When Nelson Mas purchased Cattinlilreycat, aka “The Freak,” in March 2024 he was a relative newcomer to ranch sorting. A building contractor from New Jersey and father of three, Mas had only been in the sport a few years.
“Everybody knew the horse before I even owned him,” Mas said. “He’s a special one.”
The Freak, a 2016 gelding by Bet Hesa Cat out of TR Oubles Reyd by TR Dual Rey, had already earned a few thousand dollars in the NCHA, according to QData, before shifting to ranch sorting. Under saddle for Virginia’s Tanner Keith, he excelled in the new discipline.
“I knew Tanner,” Mas explained. “He had these brothers—there’s two horses, actually. It’s The Freak and his full brother, Mo—Mo Money. I bought Freak’s brother.”
But The Freak had caught the attention of Mas. He called Keith and bought the horse over the phone, unlike the first time he bought a horse from Keith. Then, Mas was rather new to the horse scene and not fully familiar with the market yet. Wanting to be sure of his purchase, he kept asking Keith to let him ride the horse one more time—which Keith kindly obliged—until Keith issued a timely ultimatum: Buy the horse or move on.
“I asked him if I could get another ride,” Mas recalled, “and he was like, ‘Ain’t no free rides here. It’s either you buy it or you don’t.’ I was like, ‘You know what, I’m gonna buy the damn horse.’ And that’s how we started our friendship.”
Freaky good from top to bottom
In March of 2024, Mas brought The Freak home to his farm in Allentown, New Jersey—a surprisingly rural and horse-centric holdout sandwiched between Philadelphia and New York City along the I-95 corridor—where the pair began to prepare for the World Finals.
Immediately, The Freak also caught the keen eye of Mas’ youngest daughter, Clara, now 11. Clara is a rising all-around horsewoman who excels showing her warmblood pony in the hunter/jumper arena but loves the speed of a good barrel race and the thrill of ranch sorting with her dad, too. Especially if it means getting to ride The Freak.
“I tell her, ‘Honey, I can’t out-ride them, so I have to out-horse them,’” said Mas, who got into horses about a decade ago, spending his time in the saddle trail riding until he discovered ranch sorting. “But I’m glad she steals him from me, if I’m honest.”
At the South East Regional Super Sort in Perry, Georgia, Clara took third with Alejandro Serpone in the Professional’s #9 Gold Shootout to win just over $5,200, outearning her dad who finished seventh in the same class. Mas doesn’t mind, though. In fact, he thinks his horse’s ability to take care of so many levels of riders is a big part of what makes The Freak so special.
“He was voted Best Horse of the Year in another association,” said Mas, who is competing in this Cinch RSNC as a Graduated Novice this year. “He is one of the most seasoned and well-known horses, but a horse is really proven when a low-level rider can ride him as good as an Open rider. It’s a game changer.”
The most remarkable thing about The Freak, though, is that he’s still competing at all.
A Freak accident
Just a few short months after buying The Freak, he and Mo were loaded up and sent down the road to Texas for the 2024 Cinch RSNC World Finals, some 1,500 miles away. They had covered more than 1,400 of those miles when tragedy struck.
“It was terrible,” Mas said of the wreck that killed two horses in the trailer. “The Freak and Mo were in rehab in Texas together, and two or three other horses walked away with minor injuries, and all the humans survived.”
Mas only just got Mo back from rehab in February, but The Freak returned to New Jersey in September, quirky as ever.
“He spooks at the same water he’s been drinking,” Mas said. “Same bucket, every time he looks at it. But he’s just goofy. Not mean. He would never kick, but he loves to do a hop when you get to a new show. He’s not trying to get you. He’s just saying, ‘Hey, I’m ready to go to work.’”
All healed up from the accident, The Freak has indeed gone to work.
“A month later, I went to another finals and won everything you can imagine. And since then, I haven’t been in a show where I haven’t won a buckle or a chunk of money.”
Super Freak
In Perry, Georgia, in January, Clara may have beaten her dad in the Professional’s Choice #9 Gold Shootout, but The Freak made it up to him. There, Mas partnered with The Freak’s former owner, Keith, and sorted a perfect 30 head in three rounds to win the #12.
In March, The Freak had an impressive showing at the Cinch RSNC RodeoHouston ranch sorting, where Mas and Olivia Parks earned championship buckles and $5,966 for the 26 head they sorted in the Professional’s Choice #9 Gold Shootout. Despite the sizeable paycheck, though, Mas is most proud of winning the All Levels with Chris Mangold at the San Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo for $2,478 in another three-round sweep.
“Winning an All Levels against Joel Lesh and Tanner Keith,” Mas began to say, marveling a bit at beating two of the top Open riders in the Cinch RSNC; “beating those two guys was definitely one of the luckiest days.”
Mas gives a lot of credit to Keith for coaching him to that win, despite being outridden on The Freak—a horse he used to own.
“This is the third time I beat Tanner on his horse, and he’s there on the stands cheering and coaching for me,” Mas said, still marveling. “He’s a team player. He says, ‘If I’m not going to win it, I want you to win it.’ He’s one of those guys.”
Tanner Keith is one of those guys, and The Freak is one of those horses: Invaluable.
A Freaking good offer. A great bit of wisdom.
Since the COVID pandemic, the horse market has been exceptional with superstar performance horses topping sales across the country at record-setting prices. Reiners, rope horses, barrel horses and the like regularly go for prices that were simply unimaginable a decade ago. Ranch sorting horses haven’t quite hit those numbers, but if there was ever an indication they might, The Freak is it.
“I had an offer of $225,000,” Mas said. “You understand?”
It’s believed to be one of the highest offers ever for a ranch sorting horse and, reasonably, it begs the question: Why didn’t Mas take the offer?
The answer lies in the wisdom of a burgeoning young horsewoman named Clara, who was 10 years old when she changed her father’s perception regarding the value of great horses.
“We had a $14,000 pony from Canada that she won everything on,” Mas said, recounting classes won at major events in places like Florida’s World Equestrian Center. “We got offered $75,000 for the horse. I had to tell my kid. I’m pretty straight with her that we have to sell him. It’s a one-time deal and it’s good money; we’ll probably never get that much out of him.
“She was quiet for a few seconds, and she asked me, ‘Daddy, will $75,000 change your life?’ I said no, and she said, ‘If you sell him, it will change mine.’”
Clara kept her pony and, when nearly a quarter-million dollars was offered for The Freak, he turned that down, too.
“I understood then what certain things are about. And The Freak is one of those things. He has done so much for me. Why sell him? I can buy another five, and they won’t replace him.”
— Nelson Mas, on the lesson he learned from his daughter and ranch sorting ride-or-die, Clara.
Since The Freak’s astounding comeback, Mas estimates he has won more than $70,000, and he plans to add to those earnings when they arrive safely in Fort Worth for the Cinch RSNC World Finals this June. And if all goes according to plan, Clara will have qualified, too, and fans can look forward to seeing The Freak piloted, perhaps, to the winner’s circle by daddy and daughter alike.
—— H&R ——
