BY TONYA RATLIFF-GARRISON, JOURNAL FIELD EDITOR
For the third year in a row, Rita Crundwell has won the Oklahoma City Leading Owner Award. The Dixon, Illinois, comptroller had horses in 21 AQHA World Championship Show classes and took home five gold trophies.
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| Oklahoma City Convention & Visitor's Bureau Commission Chairman Mike Farney presented the Oklahoma City Leading Owner award to Rita Crundwell. |
The reserve leading owner went to Peter J. Cofrancesco Jr. Estate of Sparta, New Jersey. The Cofrancescos have been named leading owners at the World Show five times.
Rita’s world championships were in junior hunter hack with Thumptin Jazzy; yearling stallions with Acoolest; aged mares with Phenomenal Ms; amateur 2-year-old geldings with Im In Touch; and amateur aged stallions with Reflections Kid.
“This is wonderful,” Rita said shortly after being presented the award by Oklahoma City Convention & Visitor's Bureau Commission Chairman Mike Farney. “It means the horses are doing good.”
What made the award extra special this year for Rita was that many of the horses she brought were homegrown.
“The yearling colt, Acoolest, was probably one of my favorite wins,” she said. “I sold his mother and she was a three-time world champion. So he was kind of special.”
Another exceptional win was Thumptin Jazzy winning junior hunter hack with AQHA Pro Horseman Sandy Vaughn aboard.
“I raised that mare, and that was extra special,” Rita said. “It was really a great day. I knew Sandy was in it right after the halter. I was tearing down the stalls and listening for the results. I didn’t hear her number, and I thought, ‘Oh, my gosh. She must have done really bad or really good.’ When it got to like the fourth place, and I hadn’t heard her number, I thought I better get down there. She might have gotten lucky in the top three and here she wins it.”
Rita keeps the broodmares and babies at her farm, which is about 100 miles west of Chicago, while the stallions and some of the show horses stay at Meri-J Ranch in Beloit, Wisconsin. Her longtime friend, Jim McKillips, manages the ranch for her.
She sends most of her halter horses to Ross Roark in Monahans, Texas, and Buddy Laney in Cherryville, North Carolina. Both are AQHA Professional Horsemen. Her hunter horses go to Sandy and she has a horse in training for trail and western riding at Tom and Leslie Lange’s in Greeley, Colorado.
And what are Rita’s goals for next year’s World Show?
“Just try to bring some good horses back again,” she said with a smile.
