he surprise wasn’t reallythat Fappani had won theLucas Oil NRHA Level 4Open Futurity, but the sur-prise was what horse he

won it on, and how he did it. Spooky Whiz joined the Fappani

training barn at the end of his 2 year oldyear after Fappani purchased himthrough agent Eduardo Salgado forRancho Oso Rio, an NRHA MillionDollar Owner. While the dark baygelding was a bit on the small size,Fappani could tell, even at an early age,that he had exactly the mind he waslooking for. “What I liked was his mind,” recalls

Fappani. “As a 2 year old he was verymature, and you could tell he took dif-ferent things that he wasn’t used to andhandled them well. That’s what I’mlooking for when I train young horses.”Fappani points out that while there

are plenty of horses with loads of talent,the ones that have the mind to go withtheir talent are the true gems. Afterjoining the ranch, Fappani went towork on the Spooks Gotta Gun stallion.At the first few shows, Fappani leftSpooky Whiz intact intact because hewas just easy to train and willing towork. But once they started to hit theshow pen, Fappani was able to work onwhat the horse seemed to need most—consistency. “He did surprise me at the pre futuri-

ties because I thought he was moremature mind-wise than he actually was,”

says Fappani. “He was confident at homeduring all the training. I’m glad I tookhim to some of the earlier shows becauseit took quite a bit of work for him to settlein. He showed and was consistent withscores, he’d be in the 18s and 19s, but henever felt like he was locked in all theway.”After competing at the High Roller

Reining Classic and the All AmericanQuarter Horse Congress, Fappani stillfelt that the colt wasn’t 100 percent. Afterdiscussing it with his owners, knowingthat Spooky Whiz was purchased to bea show horse and not a stallion prospect,Fappani had Spooky Whiz gelded rightafter the Congress. “I felt that maybe some of his distrac-

tions in the show pen were coming fromthe hormones,” says Fappani. Two weeks later, the two hit the show

pen at the Burbank Reining ChallengeFuturity and Fappani immediately felt adifference. “I think he was more confident

(after being gelded) than he wasbefore,” he says.

Getting the MostIt’s that thought process that has

helped Fappani be as successful as hehas in the reining pen. Fappani prideshimself on individualizing his time andefforts with each horse he rides andspends every day figuring out how to getthe most out of each horse. “It takes time and it takes commit-

ment,” he says. “I get on every horse

In flashy style, NRHA Four Million Dollar Rider Andrea Fappani slid onto the sceneand surprised everyone with his win at the 2016 NRHA Futurity.

Getting The MostFrom Your Horse

TBY MEGAN ARSZMAN

T R A I N E R T A L K

"When you lookat the horses that winthe Futurity, it’s not allplus one maneuvers,but it’s who is consistentand who does it timeand time again."

Andrea Fappaniand Spooky Whiz

BEE SILVA

with an open mind—I don’t get on ahorse with a plan of what I’m doing thatday. I ride 13-15 horses a day and I letthem tell me what we need to work on.”Fappani says that while he might have

a certain style to each of his horses, hedoesn’t really have much of a trainingprogram that he sets each horse on.“My main thing is I try to think

every time I get on a horse: How old

is this horse? How much work has hehad? How much pressure can hehandle? How much pressure does heneed? What kind of mind does hehave?” he says. “You might know thehorse because you’ve been riding himfor six months, but it doesn’t matter,because a horse is an animal and one daycan be different from the other. So, I needto get on every day and make sure that

horse tells me where I’m at todayand what I need to do withhim.”Fappani points out that it

takes time to learn how to getyour horse to peak at the righttime. He admits that when hewas younger he’d have horsesfeeling great in Septemberand October, but not havethat spark come end of No-vember. He says it’s notreally physical fitness andendurance, but mental forboth horse and rider. “(Reining) is about thinkinga lot, not just going throughthe motions and riding,” hesays. “A lot of people think it’sphysical for a horse to stop plusone or turn plus one, but it’sreally not about that. When youlook at the horses that win theFuturity, it’s not all plus-one ma-

neuvers, but it’s who is consistent andwho does it time and time again. You don’ttrain to go win, you prepare yourself to goand do the best you can with that horse.”

