The
National Reining Horse Association (NRHA), the governing body of the sport or
Reining, has reached a milestone achievement in the Association’s history – the
50,000th competition license.
Kiowas Lil Diamond, owned by Tobyann Faingold,
was assigned license #550,000 on July 1, 2008. The first license issued was #500,001.
It was assigned in 1990 to Electric Coffee, currently owned by John Rosi. The
most recent milestone was license #540,000 in 2006 to Red Smarties, owned by Eric
Mercier.
“We
are very excited to see monumental growth in the number of horses licensed to
compete at NRHA events. Nearly 25% of all licenses have been issued in the past
two years. I think that is a tremendous indicator of the growth and excitement
in the reining industry,” said NRHA Executive Director Dan Wall. “As the governing
body of the sport, we are proud to see reining expand and improve not only here
in the states, but also all over the world.”
All horses competing in NRHA
events are required to have a license. NRHA competition licenses are permanent
when issued to each horse. The licenses do not need to be renewed each year. However,
they should be transferred to update ownership when a horse is purchased or sold.