- MATT MILLS: The Run for a Million,
world-class reiners, million-dollar purse.
Never been heard of, we've never run at money like that.
- TAYLOR SHERIDAN: The ten highest-scoring riders
at the Cactus are going to the Run for a Million,
they will qualify.
- I'm gonna try to qualify for the million.
- Yeah!
- FEMALE PA ANNOUNCER: . - Yeah!
- TAYLOR: So many riders qualified
for the Run for a Million,
Craig Schmersal, Brian Bell, Casey Deary, Gina Schumacher,
and now they're facing off against the five riders
who qualified in the last sh**t,
for a total of riders.
- Missing the Run for a Million qualifier
at the Cactus was very very hard for me,
now I'm gonna try for the one in Las Vegas.
- CRAIG: SCHMERSAL: You just never know
in our sport when magic can happen.
You have a bunch of guys and gals that are super competitive.
I take everybody seriously.
Whoever walks through the gate, they got a sh*t,
I think you're a fool to count anybody out.
- *
- *
- ANDREA FAPPANI: I got sent out on my own
pretty early and I came here, and by the time I was ,
I pretty much would consider myself an adult.
Not that I wasn't making stupid mistakes or anything,
but still, I think that I was mature enough
to be considered an adult. I don't know if my kids,
my kids might be a little bit too protected,
I think I might have spoiled them
a little bit too much.
- TAYLOR: Andrea Fappani, he is at his peak.
He's as talented a rider as I've ever seen.
He's extremely stylish, he's real tough to get around
in the show pen, because he is so dramatic, he rides dramatic.
When he walks in the show pen, everybody's looking.
- ANDREA: So I've been really lucky,
I've been one of the top competitors for a long time,
I've won a little bit over six million dollars
in these years,
made all the finals of all the major events,
we still hold the record for the highest score
ever marked in reining, which is and a half.
- The biggest competition is Andrea,
he's been the number one rider,
probably four out of the last five years.
He wins everything.
- CASEY DEARY: It's really, really tough to b*at him.
A lot of times he comes off as, you know,
not being approachable, but he's just very, very driven,
and very, very focused.
- TAYLOR: This is a business to Andrea,
and that's why he's always in the top,
he's not there to make friends.
- ANDREA: I'm very serious and hard to get to know,
so you know, I might come out as an ass at the horse shows,
just because I don't have a smile on my face
printed all the time, but to me, it's who I am.
Luca's my son, he's going to turn this year.
- Pretty much every day, I'll wake up,
at around : and come ride one horse in the morning,
before school.
Then straight from here, I'll go to school.
- You know, he's wanting to learn more about training,
I think this summer he's going to spend
just the summer training some of the horses here
and I'm going to give him some guidance,
and really spending some time with it.
- His name's Ice Cube.
He's been here is whole life, he was born here,
and he's never left,
so he's a pretty special horse for me and my family.
My dad's shown him and my mom's shown him.
He's just been a really good horse for us,
so he's very, very special to ride.
- ANDREA: Luca's still, I mean he's only really been showing
and riding for five years, seriously, so I've had to,
I'm still very involved in the process there
It takes quite a bit more time with him,
which is part of it, I mean that's how my dad did it with me
and that's how the trainers that I work with did it with me,
they spent time, and that's the only way he's gonna learn.
- My dad is the most hands-on trainer in the industry,
and I can tell you that.
I think his work ethic is better than anyone.
I've just watched him go through a lot in his career.
- ANDREA: You can't expect to win every time,
but the one that stuck with me is two years ago
when we had the first Run for the Million.
- [cheers and applause] - MALE ANNOUNCER: There we go.
- ANDREA: First season of the Run for the Million--
- MALE ANNOUNCER: A little rough right there.
- ANDREA: I came out with a ,
and they won it with a and a half.
I move on pretty quickly,
that one it took me a while to move on.
I've won most of the major events.
For me now, my goal is to win the Run for the Million.
He's all full of himself, now.
Look at him with the knock on his back.
- TISH: He's got a hump in his back right now.
- ANDREA: Think he saw Jeremy.
