A booming voice bellowed through the loudspeakers at the World Reining Masters Championships on Sunday afternoon, sending an estimated 1,000 fans into cheers.
“Prepare yourselves to take a trip down the yellow-brick road,” the announcer said as a scarecrow trotted into the arena on a horse.
The scarecrow was Angie Piccone from Milliken, competing in a sport known as reining, where trained horses are judged on required elements such as 360-degree spins and sliding stops.
Piccone chose “Follow the Yellow Brick Road” to perform with her horse Easy Dez It in the freestyle competition, which drew 14 riders from across the country. The ultimate winners were Terry Wegener of Bennett, who took home more than $2,000, and his horse Ct Reyn Mann.
Piccone has been a competitive reiner for five years. “I love to try to entertain the audience,” she said. She compared reining to figure skating because it requires routines, specific maneuvers and grace.
In addition to the freestyle reining, the six-day festival included four other major competitions, with participants from 16 countries.
Horse show manager Brad Ettleman said the sport of reining is “growing by leaps and bounds.” Ettleman said the festival was added because reining events sell out during the National Western Stock Show & Rodeo. Organizers also want reining to become an Olympic sport, a goal they hope to reach by 2012.
Amanda Summers, 14, of Colorado Springs was at the National Western Complex on Sunday to get petitions signed to create a horse-themed license plate and cheer on Shane Brown of Elbert, a rider and family friend.
“I really hope he wins,” Summers said, pointing to Brown and his horse, MJP Majestic Zan.
Brown dripped in fake blood and sported a knife through his head and a fake cut on his arm as he sat atop the horse. Yellow caution tape was attached like streamers to the horse’s tail and chocolate brown mane.
There’s a reason why Brown, a career horse trainer, looked like a zombie: He set his routine to The Who’s “Who are You,” now the theme to the popular and sometimes gruesome TV show “CSI.”
“This is the funner part of the career,” Brown said, “when you’re not training and you can get dressed up.”
Piccone and Brown were part of a three-way tie, placing sixth in the competition.
Brown had his sister, Ilena Nagel, in the arena wearing a navy CSI jacket and clutching a flashlight.
“I love the theatrics of it,” she said. “It’s to die for.”
Staff writer Karissa Marcum can be reached at 303-954-1858 or kmarcum@denverpost.com.
