Gavin Callahan, McConnells, S.C., scored a resounding 227-point win on Sunday, March 7, riding Time N Tequila LTE $184,174 in the NCHA Eastern National Championship Senior Youth Finals. Faith Farris, Midway, Tex., earned the reserve championship with 221.5 points on Big Shoes To Phil LTE $57,526, and Karrigan Audrey Cagley, Kentwood, La., placed third with 219.5 points aboard Little Sweet Spot LTE $116,865.
Gavin Callahan, the NCHA earner of $50,380, won the 2018 NYCHA Junior Youth World Finals on Time N Tequila, and also showed him as a finalist in the 2020 Augusta Non-Pro Championship. Bred by Matthews Cutting Horses, the 11-year-old One Time Pepto gelding is owned by Gavin’s sister Gracen Callahan, who showed him as a finalist in the 2020 Augusta Amateur Championship. Time N Tequila had also been a consistent Amateur and Non-Pro limited age event finalist for former owner Mike Schraeder, Tomball, Tex.
Hot Dona LTE $49,816 gave Gavin Callahan his richest win, when he showed the Boon Too Suen daughter to win the 2019 NCHA Eastern Nationals $35,000 Non-Pro championship.
Faith Farris, the NCHA earner of $51,493, showed Big Shoes To Phil as a finalist in last year’s NCHA Eastern Nationals Senior Youth, as well as a finalist in the 2020 NCHA Senior Youth World Finals. Together, Faith and the High Brow Cat gelding have reached the finals in five major Senior Youth events.
Bred by Waco Bend Ranch and owned by Mitch Farris, 8-year-old Big Shoes To Phil is out of the Dual Pep daughter Tapt Twice LTE $279,457, the dam of earners of over $1.4 million, including Big Shoes To Phil’s full sister Dont Look Twice LTE $824,546, 2011 NCHA Horse of the Year and 2012 NCHA Open World Champion.
Faith Farris’s first big win came aboard Reytheon LTE $216,539, as Junior Youth champion of the 2017 NCHA Scottsdale Nationals, the same year that she also won the AQHYA Cutting on Quite The Fat Cat LTE $247,925.
Karrigan Audrey Cagley, the NCHA winner of $136,169, was the 2014 World Champion in the $15,000 Amateur. She won the $50,000 Amateur at Augusta in 2016 on Little Sweet Spot LTE $116,865. She has been a finalist six times in various divisions at the NCHA Eastern Nationals, on DMAC Spoonalena LTE $45,606, Little Sweet Spot, Hip Playboy LTE $129,759, Looks Halreycious LTE $119,044 and See Da Cat LTE $148,246.
Her 14-year-old Spots Hot gelding Little Sweet Spot was bred by DMI Land & Cattle. At three, Little Sweet Spot won the Music City 3-Year-Old Futurity Non-Pro Limited and placed second in the Non-Pro under Lauren Minshall, who continued to show him successfully in limited age event competition, and as a Non-Pro finalist in the 2013 NCHA Eastern Nationals.
The NCHA Eastern National Championships Presented by 6666 Ranch continue through March 13, 2021.