gonna be an early night for us.
Not as bad as Shawn's draw this morning.
Shawn's draw one, talk about a crappy draw.
- ♪
- Well, here we are, we're gonna start
with Shawn Flarida, he's gonna be
our first Run for a Million competitor.
Deja vu all over again. First in the hole,
on the same horse that he was a
at the Run for a Million.
- [cheers and applause]
- ANNOUNCER: Plus situation there.
- TAYLOR: So for those of you who are relatively new
to watching this sport, everybody walks in
with the same score, the way that this is judged,
if you perform the maneuver correctly, it's a zero.
If you perform it good, it's a plus half,
very good is a plus one,
excellent is a plus one and a half.
Likewise, the reverse of that is true.
- [cheers and applause]
- ANNOUNCER: Beautiful. - TAYLOR: Not a problem--
- ANNOUNCER: That wasn't good, that was beautiful.
- ♪
- [cheers and applause]
- ANNOUNCER: Woo! I mean, where could you
change the run? You couldn't change it.
- TAYLOR: You don't, you don't.
- ANNOUNCER: He's gonna put the heat on everybody.
- TAYLOR: There's riders that are about
to shake their heads and go, "Man."
- Great job, Shawn.
- When you gonna take me to work with you, boy?
- FEMALE ANNOUNCER: The score for number ,
[unintelligible] Shawn Flarida, and one half.
- [cheers and applause]
- I'm gonna go ahead and project that's gonna qualify you
for the Run for a Million, Shawn, great job.
- GINGER: Shawn, what did he score? Whoa.
Oh great.
Well, you need to be probably or better to play,
which you can be.
If you stay out of the penalty box.
- TAYLOR: So here is Craig Schmersal,
co-champion of the Run for a Million in .
You know, they sold a horse to Matt Mills
that Matt Mills got qualified on.
Craig is not qualified currently for the Run for a Million.
- TAYLOR: That was a nice-- - ANNOUNCER: That was gorgeous.
- [cheers and applause]
- ♪
- ANNOUNCER: Oh, was that a break of gait?
- TAYLOR: Yup. - ANNOUNCER: I thought it was.
- Watch that.
- ANNOUNCER: And then it was a delayed lead change, too.
- TAYLOR: I don't know that it was a break in gait,
I do think you're late on the lead change.
- ANNOUNCER: 'Kay. I don't know.
TAYLOR: We're gonna find out here in a minute.
- ANNOUNCER: And that's gonna cost him.
- TAYLOR: Yes, that's giving back three points.
- ANNOUNCER: Yep.
- [cheers and applause]
- TAYLOR: Ate that ground. - ANNOUNCER: Alright, just--
- TAYLOR: It's all down to-- - ANNOUNCER: That lead change.
- TAYLOR: Yep.
- ANNOUNCER: Okay, he was trying to have
as much degree of difficulty as he could--
- TAYLOR: Yep. - ANNOUNCER: In there,
and that's when that happened.
- FEMALE ANNOUNCER: The score for the previous horse,
, Extra Lippy's Catalyst,
of Craig Schmersal is a .
- TAYLOR: That didn't go great, but look,
you can enter three horses in the event.
You can enter three. So he's got two more entered,
he's got two more chances, and hopefully one of them
goes better than that.
- I, %, am a perfectionist.
If I can have everything perfect, I will.
Even though I know that it'll never be perfect,
I'm gonna strive for perfection.
- ♪
- WOMAN ON PA: Next is draw , number , Trendsetter,
owned by Kole Price.
And [unintelligible] shown by Kole Price.
- ♪
- TAYLOR: Oh, that's real pretty right there.
- ANNOUNCER: Isn't it? - TAYLOR: Yeah.
- ANNOUNCER: Kole is probably one of our
best young riders there is.
- TAYLOR: Ooh. - ANNOUNCER: See now--
- TAYLOR: Oh, wow. - ANNOUNCER: We can see
that horse lean into the fence,
but I'll bet they can see it too.
- TAYLOR: Yeah, they saw it there.
- ANNOUNCER: Yeah, 'cause it was quite a bit.
He ain't gonna be very happy when he comes out.
- TAYLOR: No, he's not gonna be very happy with this run.
Look, at the end of the day,
riders are gonna need a score of--
I bet you gotta--I bet you gotta get a to qualify.
- FEMALE PA ANNOUNCER: Score for number , Trendsetter
and Kole Price, . .
