Crystal McNutt’s parents purchased a pony for her when she was 3 years old, and she immediately began to demonstrate the innate horsemanship that would take her to the top. “I rode it bareback and was doing all kinds of things, and my parents thought it would be a good idea for me to take lessons,” she says

She began training with Laurie Long and took her first stock seat medal at 5 years old. She earned a mention in Sports Illustrated in 1986. Because at 9 years old, she was the youngest person to win a national championship Top 10 in Western Pleasure JOTR 17 and Under at U.S. Nationals.

“I always knew I wanted to be a horse trainer,” McNutt says, “but I decided to concentrate on reining and make it a niche.”

She earned an APAHA Working Western Trainer of the Year Award in 2003, 2004, and 2006. In November 2006, McNutt also earned a berth as the alternate and only women, on the United States reining team for the 2006 World Equestrian Games in Aachen, Germany, a “personal goal” of hers that came about sooner than she expected.

“I decided to try out in Texas because I knew it would be more competitive, and I placed sixth. I didn’t have any humongous lifetime earning (she had earned $90,000 at the time), and I was competing against million dollar lifetime earners with NRHA.”

Then she went to Lexington, KY., for final tryouts, thinking that maybe she shouldn’t be there. “The arena was packed, and I’ve never heard an arena so dead quiet. It was the first time I was really scared, but the crowd got into it once I started, and I got a 224½ composite score. It proves that someone who rides Arabs can ridel.” - Susan Bavaria

2006 World Equestrian Games
Crystal McNutt was honored to be nominated as second alternate for the World Equestrian Games in 2006. Crystal McNutt Brock grew up with reining horses, showed in NRHA events as a Youth competitor and never outgrew her passion for the sport. “I’ve been showing in stock horse classes and Reining since I was five,” she says, and that was more than two decades ago. [read more]

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