A Starlights Magnum (Magnum With A Dream x Shiny Starlight) checked off a bucket list show on Sunday, Nov. 1, as the 2017 gelding added another world championship title to his record. Owner and rider Kyle Trahern guided the gelding to the 2026 AQHA Level 3 Senior Working Cow Horse World Championship at the AQHA World Show in Oklahoma City. The duo marked a 440.5 composite to earn $9,052.50 of the $36,210 class pot.
“I don’t think it surprised anybody that that horse won it,” Trahern said, “but just getting to come compete with that group and get another opportunity to show that horse is always pretty exciting.”
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For Trahern, getting to Oklahoma City was a bit of a marathon. He came straight from the NRCHA Snaffle Bit Futurity, where he rode Polk Street (Once In A Blu Boon x Supercalafrajalistic), owned by Sneed-Pool Cattle Co. Inc., to 16th place in the Open with a 645.4 composite. The pair earned $13,500 in the Open and another $5,000 in the Intermediate Open.
“It seemed like a really good idea mid-summer,” Trahern, of Walsh, Colorado, said. “We thought, ‘Well, yeah, let’s go to that World Show.’ Then we got home from the Futurity, and we had gotten a bunch of rain at home, so we couldn’t work them. But we really didn’t have time anyway. We pretty much got home, washed clothes, threw them back on the trailer and went again.”
The trip also marked a return for Trahern, who by his count hadn’t shown at the AQHA World Show in 10 years or more. A Starlights Magnum is what brought him back.
“We knew that gelding had won a bunch, and we thought he could probably do well here,” Trahern said. “So we thought it’d be fun to go ahead and take him.”
In the Pen
Trahern drew 16th in the finals, second to last to go. A Starlights Magnum needs so little prep that Trahern saddled him, brushed him off and tied him in his stall to eat while he watched most of the first set.
“I had a bunch of folks asking me, ‘When did you draw up? What’s going on? Why are you not on your horse?’” Trahern said. “He just doesn’t take much. We just jogged him around, went and showed him.”
AQHA held scores until the end of the class, so Trahern went in to show without knowing what he needed to mark. His plan was to show the gelding as well as possible and set him up for success.
“You’re trotting around back there in the warmup pen and you hear the crowd going, so you kind of assume this guy got along good or whatever, but you really don’t know,” Trahern said.
The first-round cattle were tough, but Trahern drew a pretty good cow and got through it. The finals brought a new set, quite a bit heavier than the first-round cattle.
“The finals gave everybody a little bit more honest shot at it,” Trahern said. “But anytime you’ve got a class of 40 bridle horses like that, there’s a whole slew of good horses that made the finals, and you knew everybody was going to run really hard at it.”
The class was a run-in pattern, which played right into the gelding’s biggest strength. A Starlights Magnum has a big stop, and Trahern planned to use it. The fence work was less flashy. His cow boxed well and ran down the fence fine, but it didn’t run very hard and didn’t want to take the turns.
“That horse has always been the type that if you get him shown with no mistakes and he’s good and it goes the way you hope it goes, they really have a hard time getting around him,” Trahern said. “So that’s why I was just trying to stay clean and show aggressively. If nothing bad happens, he’s always going to be in that top two or three.”
From Babysitter to Victory Lap
At home, the 9-year-old gelding has become a family horse. These days, he spends more time with Trahern’s daughters, ages 7 and 5, than with the NRCHA professional.
>> Watch A Starlights Magnum in the youth Little Buckaroo class
“He’s kind of your stereotypical gelding that has been around and done everything,” Trahern said. “He’s very laid back. He doesn’t take anything to get him ready to go show. He’s really kind of challenging for me to work at home because you really don’t want to do much on him. At this point in his career, he’s kind of boring. My girls torture him more than I do.”
Both girls showed the gelding during the NRCHA Snaffle Bit Futurity in Fort Worth, Texas. His 5-year-old dressed up in costume for the lead line class, and his 7-year-old showed him in the Little Buckaroo class.
“She trotted him through a pattern, and I ran the flag for her,” Trahern said. “She got to work the flag on him, and that was a lot of fun.”
A Rock Star Resume
The win adds to an already long list of accomplishments. Before the World Show, A Starlights Magnum had $274,978 in lifetime earnings, according to QData, and his World Show paycheck pushes that total past $284,000. His wins include the 2024 Run for a Million Cow Horse Challenge.
“We’ve had that horse four or five years now, and he’s won pretty near everything we’ve tried to take him to,” Trahern said. “He’s a rock star.”
L3 Senior Working Cow Horse
2026 AQHA World Championship Show
| Place | Horse | Sire/Dam | Rider | Owner | Earnings |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | A Starlights Magnum | Magnum With A Dream x Shiny Starlight | Kyle Trahern | Kyle Trahern | $9,052.50 |
| 2 | Strattocaster | Stevie Rey Von x Backwoodz Barbie | Sterling T. Slemp | Michelle Young | $7,242.00 |
| 3 | Smooth Rey Talker | Smooth Talkin Style x Reyleann | Shadd Parkinson | Bronwyn McCormick | $5,431.50 |
| 4 | Smooth Rein | Real Smooth Cat x Rein My Belle | Russell Dilday | Claire L. Edwards | $4,345.20 |
| 5 | CR Dainty N Tuff (RHB) | Woody Be Tuff x Dainty Dual Rey | Lee Deacon | Lee Ann McDaniel | $3,621.00 |
| 6 | One Time Sannman | Sannman x One Little Reygina | Luke Jones | Charlie Porter | $2,896.80 |
| 7 | Kual Outlaw (RHB) | Shiney Outlaw x Kual Gun | Luke Jones | Michelle Cannon | $2,172.60 |
| 8 | Shes Reys Cat | WR This Cats Smart x Shes Playin Rey | Clifton James Shopbell | Michelle S. Shopbell | $1,448.40 |