- FEMALE ANNOUNCER: Do you think when the riders walk back in
after a run like that, they're thinking, "Oh dear,"
or do you think it doesn't matter?
- Well, I know you're not thrilled with the score ,
what do you take out of this?
- KOLE: The tough thing about this sport
is the highs and lows of it.
You're never gonna have a perfect run on every horse,
but if you don't sh**t the shot, you're gonna miss it,
so I think you've just got to let it go
and go try it again.
- ♪
- ♪
- Oh, it's gonna be a wonderful day.
- It's gonna be a knife fight.
Seventy-nine horses to go.
And we're gonna see some penalties for sure,
but you know, if it was easy, everybody'd do it.
- FEMALE ANNOUNCER: Oh dear. - TAYLOR: Oh, oh.
- ANNOUNCER: That's gonna leave a big mark.
- TAYLOR: Yeah, that's gonna leave a big mark.
- The most important thing about horse showing
is being able to get in and out of trouble
without telling anybody you were in trouble to begin with.
- TAYLOR: It scotched again. - ANNOUNCER: Yeah, it did again.
- CRAIG: There's no owner's manual to it,
you have to adjust and sometimes for sure you make
the wrong decisions, sometimes it just comes together.
- [cheers and applause]
- TAYLOR: Tell you what, a run like that,
we could be following Mr. Schmersal again.
- FEMALE PA ANNOUNCER: Score for number was a . .
- [cheers and applause]
- FEMALE PA ANNOUNCER: Second in the Run for the Million.
- Takes a little, takes a little bit of pressure off.
- Yeah, takes a lot of pressure off.
- FEMALE PA ANNOUNCER: Alright, this is draw ,
number , Here to Trash the Place, being shown by
Matt Palmer.
- TAYLOR: When a horse walks in that slow,
it makes a statement.
- ♪
- TAYLOR: That was very, very nice!
- ANNOUNCER: Kind of took the slow walk away, didn't it?
- [cheers and applause]
- Three years ago, we came here and my dad had stage four cancer
and he was like my best friend.
That morning, I got a call at a.m.,
and uh, my mom said, "Your dad's dying,
he's not gonna make it."
And, uh, I just didn't know
I could even come back to this place.
It haunts me every day,
so to be able to accomplish this...
it's just amazing.
- TAYLOR: He's putting together a nice run.
- FEMALE ANNOUNCER: Just gotta get one more stop.
- [cheers and applause]
- FEMALE ANNOUNCER: That was really nice.
- ANNOUNCER: That's a good run.
- FEMALE PA ANNOUNCER: ..
- ANNOUNCER: That was a good run,
there was a lot of nice things. - TAYLOR: It was a nice run.
Now Matt, he's gonna be up there on our logjam.
- ♪
- FEMALE PA ANNOUNCER: Now our man that drew ,
America's Next Top g*n, being shown by Casey Deary.
- TAYLOR: Here comes Casey. - ANNOUNCER: And he's not
qualified yet, is he? - TAYLOR: Not yet.
Yeah. - ANNOUNCER: There you go.
- TAYLOR: Tell you what though, he locked it right there.
You know, Casey had a pretty bad wreck last year and..
broke his neck.
- It was one of those stupid mistakes,
I had a horse that was in trouble,
and I ended up breaking my neck.
The next week was our biggest competition.
Against doctor's orders, I competed anyway.
It worked out really, really well,
I was third and fifth there and we won a whole bunch of money.
- TAYLOR: He jokingly told me, "I should've broke my neck
years ago." That's a competitor,
when you look at the advantage you got out of getting
your neck broke.
- [cheers and applause]
- TAYLOR: Very, very, very nice run.
- ANNOUNCER: Very, very nice. - TAYLOR: Very nice run.
- ANNOUNCER: Absolutely.
- FEMALE PA ANNOUNCER: The score for Casey Deary, . .
- [cheers and applause]
- WOMAN ON PA: And unofficially that sets Casey Deary in second,
folllowed by [unintelligible] qualifier.
- We're in a good spot, but we're not in a great spot.
- It's a long day still, and I'm just hoping that
we can be one of the ones to get in,
but I'm definitely not feeling great, you know,
that that's gonna hold up.
- ♪
- ANNOUNCER: Well, one thing about it,
you can't add more drama than we've had.
- This has been as good a rein as you can see
in your lifetime. - TAYLOR: Yup.
