McKenzie McBride, who won the NCHA Western Nationals $15,000 Amateur go-round with 219 points on Wednesday, June 27, topped herself on Thursday with a 220.5-point winning run in the finals. She was riding Indian Clay, the horse she also showed as a finalist in the Senior Youth finals, last Saturday.

Hailey Schafer, Queen Creek, Ariz., scored 219 points on Smart Chula Dual to earn the reserve championship, while Audrey O’Connor, Parker, Colo., placed third with 216 points on Halion and tied (10/13) with 212 on High Rey Of Freckles.

Last year, McKenzie McBride, Fort Lupton, Colo., won the NCHA Denver Nationals $2,000 Limited Rider championship on RM Lightning Merada, and placed in the Senior Youth with Sleeper Cat. Nine-year-old Indian Clay LTE $32,380, by Hickorys Indian Pep, is owned by Paula Platt, Fort Lupton, Colo. McKenzie McBride is the NCHA earner of $5,913.

Hailey Schafer and Smart Chula Dual also placed (10th) in the $2,000 Limited Rider finals earlier in the show. Last year, Schafer and her 14-year-old Chula Dual-sired gelding placed third in the $2,000 Limited Rider Mercuria NCHA World Finals, as well as sixth in the same division of the NCHA Scottsdale Nationals.

Smart Chula Dual is the NCHA earner of $15,154; Schafer has NCHA earnings of $15,514.

Audrey O’Connor, Parker, Colo., the earner of $9,035, placed in the finals of the 2015 NCHA Western Nationals $15,000 Amateur division riding A M Wild Aggies, by Wild Haired Cat. Her mounts this year were 8-year-old Halion LTE $21,467, by Halreycious, and 5-year-old High Rey Of Freckles LTE $22,760,  by Dual Rey. High Rey Of Freckles previously placed second as a 3-year-old in the 2016 Western States Fall Futurity Open under Tarin Rice, and as a finalist (7th) in the West Texas Futurity Open. In 2017, she placed third with Rice in the Western States Fall Futurity.