RIDIN’ FROM SCRATCH

BRED FOR A PURPOSE.

BY CHRISTINE HAMILTON, FIELD EDITOR 

Jake Dahl of Fort Collins, Colorado, rides his third generation homebred and trained gelding Slidin Starlight in the amateur reining preliminaries.

When Jake Dahl turned 14, his dad promised him a mare and a gelding from the Spanish Ranch northwest of Elko, Nevada. He didn’t know then that gift would get him to the AQHA World Championship Show almost 20 years later.

Out of about 100 head of 2-year-olds, yearlings and weanlings he picked out a gelding and a little mare named Miss Nevada Cro Bar. They paid $300 for the two of them. Miss Nevada Cro Bar, was by Go For Two, a son of running champions Go Man Go and Josie’s Bar.

“I kept sorting off ones that I liked, and she kept standing out,” he said. “I liked how she was built, and it seemed like she had a good disposition, and my dad agreed with me. I took her home and learned how to start a horse from scratch on her.”

Fast forward to 1999. Jake had been hired as farm manager for Royal Vista Equine in Fort Collins, Colorado. His wife, Heather, was in veterinary school at Colorado State University.

Jake needed a new rope horse. On their limited budget he had to raise one from the stock he had: a daughter of Miss Nevada Cro Bar named Tranquilla Nevada that he raised. Heather had been showing “Teva” in reining.

Bred to Junior Starlight, a son of Grays Starlight, Teva produced Slidin Starlight, aka “Slider,” in 2000.

“I really wanted a horse that would do everything: A horse I could go push cattle on, I could go rope on, whatever I wanted to do,” Jake said. “But I never dreamed that I’d rein on him.”

Heather suggested Jake try it with Slider, and after they won the very first reining class they entered, he was hooked. In 2005, Jake and Slider qualified for the National Reining Horse Association Rookie of the Year competition at the NRHA Futurity in Oklahoma City.

After the Rookie of the Year, Heather made another suggestion: Why not try to qualify Slider for the World Show?

“I credit Heather for getting me outside my bubble,” Jake said with a smile. “If it were up to me, I’d just be team roping and going to local jackpots. Coming to the World Show would be the furthest thing from my mind.”

But he made it, even around a busy breeding farm work schedule.

“I’ve had a lot of good luck,” he said. “I don’t get to ride every day with my job. Sometimes it might be two or three weeks.”

Jake and Slider were No. 52 in the preliminaries go-order, and scored a 205.5, not what Jake had hoped. He really couldn’t see what they minused on because a little boy in the stands accidentally pulled the cord on the video feed just before his go.

But he made it to the World Show. Heather and Jake’s parents, Jeof and Karen, were on hand to watch him ride. And his homegrown and hometrained partner carried him there.

“I’m proudest that I bred him for a purpose, and he’s fulfilled that purpose,” Jake said. “I’ve taken him on cattle drives; I can go rope on him; I can rein on him; I can go out and trail ride. He is what I wanted."