NRHA PROFESSIONAL KACI O'ROURKE MADE HISTORY WITH HER NRHA LEVEL 4 OPEN FUTURITY CHAMPIONSHIP ON THE FIREMEN
ARTICLE BY LARRI JO STARKEY
The crowd's screams never slackened. With each turn, stop, back and circle, The Firemen drew more cheers. With each maneuver, he seemed stronger and more powerful. By the time he finished his last stop, the crowd's roars of approval drowned out any other sound in the arena as people leaped to their feet.
Through the entire pattern, NRHA Professional Kaci O'Rourke concentrated on communicating with the 2021 stallion (Inferno 66 x Redhot Walla.) She's not even sure whether The Firemen could hear her voice for the final "whoa."
At the end of the ride, O'Rourke dismounted to give The Firemen a big hug and lead him out, and then she heard the score of 229 and fell to her knees in the arena.
The Firemen and O'Rourke had won.
They didn't just win. O'Rourke had become the first woman in NRHA history to win the MS Diamonds TX Level 4 Open Futurity.
"I'm speechless. I have no words." O'Rourke said, "It's just all been a blur, But I'm just so thankful for this horse, and I'm so thankful God placed him in my life, because he's incredible."
Before the evening was over, O'Rourke had signed her first autograph for a shy girl dreaming of being just like her.
The Winning Horse
The Firemen had less than $4,000 in earnings when he arrived in Oklahoma City. Just a month earlier, he had placed 23rd at the All American Quarter Horse Congress.
In the Futurity preliminaries and semifinals, he marked a 218 and a 224 for a 442 - tied for 18th place in the composite - but from the first time she stopped him hard, O'Rourke knew what the stallion could do.
"He's like nothing you've ever felt stopping," she said. "He's so smooth, It's so easy for him. I've never felt a horse like that up from that just melts into the ground."
Belief in the chestnut stallion ran deep. O'Rourke said she and her husband, NRHA Professional Jack Daniels, acquired The Firemen from breeder-nominator and NRHA Corporate Partner Tamarack Ranch LLC when "Thiago" was a yearling. "My husband started him," O'Rourke said. "My husband rode him his entire 2-year-old year. He was such a reactive, intense horse that he was challenging in the first month or two. And my husband just always believed in him and knew how special he was. And he told me from the very beginning that this horse was special, and he was kind enough to let me take him."
Peter and Courtney Morgan bought The Firemen and trusted O'Rourke and Daniels with the stallion's career and training.
"Peter and Courtney Morgan are like family to us," O'Rourke said. "They bought him in the fall of his 2-year-old year, and they promised us that we would get the opportunity to show him. The first time I showed him, we had a couple of bobbles, and we had some stuff to figure out, and they never doubted us. They always trusted in the plan. I'm just so thankful for that."
The Firemen is a sensitive horse, and he required special handling under saddle.
"He's like driving a Ferrari," O'Rourke said. "He's so intense, and he's so talented. Everything is so easy for him, but he's a horse that has to have a really strong relationship with the rider, and so he and I are pretty close. I thing that's what kind of got us through [the finals run]. I have no idea how he could hear me, to be honest, because it was so loud.
"I was just praying that he was going to stay with me, and as I was going through my run, I kept thinking, 'Wow. He's there. He's there.' Every time I asked something of him, he was like, 'Yep, I'm here.' He gave me confidence throughout the run."
The Firemen's sire, Inferno SixySix, was the 2015 NRHA Level 4 Open Futurity Reserve Chamion with NRHA Million Dollar Rider Franco Bertolani. The Firemen's dam, Redhot Walla, is a broodmare for Tamarack Ranch.
"I had a plan after the Southwest [Reining Horse Association Futurity] of how I wanted to prepare him,." O'Rourke said. "I stuck with the plan. I just wanted to keep him quiet and relaxed, and I just stuck to the plan 100% of what we were going to do. And it just paid off."
This was the first Futurity win for the Morgan's.
"We're absoloutely blessed and grateful," Courtney Morgan said. "It's absoloutely magical. I just wanted it to be her; she has worked so hard. They are great team members."
Thiago will be getting some time off before the team settles on next steps, but the horse will let them know what he wants to do next.
"He's healthy, he's sound, he's happy," O'Rourke said. "He's very expressive. You know what he's thinking before you even hop on him. My goal for this week was to just try to keep him in a really good frame of mind. I rode him without spurs multiple times this week. Keeping him calm and relaxed really paid off. Because, if you ask something of him, he'll give you 150% so you just need to ask for 50% and he'll give you 100%."
The Rider
O'Rourke grew up in Vermont and started riding reiners at age 8. After high school, she was on Oklahoma State University equestrian team for a semester before realizing she needed to follow her passion.
"When I was about 15, I realized I wanted to train horses," O'Rourke said. "A credit to my family, my mom and my dad, for never telling me I couldn't do anything. They instilled in me that I had to work for it. But they just encouraged me to always stick with it. If you're willing to work for it, you can make it happen."
She was an assistant trainer for NRHA $4 Million Rider Casey Deary and NRHA $5 Million Rider Craig Schmersal before joining forces with Daniels to create Pond Hill Performance Horses, reminiscent of her family's Pond Hill Ranch, in 2020.
"[Casey] was incredible," O'Rourke said. 'He fostered so much growth, [with] patience and time invested. I was fortunate enough to be with him when he won the Futurity on Shesouttayourleague. What an incredible experience, and I didn't think I would be in the same situation right now. And also [thanks to] Craig Schmersal for being patient with me and teaching me."
O'Rourke was the 2021 NRHA Becky Hanson Horsewoman of the Year - an honor given by her peers - and Daniels was the 2022 Up - And - Coming Professional of the Year. He was the first to the back gate to congratulate O'Rourke on her win.
"[My husband and I] go through things together," O'Rourke said. "He rides the horses as much as me, I mean, it's 100% of both of us. I'd like to thank my dad and my mom and my family for carting me around the horse shows when I was 13 years old. They've always told me that I could do anything, and they've been behind me 100%, and I really want to thank Peter and Courtney Morgan again, because they had opportunities to sell this horse, and they didn't. They wanted to give us the opportunity, and they stuck with it."
Since the win, O'Rourke has been taking the time to let the moment set in.
"I just would like [younger reiners] to know that if you want something, you have to be willing to work for it and stick to your dreams," she said. "It will come. Stay true to yourself."
In other words - believe."
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