- FEMALE ANNOUNCER: And we're not even halfway through.
- I try to keep my mental state lighthearted and relaxed.
I'm pretty cool as a cucumber most of the time,
but with my dad, if he sees something going wrong
he starts to freak out, you know,
"He needs to stomp harder, he needs to this and that,"
and I'm like, "I know. Leave me alone."
- GEORGE: This is years and years of work,
to get here. I mean, it's many, many years
put into that colt right there.
And then this is the moment to qualify.
- BRIAN: If I won the Run for the Million for my dad,
you know, I think that would blow our socks off for sure.
- FEMALE PA ANNOUNCER: This is Mr. Royal Hollywood,
being shown by Brian Bell.
- TAYLOR: Brian Bell's never been accused of playing it safe.
- [cheers and applause]
- BRIAN: Whenever I feel like I'm behind in a run,
I know I need to up the speed a little bit,
get the judges' attention.
- [cheers and applause]
- That's right!
- FEMALE ANNOUNCER: Now that is that horse's maneuver, isn't it?
- TAYLOR: Tell you what. - ANNOUNCER: Wow.
- FEMALE PA ANNOUNCER: The score from the previous horse, ,
Mr. Royal Hollywood with Brian Bell was a .
That unofficially puts him third in the qualifier.
- BRIAN: That's a sigh of relief, that'll--
that'll for sure make it for the Run for the Million.
- Good job, baby!
- GEORGE: Good job, B.
- It's good, you got it.
- FEMALE PA ANNOUNCER: Our next horse [unintelligible]
this is draw , number ,
this is , Gunna Stop.
- TAYLOR: Well, if you name one Gunna Stop, it better stop.
- [announcer laughs]
- TAYLOR: That's a really nice turn.
- ANNOUNCER: That was really pretty.
- TAYLOR: If I remember right, this horse circles really well.
Oh yeah.
- KOLE: When it's going good, it feels like that teammate
on your basketball team that you know you're gonna pass
the ball to, and they're gonna make the shot.
When it's right, feels like you can't be beat.
- [cheers and applause] - ANNOUNCER: Wow.
That had to look great from the side,
'cause it looked great from here.
- TAYLOR: Oh, fantastic.
- FEMALE PA ANNOUNCER: The score for number ,
Gunna Stop with Kole Price,
unofficially a . - [cheers and applause]
- Kole, I gotta tell you,
when you watch this horse walk in,
you don't get an indication of what it's capable of.
Incredible stops and turns today, you had to love it.
- Are you making fun of him because he's fat?
- No. - I'm a little pudgy, too.
- ♪
- My dad is-- he's a legend in our business.
Gold medals. He's roped, he's ridden bulls,
he's done everything, so it's a lot to live up to
and keep the family name going.
- TOM: Mandy's won more than any non-professional
in history. Mandy has the confidence
that when she walks in that show pen,
she can beat anybody.
- TAYLOR: Well, here comes one of my favorite people,
Mandy McCutcheon. She's a two million dollar
rider in the non-pro that's gonna go ahead
and chip it in here in the open.
- ANNOUNCER: I think Mandy can ride anything.
- TAYLOR: Yes. - ANNOUNCER: Believe me.
- TAYLOR: You know, all three of them,
Tom, Cade, and Mandy, they're just so competitive.
- MANDY: It's in my blood, wanting to compete and show,
and be the best I can be is what I do.
It's our family against the rest of the world,
that's kinda how we look at it.
- TAYLOR: This is one of the things that
the Run for a Million's done, you know?
You've got a couple of non-pros that are chipping in there
and go show with the older horses.
- GINGER: A non-professional is basically someone
who doesn't get paid to train horses.
Many of them are women, you know obviously
Mandy McCutcheon and Gina Schumacher.
- I'm German, but my family and me, we live in Switzerland,
and I started riding when I was like two or three.
Had like little Shetland ponies.
I like the horses, I don't know.
They make me happy. [laughs]
- ♪
- FEMALE ANNOUNCER: This girl's won every major event in Europe.
I mean, she's an excellent rider and this family are competitive
to the nth degree, I mean, they are
a super competitive family in everything they do.
- [cheers and applause]
- TAYLOR: Tell you what. Wow.
- FEMALE ANNOUNCER: Yeah. That was beautiful.
- TAYLOR: Woo! She's gonna have to buy a little beer
at the barn later.