- TISH: Hey buddy. - JEREMY: Hey, Mom.
- TISH: How was the ride? - JEREMY: [unintelligible]
- TISH: She's the last one. I'm gonna go in the office
and get some stuff knocked out, and then come home and shower
and we'll take off.
- ANDREA: How's that new bike? Looks cool.
- JEREMY: Yeah. It's way faster than the other one.
- Jeremy's my other, younger son.
He's a motocross racer,
he got picked up by an official motocross amateur team,
so obviously he is doing something right here
in this last year.
Good luck over there. - Yeah.
- Ride hard.
It's been hard for both Tish and I these last four or five years,
she's been on the road quite a bit more with Jeremy.
I'll see you in a couple days.
Love you. - JEREMY: Love you.
- I can tell you that it hasn't been easy,
it's created some challenges between us,
but it's a way of life, it's teaching the kids hard work
and what it takes to really excel at anything.
- TISH: Andrea, he works really hard,
and he's kinda passing it on to his boys, that's for sure.
- ANDREA: Don't use your weight to slow him down,
use your hand, make him listen to your hand.
What I love about my career, it was the process to get there.
I couldn't have done it without Tish,
she's involved in everything that I do,
she's a huge part of our success in the business.
So we met, when I first came to the States,
I was a non-pro for a year, and she was a non-pro also.
We're very, very different. She's a lot more patient,
I'm a lot more, "Now, we gotta get it done now."
We kind of compliment each other.
- TISH: Hey Juan, I got your money,
let me go get it and give it to you.
I paid everybody else. - JUAN: Okay.
- And also she's really good with clients.
For me, to be honest, I've had to learn the social skills.
All I've learned from since I was five years old
was the horse skills. I know how to talk to a horse,
I can't talk to a person very good.
- LUKE: How come you're on him?
- ANDREA: He needs to get broke.
Pretty much every day, I'll get up at :,
be here by : on a horse,
and then basically all day long it's a grind.
- LUCA: He's a perfectionist, which I like,
and he's just dedicated to every single horse,
that's the difference, I think.
- ANDREA: I ride, ride, ride, ride, 'til nighttime,
and then go home, cook dinner, go to bed.
I'm riding between to horses a day,
which when you do it for that many years,
you can feel it, by the time you get to , horses,
you definitely feel a little bit wore out,
but that's when you gotta push through it.
Speed him up a little faster.
Let him go a little faster.
There you go.
I think that most people will think that it's all about me,
but I don't put myself first,
my family's the most important thing,
the horses are the second most important thing,
my career is probably the third one,
so maybe some people get that wrong, but I don't really care.
- *
- MALE: Happy birthday. - MATT MILLS: Thank you.
It's my birthday.
- Do you know that he was gonna be a firefighter?
- Yeah, yeah, I passed a physical, everything.
That was gonna be my side gig.
- If there is a riverboat gambler in our game,
it is Matt Mills.
He's as pretty a rider as there is,
and he only has one speed. And that's top speed.
- MATT: The first Run for a Million
was like this unheard of thing,
we've never run at money like that,
and I mean, it just, it created a frenzy.
It was more than any of us could imagine.
- ANNOUNCER: Look at the crowd, look at them!
Oh my god!
Ladies and gentlemen, Matt Mills!
- MATT: I run in there, and this horse stopped amazing.
- ANNOUNCER: He just stopped that horse
all the way to Arizona.
- MATT: It was incredible. Turned really, really good.
- ANNOUNCER: Wow. - MATT: And I'm running circles,
and the crowd is going absolutely nuts.
You could feel the energy, and then I go to the middle,
to do a transition from fast to slow circle.
- FEMALE ANNOUNCER: Oh no, no.
- MALE ANNOUNCER: Oh, break of gait.
- MATT: And the horse just stumbles,
I mean, kinda as a competitor, you're like,
"Well maybe nobody saw it," and then you just hear that,
"Uhh," from the crowd, and you know,
"Alright, everybody saw it, it happened."
Then it's over like that.
Just walking out of the arena, I mean,
that's the longest walk in, I'd say in probably sports.