The RomalFappani knew that Spooky Whiz was

feeling good throughout the Futurity go-rounds. He had made the decision toshow a little outside of the box when itcame to the little gelding. He brought outhis trusted romal reins, just to see howhe would perform under the bright lights. When Fappani first came to the

United States, he spent six yearstraining with Todd Bergen. It was withBergen that he learned the fine art oftraining, and showing, in romal reins.When Fappani went out on his own,he continued to use the romal reins fortraining as a way to help young horsesbe more comfortable with going one-handed. “I use them a lot in training,” he

says. “The West Coast way of traininguses a lot of romals, not so muchbecause of tradition, but because of themeaning of the romal.”Fappani explained that, typically

with 3 year olds, the romals are usedfor three to four months to make surethe horses are used to neck reining andbeing trained one-handed. He feels thatusing the romal reins helps the horseknow where he needs to go and cangrow in confidence because you helpguide him a little as he’s younger andadjusts easier to one-handed riding. In Spooky Whiz’s case, Fappani

never felt like the horse was confidentbeing ridden one-handed in split reinsat the earlier events. So while at theBurbank Challenge Futurity, he

T R A I N E R T A L K

decided to use the romal reins toschool a little in the show pen. “I decided to kick my hand a little

higher and guide him a little better atBurbank, and that made such a hugedifference,” he says. In Oklahoma City, Fappani told his

wife, Tish, that he was going to see ifhe could show Spooky Whiz in theromals in the go-rounds. “I wasn’t sure if the judges were

going to score him or not, but I knewthe horse was going to feel a lot betterwith the romal reins because he feelsmore confident,” he says. The first go saw a score of 219.5 for

the pair, and Fappani felt that was afair score for how the gelding per-formed, so he decided to show in thesecond go-round with the romal reins.Another score of 219.5 meant Fappaniwas onto something. “I know some people were worried

that maybe he wouldn’t get a properscore because some judges aren’t usedto seeing reiners show in romals, but Ifelt it was the best thing for my horse,”he says. Fappani explained that the main dif-

ference between showing in romalreins and split reins, one-handed, isthat the horse feels the reins on hisneck a little more than he would thesplit reins because of the hand place-ment. Turning your hand the oppositeof how you would normally hold reinsactually lifts the reins about two tothree inches up on the horse’s neck.Fappani feels this gives the youngerhorses a little more balance, and thehorse feels like he has a little moreguidance from you. “When I show in romals though, I

have my hand a little lower (thannormal) so the judges see I’m nothelping myself too much,” he explains.

Futurity ChampionsWhatever it was, it worked. Spooky

Whiz was one of the last rides of theOpen Finals, and after the dust settledand the crowd had quieted, Fappaniheard the words that every riderhopes to hear … ‘the score’ … and itwas a 225.5!

“I knew he probably had the best runof the finals,” says Fappani. “Winning(the NRHA Futurity) is a differentfeeling—you could win the NRHADerby, you could win the NRBC, butthe Futurity takes so much work. It’snot the eight months leading up to it,it’s two years, and there are so manydisappointments. The owners put a lotof money and hope into you, and mostof the time it doesn’t work out. Butwhen it does work out, it just makes itworth it. It’s almost a relief. I’ve won ita couple times before, and I’m sureguys that have never won it are lookingfor that feeling, but it never changes for

me. It makes you get up and work.”Spooky Whiz was reportedly pur-

chased by Kelly Moran and her familyas a non pro horse. Moran and hertrainer, NRHA Professional TracerGilson, will be aiming Spooky Whiz forthe major derbies with Moran in thestirrups. “He’s going to be a great non pro

horse,” says Fappani. “The best thingabout that horse is his mind, andthat’s what you want in a non prohorse. You want him to wait for youand not be ahead of you. As broke ashe is, he’s the poster child for a nonpro horse.” F

DAWN BAXSTROM