Isn’t the Reiner Pro- Non Pro designation based on money won in a season? Had a friend primarily in the NRCHA but also NRHA who had to cut back showing towards the end of some years so he could stay a Non Pro, He didn’t want to win too much money if he was having a really good year. That was a few years back, no idea if it’s the same but it sure looks like it from this TV show.
Which I really enjoyed overall, will there be a season 2?
There’s different non pro classes based on earnings. Some of them are lifetime and others are classes you may factor back into if you’ve earned less than a certain amount the previous year. Same with the open classes. I’m currently trying to figure out how to stay below $10,000 for the 2019 show season so I can be Intermediate Open eligible instead of only Open, I haven’t been IO eligible in 4 years and it will be a nice change to be able to show some lower level horses next year.
The silver lining in a dry spell, So to speak?
Actually my boss was quite ill at the beginning of the year…coma for two weeks, nearly died, doctors said no chance of recovery (he did make a full recovery) but it put a damper on a fair part of our show season as I went into survival mode managing all aspects of stall and feeding help, training, foaling out and breeding back.
Some talented horses to show but sometimes life comes first. Now I’m using some misfortunes from the first half of the year and also selling more horses than we expected to (hence, less to show) to be eligible for one lower class rather then competing against only the riders who have won out of every other class but mine.
But generally speaking, most riders are in their respective divisions based on the amount of success they have in the pen or how much they show. If they only show a few times a year in a few 500 or $1000 added classes, they’ll be eligible for all levels that use factor back eligibility in ages events and ancillary.
I don’t necessarily agree with how our eligibility is set up…example is that you don’t have to be super successful to win 10k…but if you win 10k in one year, you’re only eligible for the highest ancillary class which doesn’t make sense…you’re literally competing against all The Last Cowboy contestants if you both showed up to the same show.
She may as well be required to be a pro cuz good grief already. The whole “non pro” thing is such a joke in any of these disciplines. In my humble, but accurate opinion, one should NOT be able to be a non-pro when married to a trainer or 18 but have parents (ahem) who are both professional trainers. Give me a break already.
Any NRHA member in good standing can submit a rule change proposal. They are accepting submissions for the 2021 rule book.
Sorry, factoring in if the love of your life is a trainer or not shouldn’t be something to think about when getting married.
Theres plenty of classes for a non pro to have success. Two green classes, three rookie classes, 6 ancillary non pro classes, plus the novice horse non pro 1 and 2…and now 3 next year. Plus category 2 and 6, 4 levels plus prime time. The answer is not eliminate certain non pros because they are more successful but rather get eligibility right to put everybody in an eligibility level where they can play.
Bravo! Mike drop 
It will never be totally “fair.” All disciplines have to deal with this, and the talented amateur with one talented horse just needs to work harder to beat the nonpro spouse who gets to ride and show all day long. That is life.
Getting back to the show… Just watched the last episode. It is on UTube now for those, like me, who dont get the station it was aired on. It was enjoyable with lots of footage of the competition. Guess I wont say more for now to avoid spoiling for those who want to watch without knowing who won.
What was most interesting to me was to see that “pros” have the same issues that us ammies have. Nerves, getting bummed when they don’t achieve their goals, worries about their horse, their confidence, if they’ve trained hard enough or too much…
And, I don’t think I could ever ride one of those highly trained horses but they sure are fun to watch!
The pattern may be the same for a green rider or an open one.
It is in the execution that separates one run from another.
Many that watch reining think they can do that, how hard is it, just running around and stopping.
At least until they try it, then get good enough to ride a better horse, then add speed to it.
Then you learn, with a more educated eye, why it is not as easy as it looks and how hard it is to get to the higher levels of competition.
How many women compete at the international level other than Mandy? Mandy was on the 2014 WEG team, have any other women made it to that level? There are so many women competing successfully internationally and competing as professionals in other disciplines, but there don’t seem to be many in reining.
Ann and Cira both competed for Team Belgium. Emily Emerson was an alternate for Team USA. Mariana Vazquez was on Team Mexico. Francesca Sternberg was on Team Britain and her sister Rosanne Sternberg and her niece Jessica Sternberg have been on the team before. Robyn Schiller and Shauna Larcombe were on Team Australia. Anna Lisec was on Team Austria and Mirjam Stillo was on Team Italy.
There were more, but that is all I can think of off the top of my head from the 2018 World Equestrian Games.
Lisa Coulter competed for Canada at the 2018 WEG. She and Josiane Gauthier were both on the 2014 team for Canada. Rhea Pole is another Canadian professional who was the Chef D’equipe of the 2018 team.
What are you sorry for?I don’t need an apology. I didn’t say eliminate due to success level, but rather if one is truly a “non pro” due to exposure, opportunity, etc… Of course it won’t be fair, ever…doesn’t mean it shouldn’t have light brought to the ridiculousness of the entire industry in this regard. If Mandy is a “non-pro”, why in the heLL is she talking a horse sale with another pro? Ethics are lacking, in a serious way. They can skirt around it all day long. I don’t care, but it doesn’t dismiss that something is grossly wrong with the rule entity. Ah well, it’s fun to watch the drama from the sidelines.
It has been submitted…numerous times…and I know a few who have done so that are NCHA and NRHA professionals. It gets laughed at. C’mon now…this is like telling someone to micro level vote to change a macro level problem. Back to reality…
You do know that all we do has those kinds of problems, how to handle the different kinds of performers/employees/students/ whatever we are trying to find fair classifications for?
Forever we only had amateurs as olympians, but in reality, to be at that level of performance you had to be spending more in training resources than you possibly could and hold a real, full time job.
Rainer Klimke may have been one of the few that could swing that and even then, his time was his own to manage, not everyone can do that.
Then reality set in and today olympics have different rules.
Amateur designation in all sports is treated seriously, even in reining.
As long as rules are upheld, any other grumbling is questionable.
If someone knows a rule was broken, well yes, do speak up where it matters.
You think what an amateur is saying means they are involved in something that makes them ineligible as amateurs, there are venues to address that, do it.
This is not new. Heck I was in ApHC back in the 80s and a gal out of NJ would swoop down through the App shows held in Alabama and scoop up all of the wins in all of the youth classes. She had the money, the horses, the resources to outclass and out-show the competition. Her horses, her riding, was far better than ours, by a mile. It was disheartening to the Alabama kids to see her win it all at the year-end awards banquets and she wasn’t there to collect them, much less be a part of the local tribe of families who owned and showed Apps. I was never competitive enough for that to matter but I could see both sides of the coin. Maybe by now there are ‘state level’ awards for those who live in the state itself, or home-breds, I don’t know, that’s not my wheelhouse anymore, so maybe not.
Tell how Mandy being a Non Pro is any different than that kid 30 years ago with all the money in the world at her disposal to buy and ride the best, with the best?
So have you tried to become a committee member or a board member? Have you attended any of those meetings? And in the pat 10 years, there has only been ONE rule change proposal submitted to make a non pro who has earned over a million a professional rider.
There have been 2-3 submissions for an amateur rule (similar to NCHA) but it was so poorly written that there was no way it could pass as written.
And Mandy can’t discuss the sale of a horse? Only pros can sell horses? You are not helping your case with statements like that.
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