I mean, you gotta walk all the way out of the arena
knowing that you missed the mark by a mile,
I mean that's, that's a tough one, you know?
I mean, there's no getting around it,
there's no other way to describe it,
it's not a good feeling, at all.
I finished dead last, you know?
Right in the bottom spot, but that's the nature of the game.
I gotta tell you, it is nice to know
that I'm qualified for the Run for a Million.
- I'm really glad. Really, really glad.
- MATT: If you saw where I grew up,
you'd be like, there is no way that I should be competing
at an event like the Run for a Million,
and I'm proof that you can do it and I really, really love
inspiring people to get out and do things for with their horses.
So we're gonna ride tomorrow at :, : a.m.--
- : a.m.
- Which I'm gonna promise you, there's not gonna be
very many rookies out there riding at :.
Emma's my stepdaughter, she's , she's a hairstylist.
Emma's gonna be riding in the rookie
and Green as Grass divisions.
- I wonder what kind of rookie competition we've got.
- Rookie competition? We don't care.
All of our major reining competitions
all have rookie and non-pro, and that's just very important
because that's how we bring up the next generation of riders.
For probably the last years, you'd pretty much say, "horse,"
and she'd walk the other way,
and it's pretty cool because she just started riding again,
like I don't know, maybe six weeks ago.
I, like, was dying for somebody to ride,
and you came through for me.
You were the one that I was, I actually didn't--
- KAREN MILLS: Never thought
- MATT: Never thought in a million years.
- EMMA: I absolutely never thought, ever.
- MATT: It's so gratifying for me,
because I have all this knowledge, and you know,
to be able to give it to, you know, family,
there's nothing better than that.
- Feeling nervous. - Yeah.
- EMMA: Don't be nervous, I'm not nervous.
- No, you shouldn't be. - EMMA: I know how to feel.
Like a winner.
- That's right.
- MATT: That's my girl, that's right.
- *
- LUCA: I've been riding since I was a real little kid,
and I've been showing since I was like .
- Luca started with motorcycle racing,
just like his brother, then he had a couple concussions,
and he wasn't into it as much,
so that's when he start riding a little bit more horses.
- LUCA: Should I hop on now? Do you know the draw?
First time I showed, I expected to be
a lot more nervous than I was, but I wasn't.
I used to just want to be a non-pro,
but then the more I ride,
and the more I get closer to the horse,
and the more I learn, the more I have a hunger for it,
and the more I want to go in and be the best to ever do it.
- ANDREA: The one thing that I love coaching Luca,
is that he's always kind of like a little computer in there,
if I tell him exactly what to do,
he doesn't deviate from the program.
You need a lot more time than this, you're late, as always.
- LUCA: I saddled up when we said.
- ANDREA: Yeah, no.
- My dad, some people would say he's tough.
- ANDREA: You were here at , I told you to be on him at .
- I make him work hard at home.
If he's not ready at home, I'm not taking him to horses.
- MATT: So what do you think? This is ride number...
- This is probably like ride number .
- MATT: We're gonna go out there and just loaf him around.
- EMMA: Okay.
- MATT: Kind of get a feel for all the traffic,
being as that you've never ridden in traffic.
Alright. Can you at least lead him out there by yourself?
- EMMA: I can, I can do that.
- MATT: We didn't have a lot of time to get you ready.
We didn't get to cover everything.
She did competitive cheer in high school,
like at a high level, and so it's actually the one place
where I can just be very matter-of-fact,
and I think because of her competitive cheer, she takes it,
she gets better, and we move on.
- EMMA: Are we going in that one?
- MATT: Mm-hmm.
- EMMA: How many people do you think I'm gonna run into?
- MATT: Uh, I'm hoping none. - [Emma laughs]
- MATT: Just jump right in there.
It can get a little dangerous out there.
Part of it's just surviving the warm-up arena.
- EMMA: Matt's been in my life as long as I can remember.
He is, like, the best possible stepdad I could have.
We've spent so much more time together in the past few months
than probably ever, so it's, yeah,
I like it a lot, he's a great coach.