- ANNOUNCER: You gotta buy a case of beer
when you lose your hat. - TAYLOR: That's a case of beer.
She's having a really, really nice run.
- FEMALE ANNOUNCER: She's having a really good run.
- ANNOUNCER: She's gonna finish. It's all about the finish.
- FEMALE ANNOUNCER: Come on, Gina.
- [cheers and applause]
- FEMALE ANNOUNCER: Wow.
- ANNOUNCER: That was a great run we just witnessed.
- FEMALE ANNOUNCER: That was a great run.
- TAYLOR: I think we might see her in Vegas.
- FEMALE PA ANNOUNCER: , Gina Schumacher, with a .
- [cheers and applause]
- GINGER: So it's not looking very good for us.
Our last horse is just a four-year-old,
and I don't believe he's strong enough to compete
with so many of the older horses,
so I don't think it's gonna happen.
- ♪
- GINGER: Oh, this little horse. I'm afraid he's gonna get
a little more than he bargained for, I tell you.
- Time to step up. - [cheers and applause]
- FEMALE PA ANNOUNCER: Our next horse you've seen before,
[unintelligible], being shown by Craig Schmersal.
- ♪
- [cheers and applause]
- ANNOUNCER: That was pretty. Right on the track. Very pretty.
- TAYLOR: I'll tell you what, he's not leaving it
to the judges to wonder if that's a plus half,
he's gonna run.
- Oh my god, he looks better than I thought
he was gonna be.
- [cheers and applause]
- ANNOUNCER: That's good.
- FEMALE ANNOUNCER: Nice rollback, too. A true rollback.
- WOMAN: Yeah! Come on, Craig! Woo-woo!
- CRAIG: The family part for me is they're with me
good or bad.
They don't care if I win.
But I want to win.
I want to make them proud, for sure.
- [cheers and applause]
- FEMALE PA ANNOUNCER: The score for number is a . .
- [cheers and applause]
- I didn't expect that.
Congratulations. - Thank you.
- He is such a little show horse, isn't he?
Oh my god.
You never cease to amaze me, I swear.
- Come on. - I know, right?
- ♪
- TAYLOR: This is one that could upset the applecart,
right here.
- FEMALE PA ANNOUNCER: and a half.
- MARTIN: Well, I don't want to jinx it,
but I hope it holds, so I don't know,
find me afterwards, it's gonna be fun.
- ♪
- [cheers and applause]
- FEMALE PA ANNOUNCER: [unintelligible] number ,
Annie Shot a g*n with Gabriel Borges,
was a and a half. and a half.
- ♪
- ANNOUNCER: This has been a great reining--
- TAYLOR: Yup. - ANNOUNCER: Whatever happens,
happens here in this last part. Matt Palmer, I mean
look how far he came for this.
And he's tied for tenth right now.
- AMANDA: Tom McCutcheon, Mandy McCutcheon, and
Franco Bertolani, if they score a or higher,
they knock you both out. If they don't,
you guys gotta run it off.
- ♪
- MATT: If we actually have to do this run off,
I mean, this is the things that you live for,
I mean, this is what you live for.
So, if it holds up, I'm ready to dance.
- HANNAH PALMER: Tom McCutcheon and Mandy McCutcheon
are still left so there's still some good runs left,
but we're just trying to be ready,
in case they gotta battle it out for that tenth spot.
- Ready?
- FEMALE ANNOUNCER: How cool is that?
To have mother, father, and son show like that?
- ANNOUNCER: That is cool. - Comes out of the mix,
that's an incredible thing.
- TOM: If we could all get in, I mean, as much as anything,
it would just be unprecedented.
- FEMALE ANNOUNCER: And Tom can do it.
- TAYLOR: He can do it, but he's gonna have to put
the hammer down.
- TOM: When you put a showman on there
and close that gate behind them,
they always have a chance.
- TOM: Well, I don't know what's about to happen,
but I'm gonna try to qualify for the million.
- FEMALE ANNOUNCER: So you've got three major contenders.
- [cheers and applause]
- TAYLOR: Wow, he did it.
- I think what gave me my edge in the Run for a Million
was just I am and I was just very hungry.
- Literally any one of those other can win this thing.
- If there's a royal family of reining, it's the McCutcheons.
- TOM: It's great to compete with Cade,
but he kicks my ass every time and I'm getting sick of that.
- ♪
♪♪
- MAN: ♪ MTV