Most sportspeople have trophies to show for their achievements - Young’s Nick Smith has brought home a sparkling silver and gold, ruby-encrusted belt buckle.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
It’s large enough to tip the 13-year-old (pictured) over - should he wear it - but he has certainly proved worthy of wearing it, having just won the 2015 Australian National Cutting Horse Association’s Junior Youth Championship.
Held in Tamworth, the championship is the pinnacle cutting event in Australia and every moment of Nick’s riding career - at least for the past three years - has been about winning this.
So much so that when he won another event two years ago he told The Witness, with his trademark twinkle to the eye, he would not do a story until he’d won the NCHA.
Nick has big boots to follow in his uncle Trent Smith who was the US National Cutting Horse Association (NCHA) $2000 Limited Rider World Champion in 2012.
And - since Trent returned from his three-year US stint, one week after taking out the big prize - he has been shadowed by Nick who clearly liked what he saw in his uncle’s chosen equestrian sport.
“I liked the way it worked and the horse was so trained - it’s a lot more controlled and everything looked like it fell into a plan,” Nick said.
The Smith kids, with parents Carmen and Greg, likely rode before they walked, and having served his time in the campdrafting and team penning arena, Nick and his horse Scat made the transition to cutting, both having to learn the craft from scratch.
Teaching an older horse new tricks was one thing - the seven-year-old chestnut gelding had to be retrained to synchronise with cows.
“It took lots of time, lots of practise and lots of discipline,” Nick said.
But it worked - Nick says he and Scat had a “pretty good” success rate the first two years, winning the first three events they competed in.
Then it was time for Scruffy - Nick’s younger sister Breanna taking over Scat - and Scruffy, having been trained by uncle Trent, was a whole different sort of horse.
The two of them, over the past year, travelled to cutting shows from Harden to Tamworth, Toowoomba and down to Tatura in Victoria.
“We won the first three shows we competed in,” Nick said.
“Scruffy was good to me - she helped me a lot - I always knew she’d turn around with the cow - she’s just a very cowy horse,” Nick said, adding, “she built my confidence and showmanship - how you relax and everything flows nicely - there’s nothing rough - just good cuts.”
But arthritis sidelined Scruffy who is now contemplating motherhood, and earlier this year Nick took the leap to large horse with a large name - Deebar Diamond Blue - better known as “Argie”.
The 15-year-old gelding was bought out of the paddock but the transition has been as smooth as the ride.
“He’s easier to ride... which is a good thing,” he said smiling.
While there are no qualifying rounds for Tamworth, Nick was up against 12 competitors from all over Australia.
Having had just four months to prepare Argie, Nick spent every moment he could practising and competing.
They were in Tamworth two weeks before the futurity - and for the full two minutes and 30 seconds he got to compete, the hard work and good cattle worked in his favour.
“When I won I didn’t realise until the turnback team started patting me on the back - I looked back and could see the 148 on the screen - I was pretty happy,” he said.
Nick didn’t just win his section but also won the overall pointscore, beating not only his competition but the youth competitors, aged 20 and under.
For his efforts there’s the buckle, $500 in vouchers, a wool saddle pad and a $700 pair of custom-made chaps.
And the praise of Trent who said he was happy for Nick.
Trent Smith also returned home with a smile on his face.
By the end of competition in Tamworth he had bettered his 2014 efforts by coming 13th out of 25 competitors in the futurity final, 11th out of 15 competitors in the Open Derby and fourth in the Open Limited Rider section.
This not only resulted in him moving up in the national rankings, but he finalled in every event he competed in.