- MATT: When you go through that middle,
if he tries to lean to the right,
steer him into a small circle and pull his nose
to the inside a little.
She's really a green rider,
which is a level below the rookie,
which is what she's doing, but I can't let her know
that I am like, I'm really nervous,
I know her mom's nervous, too.
- FEMALE PA ANNOUNCER: , Sharp Dressed Boot,
[unintelligible] of Scottsdale, being shown by Luca Fappani.
- LUCA: My dad, some people would say he's tough,
but he's never pushed me to do things I'm not comfortable with,
and he's never pushed me more than I wanted to myself.
- ANDREA: Grab a hold of him if you need to.
We're pretty sure, you can ask my wife that,
we like to win,
we hate losing way more than we like winning.
- LUCA: Sometimes, we'd get into little bit of fights,
but he's a very competitive person, and so am I, I think,
so it works pretty well.
- ANDREA: The main thing for me is able to step back sometimes
and let him do his own thing, because he's a different person
on a different horse.
Give all the way right there. Okay, good.
You know, I always dreamt to be a horse trainer,
you look at the cowboy life, and man,
they're riding horses for a business.
I was born in a small town in northern Italy.
I was born on a dairy farm.
My dad had horses early on,
my mom and him had a passion for horses,
my mom actually rode English and jumped a little bit
in her younger age.
A friend of ours was taking reining lessons
by a local trainer, and he kept telling us how cool it was,
and how cool this Western discipline was,
and then one Sunday we went and watched him
take these reining lessons,
and I think I was about eight, and I was kind of amazed
by these horses, so I asked my dad
if I could try a lesson, and he's like, "Sure, why not?"
So basically from that day on, there was no going back.
I left Italy to come to the States
to become the best that I could become,
but I also knew that the chances
of becoming an all-time money earner are pretty small.
I still don't think today that gonna be that easy to achieve,
but I'm getting closer to it,
so it's what kind of pushes me to keep going, basically.
Luca, slow down!
Luca, you're off pattern.
- FEMALE PA ANNOUNCER: Thank you Luca, the score for number ,
Sharp Dressed Boot and Luca Fappani, zero.
- FEMALE INTERVIEWER: Do you think he feels pressure
in some way because you are so successful?
- I don't know if he feels that much pressure,
because I've always told him he can do whatever he wanted.
If he felt that kind of pressure,
I don't think that, you know, maybe,
maybe he's good at not showing it.
- My horse was good, I just went off pattern.
Was so worried about the horse being good
that I forgot to do one large, fast circle instead of two, so.
Uh, I wouldn't mind going to college,
it's just hard with reining, because those couple years
in college, you can't ride all day
like some of these guys out here,
so some would say you fall behind.
- ANDREA: He's so good at school that it's kind of a shame
if he decided not to go to college.
He's looking at it, and I say just look at my dad,
he's , he's done really good for himself,
he can afford a lot of things that he wants,
he's still winning, but I'm not the average horse trainer.
I think part of it was talent, but part of it was luck, too.
I was at the right place at the right time most of the time.
The reality is that % of the horse trainers
struggle financially,
and that's definitely not what I want for my son.
But, if he decides to do this,
I just want him to be % committed to it.
- MATT: Push your hand forward a little bit, and then start.
Perfect. Clock.
- EMMA: I have not always been into horses.
It was Christmas Day, actually, last year, and me and Matt
were trying to actually figure out something to do,
and it was either going to be a hike or riding a horse,
so yeah, here we are now.
- MATT: I'd just step off of him now.
We're gonna take him back and let him have a drink of water.
In this level classes, in the rookie,
if they can just go out and be clean,
which is basically get a , you're doing great,
that just means you're mistake-free,
which that's the hardest thing right now,
is to get through without making mistakes,
be able to control your nerves.
- [Emma sighs]
- EMMA: With that...
- It's fun. I know you're very competitive--
- MATT: It's fun to win. - But it's fun.
Supposed to be fun. Okay? I'll be down there, good luck!
- Thank you.
Okay.
