Cara Hencratt Completes Dazzling NRCHA Futurity with Shiney Little Rock
QHN – Posted on October 23, 2021 byMoll y Montag
If there’s anything for the horse world to learn from Cara Hencratt’s dazzling run through the 2021 National Reined Cow Horse Association (NRCHA) Snaffle Bit Futurity, it’s that no matter what obstacles your horse faces going into the show – never give up on him.
The California trainer won the Level 1 Limited Open and Limited Open titles aboard Shiney Little Rock. They did that in spite of the fact that, going into the show she was simply hoping for clean runs because, “a week ago I couldn’t change leads on him.”
Something must have clicked once when Hencratt and the rest of the Lance Johnston Performance Horses crew got to Will Rogers Memorial Center, because Shiney Little Rock did his lead changes like a pro.
They won the Limited Open with a composite of 652 (217 herd/219 rein/216 cow). They won the Level 1 Limited Open earlier in the week.
“They kind of just need to peak at the right time and we got here and he peaked and it all kind of came together finally,” she said during a horseback interview following the Limited Open award ceremony Friday, Oct. 22. “It was perfecting timing.”
Hailing from Northern California, Hencratt is the daughter of a calf roper so she grew up in the world of rodeo. She started cutting in high school and started working for a cow horse trainer while attending Montana State, where she competed with the school’s rodeo team. She began working for trainer Lance Johnston about a year and a half ago.
The Johnston barn had an amazing showing at the NRCHA Snaffle Bit Futurity, especially in the hackamore classes. Hencratt and her boss, Lance Johnston, swept the hackamore classes at the show in the horse show and NRCHA Hackamore Classic: Johnston won the Open and Novice Open, and Hencratt won the Limited Open and Intermediate Open titles.
During Friday’s award ceremony, officials announced that between the hackamore and futurity classes, Hencratt had won roughly $80,000.
“I didn’t imagine it would go this well,” Hencratt said. “It’s been pretty fun.”
The $33,500 won by Shiney Little Rock in the Level 1 Limited Open and Limited Open makes him one of the leading earners sired by the stallion That CD Rocks (CD Lights x Shiney Tari x Shining Spark). He was raised by his owner and breeder, Paula Hardy Bremel, who was Hencratt’s mother’s college roommate and the rider said is like family to her.