Get to Know Your Fellow Competitor – Scott Reinartz
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by Mackenzie Patterson
The horse is unbelievable in its power, athleticism, and ability to communicate and connect with humans on such a profound level. They’re beautiful creatures with tremendous intelligence, but, at the same time, they’re like huge puppy dogs,” says Scott Reinartz
Competing as an AQHA amateur in all-around events, Scott Reinartz participates in Trail, Horsemanship, Showmanship, Western Riding, Western Pleasure, Halter, and Pleasure Driving. He enjoys the diversity and wide range of disciplines that all-around competition offers for riders. “Trail is my favorite, but I also really love Pleasure Driving,” he says.
Reinartz currently competes in many different equestrian disciplines and had a varied past as well. “While I was in college, I rode Working Hunters. On the open exposition days, I would go over six-foot fences while riding a Grand Prix horse. I love the thrill of going over a big fence.” Reinartz also attended the University of Minnesota in Waseca where he studied Agricultural Business and Equine Management.
These days, one of Reinartz’s all-around horses, Investin A Goodbar, aka “Hank,” is predominantly a western horse but does very well in Pleasure Driving. “I think it’s quite rare to find a western horse participating and excelling in Pleasure Driving. He also does really well in Halter too, which is kind of unusual,” Reinartz says.
Because he has two horse trainers, located on opposite ends of the country, Reinartz is able to attend numerous shows from coast to coast each year. “Miya Childers [in Colorado] is my West Coast trainer, and Mark Stevens [in Florida] is my East Coast trainer. They each have one of my horses in training.”
Reinartz has been under the guidance of Childers for about seven years. “My senior horse, My Bar Passer, aka ‘Eddie,’ is kept in training with Miya in Colorado, where I used to live,” he says. Each month, Reinartz flies out to Colorado so he can practice with Eddie. “I actually didn’t want to buy Eddie at first. A friend of mine, who was getting out of showing horses, owned him. Eddie would turn around and bite my feet when I was riding him. I really didn’t like him. Looking back now, Reinartz is glad he let his trainer have the final say when deciding on his new equine partner. Eddie and Reinartz have had a lot of success together over the years, and Reinartz is happy to note that Eddie no longer bites his feet during rides!
“My second horse, Investin A Goodbar, aka ‘Hank,’ who is now a senior horse this year, lives on Mark’s farm in Florida,” Reinartz says. He currently lives in Ft. Lauderdale, so he is able to ride Hank five days a week under the guidance of Stevens.
When speaking about his riding schedule, Reinartz says, “I just go out and ride. I try to focus on understanding my horse to the best of my ability. The time that I spend riding is not too overly structured. Each ride is all about getting to know my horse better.” Reinartz shares that he spends a lot of time practicing transitions and pole work. He usually practices Showmanship about three times per week, and he works on Pleasure Driving once per week.
“When I first moved to Florida, I didn’t own Hank yet. I didn’t even have a horse down here. So, I asked Mark if he had a horse that I could ride in order to stay in ‘horse-riding’ shape. Mark then offered that I could start riding one of his horses, which was Hank. I fell in love with the horse, and I ended up buying him in October of 2013,” Reinartz says.
According to Reinartz, Childers and Stevens are different in regards to the lesson type and approaches they use to teach Reinartz about riding and showing horses. “Being able to learn from both Mark and Miya has given me a really nice balance when it comes to the knowledge I have gained as a rider and competitor.” Stevens works to teach his student to embrace the carefree, just-let-it-happen approach. Stevens often reminds Reinartz that there is always tomorrow, and he makes sure to ask what his student has learned from different situations. Childers, on the other hand, aims to instill the value of organization and preparedness in her client. She also continues to remind Reinartz that hard work will certainly pay off in the end.
“I tend to fly by the seat of my pants,” he says. “I have been known to get ready for my class when the one before mine is being placed. Then, I go running through the barn to catch my class at the last second. I have definitely almost given Miya a few heart attacks,” Reinartz shares with a guilty laugh.
While growing up in Austin, MN, Reinartz and his family raised and showed Black Angus cattle and Suffolk sheep. “I always had a passion for horses, but my family didn’t see any value in an animal that would only need to be fed endlessly,” he says.
Luckily, Reinartz’s neighbor had plenty of horses, and they generously let him ride. “They even let me show one of their horses at the Saddle Club shows,” he says.
When Reinartz was 15 years old, a friend of the family who raised Quarter Horses contacted him because she needed help getting 15 weanlings halter broke. “The deal was, if I helped her get all of the weanlings halter broke, I could choose two colts from the bunch to keep for myself,” Reinartz says.