- MATT: This was a lot to ask,
to try to pull this together fast,
because, I mean, she's never shown before.
I've always loved horses, from the first pony ride
that my mom took me to when I was a kid.
And I'd already decided,
when I was, like, , years old,
that I was going to be a professional horse trainer,
just didn't know how that was going to work.
My parents, you know, they couldn't afford
to buy me my own horse, so I kind
of had to do things the hard way.
Okay-- - EMMA: Okay.
- Alright, jump on.
And I was able to land an internship for the summer
out here in Scottsdale.
So the day after high school, literally jumped in the truck
with my dad and he drove me out here,
and I got out of the car, and it was like degrees,
and I walked into that barn, and I just looked around
at all these awesome-looking horses,
and I was like, "This is exactly where I want to be."
Just look straight ahead, find your target,
just push your hand forward. There you go,
get your legs moving, jog, jog, jog.
There you go, perfect. Sit back and go.
Fast. Come on. Kick him.
There you go.
Yeah!
- [cheers]
- There you go, be slow.
Two, three...
Yeah!
She's pretty good at thinking on the fly.
Good, Emma, you've got to push him, push him, that looks great.
Good, good, real sharp turn.
Remember, it's a long way down there.
Keep going!
- [cheers and applause]
- MATT: Pretty good, pretty good.
- [cheers and applause]
- FEMALE PA ANNOUNCER: Emma, that is and one half--
- [cheers and applause]
- MATT: What'd she get? - WOMAN: and a half!
- MATT: Are you serious? - WOMAN: Yeah, and a half!
- MATT: Oh, that is awesome!
Emma, that was amazing!
So proud of you. That was clutch.
- Oh, honey.
- I made it!
Oh, god. That was actually fun.
- MATT: It looked like you were having fun circling.
Good boy, Rio!
I don't know what the comparison would be,
but you'd never in a million years would I think
that this girl would be out shopping for boots with me
and a cowboy hat, and coming and riding.
Fun, though, huh? Right? When it goes good?
- EMMA: Yeah. - Yeah?
- EMMA: Yeah.
- MATT: I know what reining's done for me, in my life,
and we can't forget, if we don't get kids going
in this sport, you know, I mean it's not going to continue.
- *
- CRAIG SCHMERSAL: Oh.
- So, if Andrea Fappani is Maverick,
then Craig Schmersal is the Iceman,
he just does not make a mistake.
- MALE ANNOUNCER: This is Face the Attitude
and Craig Schmersal.
- CRAIG: For me, the goal of my entire life
was to win the NRHA Futurity.
I accomplished that in .
I've won the NRBC, I've won the Derby, I've won the Congress,
and most probably importantly now is I won
the Run for the Million.
I got that feather in my cap for now.
I remember when I was a kid, I saw my first reining horse,
I knew that's what I wanted to do.
You know, I don't know if my parents knew it,
but I knew it, I knew I wanted to ride horses for a living.
I grew up in Ohio,
my dad bought my sister and I horses when we were eight,
and that's what started the ball rolling.
- He comes from a family
that had primarily worked in the factories,
his dad was a GM worker,
and horses were part of their family.
- CRAIG: Mike Flarida lived about an hour from us,
and he's the one that introduced us to the sport of reining.
So from the time I was eight, I spent nearly every summer
with the Flaridas, they took me in,
and kept me fed, and kept me wore out.
I wouldn't be here without Mike and my dad.
- GINGER: Pretty mare, isn't she?
- I just like the tiny ones. - GINGER: Why?
- Because they're my size. - Fun size?
- Fun size.
- CRAIG: Addi, come try him. - GINGER: Alright, you're up.
- CRAIG: Addi is our daughter, she is ,
she is a pretty salty competitor in the reining.
- GINGER: You know, there's Luca Flippani,
and there's Addi.
I mean, these are kids that are the children
of the top money earners in our business,
and these kids are there to win
just like their dads are there to win.
It's just so crazy to watch those kids
because we've known them all since they were,
you know, infants, literally.
- CRAIG: Eeee.
Good, Addi.
- GINGER: I cannot believe how big she's gotten.
