BY HOLLY CLANAHAN, AMERICA’S HORSE
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| AQHA President Frank Howell and Bobbie Steenbergen of the Oklahoma City Chamber of Commerce present the leading owner award to Rita Crundwell. |
Rita Crundwell of Dixon, Illinois, had horses in 21 World Show classes, and she took home four gold trophies. Those impressive numbers were enough to earn her the OKC Leading Owner Award for the second year in a row.
Her world champions were: Execute in amateur yearling stallions; Jewels By Tiffany in amateur 2-year-old mares; and She Scores in amateur aged mares and open aged mares. Crundwell also had horses competing in western pleasure, English events and roping.
The reserve leading owner award went to the Peter J. Cofrancesco Jr. Estate of Sparta, New Jersey. The Cofrancescos, who have been named leading owners at the World Show five times, earned three reserve world championships this year.
To put a fresh spin on this award, the Journal wanted to give Crundwell, a veteran of numerous “winning run” interviews, the opportunity to talk about her 2005 experience in her own words. Her thoughts follow:
Q: You had horses in 21 classes. (She showed in 10 amateur classes; the rest were open classes in which her horses were shown by others.) So how much time did you end up spending in the World Show arena?
A: Probably 50 percent of my time. Most of the halter classes ran between 45 minutes and an hour and a half, so yeah, a lot of time!
Q: Which would you rather do, show your own horses or watch someone else doing it?
A: I think I get more nervous watching them show, because it’s like you don’t have any control over anything that’s happening. And I guess I’d rather be out there doing it.
Q: Of the world championships your horses won this year, is there one that’s more special?
A: This year, there were probably three. I was world champion with my yearling stud colt. His name is Execute, and I raised him. I showed his father (Mr Touchdown Kid) and was world champion with his father. And also my aged mare She Scores, she’s retired after this show. I was world champion with her, and she was also world champion in the open. And out of the 10 judges, she had nine firsts and one second. She’s a seven-time world champion.
Q: Let me ask you about your Journal ads. In the World Show program, your ads all featured a black cat. What’s the significance of that?
A: I didn’t have anything to do with it! It’s my ad lady! It’s kind of a retro thing, I think. She is a good gal, and she does all that for me.
Q: And then you’ve got farm manager Jim McKillips sitting on a donkey to advertise your production sale. What’s the story behind that?
A: Shane Rux flew to Wisconsin to do pictures for us. We used the donkey to get the horses’ ears up, as a prop. And if you know Jim, he’s always on the telephone. So when we were done, Shane just laughed, and Jim hopped on the donkey and he was talking on the phone, and Shane snapped that shot. Then we started having the production sale, and we just used that for the ads. We’ve had a lot of fun with it.
Q: Between the Journal interviews and the other media outlets that want to talk to you, you’ve probably done a million interviews. What’s the hardest question you’ve been asked?
A: The hardest interview was, I think, after the aged mares. I could barely talk (because of the emotion).
Q: What’s the most frequently asked question you get?
A: How does it feel to win?
Q: And do you have a standard answer?
A: Yeah, it always feels great.
