Shown by Darren Simpkins for her Super Stakes Non-Pro Finals rider, Lisa Hewitt, the Cats Red Feather daughter scored 220.5 points, as the first horse in the second set of the 20-horse Open Finals and gave Simpkins his first NCHA Triple Crown event win.
The score to beat was 217 points, marked by Sticky Spot and Mackie Hursh in the first set, a score that would be duplicated, after Olenasduallyfeather’s run, by SVR Reyl Smart, with Beau Galyean, and Moms Stilish Cat, with Clint Allen — a reserve championship triumverate.
“From the first round to the second round and then in the semis, she felt really good,” said Simpkins, who was catch-riding Olenasduallyfeather for co-reserve champion Clint Allen.
“After Lisa’s run in the Non-Pro Finals, we just worked her on the flag a little bit.”
Olenasduallyfeather prevailed through eight performances between Friday, April 8 and the Non-Pro and Open Finals on April 16.
Bred by Jon Cates, Weatherford, Texas, Olenasduallyfeather was three and in training with Sean Flynn, when Hewitt first spotted her.
“She was quite green at the time, but you could just see her talent through and through,” said Hewitt, who had come to the States from Australia to learn to show as a non-pro and was working for Flynn.
“She really had an impressive move even then. She goes into a stop and crouches and waits to see what a cow is going to do before she does it.
“She has a big move, but she can control it at the same time, and that’s what I saw the first day.”
Hewitt’s family owns cattle ranches in Australia, where they compete in the demanding sport of camp drafting, which requires that a contestant cut a cow; run it through a course that includes figure eight turns; and finally drive it through a gate, all within 40 seconds.
“I remember the first time I ever showed a cutting horse, Sean asked me when I got done, if I was nervous,” said Hewitt. “I wasn’t at first because when you campdraft you use a snaffle bit with two hands. Then I got in the (cutting) herd and realized that I had to get one of those out with no hands.”
Simpkins, resident trainer for Slate River Ranch, is also from Australia, but met Hewitt for the first time in the States. Clint Allen is a former New Zealander.