She doesn't look like a little kid anymore.
- CRAIG: I don't really know what she wants to be
when she gets big, but I know one thing she can do
is always show horses.
She is more than capable of putting a big run together
under high pressure.
You can't cr*ck her.
- GINGER: You know, the thing that I love the most about Craig
is his relationship with our children.
I had two sons from a previous marriage that were one and two
when I met him.
He truly loves children and he's a good man.
- CRAIG: Nice job. - GINGER: Awesome.
So this is the horse that Mark is wanting to send to you
to potentially show, right? - CRAIG: Yepper.
- She's pretty.
- I would like to win the Run for a Million again.
Basically in this industry, it comes down to horsepower.
When I get a horse that's truly a good horse, you'll win.
We're at the mercy of our horsepower,
and I firmly believe that.
- GINGER: This is a horse that an owner has called
and asked if he would be interested in trying.
For the Run for a Million, choosing your horse
to show there, number one, is you know,
it's a big decision.
She's a pretty mare, very pretty mare.
- CRAIG: Just couldn't figure out where she would fit in.
- GINGER: Yeah, well, we can talk about it later.
- One thing about Ginger is I respect her,
I love that she's a strong woman,
she's not going to be pushed around.
She can dang sure take care of herself.
For me, that's what I think is the most attractive thing.
Ho.
- GINGER: She's got it all, you know?
It's just a matter of where she's gonna stack up
with the other ones.
I do want him to win, I'm not kidding about that,
but you know, it's like anything else,
I want him to be safe, I want his horses to be safe,
I want him to be successful.
Ultimately, you know, I want him to be proud of the performance.
Alright, thanks a lot.
These horses more than likely will not be the ones
that he shows at the Run for a Million.
You know, we kinda got a few things up our sleeves too,
so we're gonna go get in our toy chest,
and maybe bring a few more toys to the game next time.
- *
- TRENT WARGO: Growing up around horses,
I think you just understand horses.
Sometimes horses can be a relief
from everyday life, I guess.
They don't talk back.
Our job number one, first and foremost,
is all about trying to make that horse as comfortable
as possible in the show pen so they can perform
at the utmost level.
The reining horses all wear sliding plates,
and they're a slick plate that has no traction.
The slider, to me, when I'm shaping it,
it's all about trying to set it in a athletic position
for that horse.
Similar to a skier, we want that support,
we want that surface area,
so it's easier for that horse to slide.
I decided to work on reining horses because
I enjoy the ability to change a maneuver.
We can improve the sliding stop,
we can improve their ability to turn around,
we can improve their ability to lope,
I just feel like it's a change that I can see and relate to.
You know, farrier, it's a craft, and it's an art form.
Just like painting a picture,
no artist is going to do it exactly the same.
I couldn't sit still all day,
I just have to work with my hands.
I'm thinking maybe ten more years, yeah.
And then I'll ride off to the sunset,
let somebody else worry about it.
- [grinding and mechanical sounds]
- Yeah, so today I'm here welding a fin on this slider.
This horse wants to spread as he stops,
so his hind legs go out,
and the further he goes into a sliding stop,
maybe the legs will come out just a little bit.
You know, in this case, I think it could help
the horse slide longer.
Got a couple more competitions coming up,
the NRBCDCR, I think that's gonna be really tough.
Run for the Million is stressful right now,
because I don't have a horse,
I'm a little stressed out on that.
I'm not gonna hide my feelings on that,
but I don't know, when I look back,
I've had some of the best runs when I thought
that I didn't have anything going in it,
so we'll see what happens.
I'm a lot better horse trainer than I'm a welder,
I can tell you that.
But it's fun, so...
- *
- LUCA: The first show of the year, I went off pattern,
so I haven't gone off pattern in a couple years,
so that was frustrating. So I zeroed there.
But, my dad's always taught me to not get all worked up
about the horse, you have to learn to work with it.
Now I've got the NRBC coming up, and I want to make sure
I got my head straight, don't make the same mistake,
and go do well.
- *
- [engine revving]
- [dirt bike speeds by]
- TREVOR OSTRANDER: What do you think, Strut?
