Fine Vintage Cash didn’t really find her groove in the cow horse as a 3-year-old, but the heeling fits her just right in the hands of Andy Holcomb.
The 2016 mare by One Fine Vintage out of the Nu Cash mare Miss Catty Cash marked a 500.19 on four head at the Royal Crown in Buckeye, Arizona, Feb. 12 in the All-Ages Heeling, picking up $4,750 for the aggregate win, plus $3,450 for the stallion owners and breeders Robertson Ranches. Owned by Monty and Chris Avery, she won another $750 for placing second in Round 3 with a 126.88.
“The last two gos she had, she had really, really good cows and Kaleb stood them up and rolled them really good,” Holcomb, from San Juan Batista, California, said. “That was kind of a tough set up steers, especially to start out with. They were wanting to handle pretty rough the first hop or two out of the corner, and the second one, kind of wallowed around pretty good and shuffled and sprawled out and I kind of tracked a few hops, and threw kind of a funky loop but it caught. We just kind of overcome runs like that instead of getting short or being funny. She just let me catch them.”
Good Breeding
Andy Holcomb bought Fine Vintage Cash from Robertson Ranches in her 4-year-old year, after she’d shown at the National Reined Cow Horse Association’s Snaffle Bit Futurity with Tucker Robinson.
“She’s a little stingy, and honestly I never saw videos, but I don’t think she won a lot in the cow horse,” Holcomb said. “But she was darn sure nice. We went to roping on her. She uses herself up and collected, and sometimes it hurt me, but she stops real narrow and together and slid a long ways. She’s always been pretty easy to dally on. I could feel it in her, and I liked that about her. It always helps when they’re that broke.”
Her sire, One Fine Vintage, is a proven producer and performer in the NRCHA, and he’s now proving himself exceptional at producing rope horses, too. Daniel Rice won the Royal Crown 4-&-Under Heeling on another son of One Fine Vintage in 2022.
Good Help
Holcomb had the help of two-time and reigning World Champion Kaleb Driggers.
“Kaleb is a game-changer,” Holcomb said. “He’s riding the best horses in the world, he scores the best, he heads them the best, he knows how to put them in your loop coming around the corner. He handles cattle so good, and he’s always sitting there watching the cattle. I don’t know how many times I rode back there and he said ‘This one’s slow.’ He knows all the steers, and it’s next level—he’s a master of the game. He does all the work for you and makes it real nice. He just sets up the run. Even though that steer got trashy, he just kept going and didn’t try to force nothing.”