After selecting a couple of the weanlings for himself, Reinartz worked very hard with the two young horses over the next couple of years. He eventually broke and trained both horses to ride, all on his own. “I used the knowledge that I had learned from riding with my neighbors when I was younger, but I mostly broke out the horses by trial and error,” Reinartz says.
After he finished breaking both of the colts, Reinartz decided to sell one of the horses and keep the other. The horse he decided to keep was named “Riddles,” a horse that later accompanied Reinartz to various open shows.
In 1999, Reinartz attended his very first AQHA show aboard Pleasuresmyhobby, aka “Opie,” in Albert Lea, Minnesota. “During my first two years of showing on the AQHA show circuit as a novice competitor, I did all of the prepping and training on my own,” he says. “Opie was one of my favorite horses that I owned. He loved to eat Doritos and drink Mountain Dew with me. Once, when I was at a show in Rochester, MN, Opie and I decided to have our usual snack while we were waiting for our next class. All of the sudden, my friend came up and told me I shouldn’t give my horse Mountain Dew because he might test positive for caffeine. I had no clue!” Reinartz shares with a laugh.
At his third show in 1999, Reinartz won the Novice All-Around title at the Corporate Challenge with Pleasuresmyhobby. “I was extremely humbled, happy, and excited! I really didn’t know it was that big of a deal in that moment, but the more I kept showing, the more I truly realized how huge it was to win that award,” he says.
Eventually, Reinartz decided he wanted to seek out some help and training from a professional and has been doing so since 2001.
Thanks to his time spent in the horse industry, Reinartz has gained a refreshing perspective on how to better himself when the competition doesn’t go exactly the way he’d hoped. “It’s just one single opinion on that given day,” he says. “The next horse show, or even tomorrow’s show day, is a whole new opportunity. If it’s in your blood, and if you’re crazy about showing horses, you’re definitely going to keep right on going.” Still, after all these years, Reinartz remembers how excited he would get after simply hearing his name being called out by the announcer at the end of a class.
Reinartz’s two favorite shows each year are the Silver Dollar Circuit and the Arizona Sun Circuit. “They are both really big shows with good competition, and the camaraderie is always nice. I like the fact that even though they are big shows, they don’t run all throughout the night, so everyone is able to enjoy their time and the nice weather,” he says. Some of Reinartz’s best memories outside of the show pen have come from the Seven Day Run in Iowa and the Silver Dollar Circuit in Las Vegas. “The ‘Run’ is fun because the pig exposition is going on at the same time, and the Silver Dollar Circuit is awesome because it’s in Vegas!” Reinartz says.
A couple of tougher moments during Reinartz’s show career happened at the AQHA World Show. During his first year at the World Show, Reinartz spun the wrong direction in his Horsemanship pattern. At his second World Show, Reinartz forgot to extend the jog in his Horsemanship pattern. “It was totally my nerves that messed me up both times,” he says. “I just needed to get the World Show jitters out of my system. The funny thing is, I can still remember both of those patterns perfectly to this day.”
“A few of the greatest accomplishments that Eddie [My Bar Passer] and I have had together were when we were finalists at the 2012 and 2013 World Show in Amateur Trail. He was also fourth place in Senior Trail at the 2014 World Show with Miya,” Reinartz says. He also mentions that he successfully showed Eddie to win the Amateur Champion title. “I really had to work hard to receive that award. It was a tough journey, especially to get him all of the Halter points.”
“Hank [Invest N Goodbar] and I had a lot of really great accomplishments during our first year of showing together as a team, and it was also Hank’s first full year of showing at all. I’m very proud.” Hank and Reinartz won sixth place at the 2014 World Show in Amateur Pleasure Driving. Also in 2014, Hank was the AQHA Reserve Junior Green Trail horse, placed third in the All-Around Junior Horse race, placed third in Junior Performance Halter Geldings, tied for first place in Junior Pleasure Driving, and made the Amateur All-Around Honor Roll.
While the accolades are wonderful, Reinartz says, “The best part about showing horses is in the combination of competitiveness that everyone has. At the same time, we are all like a big extended family. I think that, in general, everyone wants the best for everyone else.”
“The most important thing I could tell my fellow competitors is that you just have to keep doing it. It doesn’t matter how you’re placed in a particular class. We’re simply paying for somebody else’s opinion on that day. We all need to focus on judging how our own ride was. If you know that you’re making strides forward, that’s a personal win right there. It took me ten years of practice before I was able to make it to the World Show. Now, I’ve been there four times.”
“I hope to show at least until I’m 60 years old. Hopefully, I will have accomplished all of my goals by then.” In the future, Reinartz hopes to win a gold, silver, or bronze piece of hardware at the AQHA World Show. Keeping that in mind, Reinartz shares his ultimate motto as it relates to showing horses: “It isn’t all about the prize; it’s more about the ride.”