The bike just had no, like, pull, you know?
He's sluggish out of all the corners.
- Yeah.
- ANDREA: The last five years, he's qualified
for the national championships for the amateur racers,
and he just keeps away inching away towards the top.
You look good. Everyone, and that left on it
looks like you lose a little bit of momentum.
I don't care if he ever turns
into a professional motocross racer,
for us it's about, you know, if you have a passion for it,
go for it, and it doesn't really matter what that passion is,
as long as you give it %, I think you can succeed at it.
I would like for my sons to be able to look back and think,
"You know what? Our dad was one of the best ones."
Just to be remembered as being somebody that put an impact
on the sport, and elevated the level.
- CRAIG: Every guy out there is capable of winning
the Run for a Million.
I'm super competitive, I come to work every day
because I want to win. I want to b*at them all.
- I'm always looking at the next horse show,
never look in the back, then the best in our business
is considered by the guy that wins the most money.
So now it's up to me to step up and get it done.
- MIKE: For me, this is huge,
because this is obviously my passion, that's my entire life,
when I walked out of the arena at the first Run for a Million,
I was immediately thinking about the next Run for a Million.
No excuses, now it's time to get the top spot.
- *
- Loping a little bit on the right knee.
The NRBC, it's one of the major events of the year.
This show, it's just a really, really high-end show
in the fact that it's really tough to win it.
The best horses of the last four years,
they're all here, you know?
Both for non-pros and pro, so you're just running against
the best quality that there is.
Most likely, we are-- probably one of the two
that I'm showing tomorrow
will be one of the Run for the Million horses.
Luca, go ahead and come here for a sec.
So basically tomorrow night, and then we'll have to
make a decision for sure.
I've got a pretty good idea, but those things change too,
they're horses, they're animals.
- MATT: That look good, Karen? - Yeah.
- MATT: I could probably get into the Rose Parade
if I asked the right person.
With all this silver on the saddle.
I brought Rooster along,
I brought him specifically to try to prep
for the Run for a Million.
- KAREN: This is going to be a good test run for this horse.
We'll see. I hope.
- And I just feel like he's got a big run in him.
His actually older brother, the one that Casey has,
that he calls Maverick, that I know he's real high on.
Told Casey, "If I put a blue shirt on,
we could trade horses and nobody would ever know."
That's, the one thing with this major,
it's so close to the Run for a Million
that people are test-driving their horses
either in the actual derby itself,
or they've just got them here riding around,
so you could definitely start, you know, you can start to feel
things are, things are heating up.
- *
- CRAIG: There you go. That's better.
- You think the horses have a harder time when it's humid?
- CRAIG: Do you?
Make sure you can put a longer straight line
through the middle, Addi, okay?
- GINGER: Addi's going to compete in the non-pro class.
The non-pro stands for non-professional,
which means they don't get paid to train horses for a living.
- CRAIG: Right over there's probably where
it's going to matter the most.
- Addi and her brother Brendan were adopted.
We adopted them when they were two and three.
As you can imagine, it was maybe not the best situation
when they were little.
To watch where she is now, you know,
and how she's evolved and developed as a young lady,
for us is just incredible.
And the fact that she loves to ride,
and is an extremely competitive competitor
is just icing on the cake for us,
but she's a force to be reckoned with. She's tough.
- CRAIG: She feel sassy?
- ADDI: Tired. - CRAIG: Spicy?
- GINGER: It's your last hurrah at the NRBC.
On her. Then make it a good one.
Addi's riding Face the Attitude,
and we call her Ariel.
- She gonna blow snot on me.
- She's excited, I can tell. - CRAIG: I can tell, too.
- GINGER: Addi's had an incredible year showing her,
and Craig said, "You know, I think I'm gonna get her out
"for me one last time, and that, you know,
"might be for the Run for a Million,
we'll just have to wait and see."
- NICK: If you're not first, you're last.
- [Ginger laughs]
- GINGER: You've got to defend your title from last year.
