The last time I’d visited with Christina Richman was during the Ram National Circuit Finals Rodeo in Oklahoma City.
That was two months ago, and she was caring for her rascally partner, a barrel horse named Stitch. Since then, the pair has done quite well. In fact, as her friend Sandy Gwatney termed it, Richman has been on her “Cali burner.”
In addition to the title in Nacogdoches, Texas, the California cowgirl has won five home-state rodeos: Clovis, Redding, Hayward, Sonora and Stonyford. She placed at Red Bluff (10th) and Bakersfield (third), and the only California rodeo she didn’t collect a check was in Oakdale.
“It was a muddy mess, so I just rode someone else’s heel horse,” said Richman, who has qualified for the NFR each of the past two seasons.
This season, she’s won money at virtually every rodeo she’s entered and is sixth in the barrel racing world standings – she failed to cash a check in Oakdale, obviously, but also Scottsdale, Ariz.; that’s the only rodeo on which she rode Stitch that didn’t pay off.
That’s taking it – pardon the pun – one Stitch at a time.