S.D. mare wins at 2018 Ranch Horse World Championships
McClenahan
After intense competition in Guthrie, Okla., during the week of June 12, 2018, Mia Lil Pink was All-Around Horse at the 2018 National Ranch and Stock Horse Alliance World Championships (NRSHA) and third in the American Quarter Horse Association (AQHA) Versatility Ranch Horse World Championships All-Around Horse. On her way to the NRSHA world championship, she won the Open Ranch Cutting and was reserve in the Open Ranch Riding.
Mia Lil Pink is a seven-year-old mare owned by Long Pines Land and Livestock of Buffalo, S.D. This exceptionally talented mare is frequently in the winner’s circle. She was the 2018 Black Hills Stock Show (BHSS) Supreme Horse. In unprecedented fashion, she won the AQHA Open All-Around Versatility Ranch Horse for both 2017 and 2018 at the BHSS. At the age of six, she had already earned her AQHA Register of Merit (ROM).
“These ranch versatility competitions test a horse’s skills in cow work, reining, cutting, ranch riding and trail. Conformation also plays a role in the AQHA events,” says Deb Brown of Long Pines. Deb and her husband, Larry Licking, have developed a successful horse program, combining cow horse with speed bloodlines. For competition, Long Pines horses have found success with Justin Lawrence, Alzada, Mont., who trained and rode Pink to her versatility titles. In 2017, she was also the mount for Justin’s daughter, Dallie, in youth reined cow horse events.
Long Pines purchased Pink as a young prospect from Bill and Janiejill Tointon of Colorado. “We wanted a daughter of reined cow horse stallion Shining Lil Nic to add to our broodmares,” says Brown. “In fact, she’s coming home from Guthrie and going into the band with Bettin Yer Smart, our NRCHA (National Reined Cow Horse Association) national champion stallion.”
Long Pines Land & Livestock, based in northwestern South Dakota and southeastern Montana, is a family ranch where horses earn their way every day on the rangeland and in the arena. The ranch is also home to a prominent herd of registered Irish Black and Irish Red cattle. For more information, visit the ranch’s website at http://www.longpineslivestock.com.
– Long Pines Land & Livestock