- LUCA: So it's the non-pro finals,
and I've got Ice Cube, he's a six-year old stallion,
my mom won the non-pro futurity on him,
he's my favorite for today, so hopefully he's good for me.
- ANDREA: Bump the left side back, there you go, good.
Use your legs.
- MALE ANNOUNCER: Luca riding this one
for Andrea and Tish Flippani, it's Ice Cube,
draw , bag number .
- ANDREA: Loosen up, and look where you're going.
- [woos and cheers in crowd]
- [cheers and applause]
- *
- MALE ANNOUNCER: Alright, again that is Luca Flippani
and Ice Cube. A effort.
- ANDREA: Don't act disappointed, that was good.
[Andrea laughs]
You did good, buddy. Give me a hug.
I'm really proud of him,
he showed the heck out of that horse.
My dad used to coach me at his same age,
so it's a cool relationship between me and him,
because I can really relate myself being on that horse
in the show pen, so it's pretty fun.
- CRAIG: Do business, you hear?
It's gonna give me a heart att*ck.
When you roll her back, use your hand, not your leg, alright?
Don't add your leg until you're halfway through.
- MALE PA ANNOUNCER: Draw two, bag number coming in now,
and that would be Face the Attitude, Addison Schmersal.
- CRAIG: Squeeze. Squeeze and clutch.
- *
- CRAIG: Do business, you hear?
It's gonna give me a heart att*ck.
When you roll her back, use your hand, not your leg, alright?
Don't add your leg until you're halfway through.
- MALE PA ANNOUNCER: Bag number coming in now,
and that would be Face the Attitude, Addison Schmersal.
- CRAIG: Squeeze. Squeeze and clutch.
- *
- [cheers and applause]
- *
- [cheers and applause] - CRAIG: Yeah!
Yeah!
Woo!
- MALE PA ANNOUNCER: , is the result.
- GINGER: Way to go.
So proud of you. That was awesome.
That was so fun.
- Yeah, baby.
- GINGER: Now you're making your dad cry again.
Addi and her brother, you know, had a rough start,
but this is what...
this is incredible, you know, I'm sorry.
- INTERVIEWER: And you don't have a boyfriend,
or you do have a boyfriend?
- ADDI: I do not. - You do not?
And your dad doesn't want you to have a boyfriend,
is that what that means? - [Craig coughs and says "no."]
- GINGER: Win or lose, I always think Addi's the best,
but you only get better with stiff competition.
If these kids are the future of reining,
it looks pretty bright to me.
Now it's their dad's turn to ride.
- CRAIG: I got two horses back at the NRBC this year.
There's always a deadline in my life.
We have to keep producing and make all the right decisions.
- ANDREA: Whenever you have an NRBC championship,
it's definitely something to be proud of.
I was lucky enough that I've been able to win it
four times so far in my career.
Hopefully going for five, but you never know.
- MATT: The NRBC is a big arena,
it's got a little extra weight to it,
so one of those trophies you want to have, for sure.
- MALE PA ANNOUNCER: That brings us now
to draw number three, and it's America's Gunslinger
and Matt Mills.
It's Andrea Flippani.
This is Craig Schmersal, coming up.
- TAYLOR: There's really only two places left
to go figure out what horse you're going to take
to the Run for a Million.
There's the derby, and there's the NRBC.
Because after that, it's August, and it's show time.
- This is more stress than I really like to be under.
- MAN: It's not over, yet.
- ANDREA: If you don't nail that first maneuver,
it's really hard to recuperate.
I knew it was going to be a struggle.
- My dad told me, "I'd like to be a million dollar owner
before I die."
The Run for theh Million is everything he thinks about.
- That's big time.
- I don't know why, that jacked me up.
- Something just was bothering him a little bit,
we looked into it harder, and he's got a bone bruise.
I don't have another plan right now.
- You've been talking with Kate about horse options.
- We're just gonna ride Supermodel.
That's a great miss. She's trying to figure you out.
- TOM MCCUTCHEON: Doesn't bother me one bit to see him
frustrated and mad, because if you don't want it that bad,
you're not gonna get it.
- *
- MAN: * MTV