When Andrea Fappani rides into the show pen he’s known for perfectly choreographed reining runs, and a relentless drive to win. But at the 2023 National Reined Cow Horse Association Western Derby, Fappani rode into the pen two-handed in a snaffle bit, ready to call a cow. That’s right, the $9 Million Dollar National Reining Horse Association rider is all in on cow horse competition.
Instead of placing his reining horse’s feet exactly where he wants them, Andrea Fappani found himself showing Derby-age YaketyYakDontTalkBak, owned by Teton Ridge, in an event that demands a horse take control to work a cow through boxing and down the fence. Fappani piloted the gelding to an Open Novice Horse title and continued building momentum with 3-year-old Lectrifyn Metallic at the 2023 NRCHA Snaffle Bit Futurity.
Now, with a top 10 finish aboard DT Lil Big Time at the 2024 Snaffle Bit Futurity, Fappani is nearing $100,000 in NRCHA earnings.
“I’m 46, and I’ve achieved every goal I put in front of myself in the reining,” Fappani says. “I just wanted to do something different. Some people didn’t understand and thought it was for the money. But the horse industry is my love and my passion, and I wanted to push myself with something new.”
Ten years ago, Fappani considered trying his hand at cutting, but ultimately chose cow horse, due to his proximity to major NRCHA events and steady access to cattle. To say the change has been challenging garners a laugh from the horseman.
“I jumped in way too deep, but I’ve been famous in my career for doing things like that,” he says. “When I look back, it has always been for the better. The minute you get comfortable, you get stagnant.”
So why would one of the most recognized names in reining step into another arena? Challenge, change, and personal growth.
Making A Change
The story of Andrea Fappani has been told multiple times. Raised on a family farm in Bergamo, Italy, he sat on his first pony at age 4, then started riding in an English saddle, jumping horses, before moving to reining at age 9. The multiple NRHA open futurity champion came to work in the United States in 1997 for Todd Bergen and John Slack.
Bergen had shifted from training reining horses full time to having roughly 60% reiners and 30% cow horses when Fappani was working for him. However, Fappani’s focus was on reiners.
“He saw the cow horse, but he never did it,” Bergen recalls with a laugh. “He would grumble about having to hold cows!”
At the time, Fappani’s intense focus was squarely on reining. He made his debut at the NRHA Futurity in 1997, riding Best By Tari to win the limited non pro division and placing sixth in the non pro futurity, marking the beginning of what would become a long-standing relationship with NRHA winner’s circle.
After more than two decades dedicated to spins, circles, and slides, Fappani began looking for a new challenge to push himself as a horseman.
“I won’t say I was burned out on reining about 10 years ago,” he explains, “but I thought it would be fun to try something completely different. At the time, I had a full barn of reining horses and two young kids at home. It wasn’t the right moment to make a big shift. I still wanted to learn, but I had to put it to the side for the time being.”
Though it wasn’t until 2021 that he finally stepped into a cow horse saddle, Fappani stayed connected to the world of cutting and cow horse by studying videos and talking to other horsemen. Thanks to his time working under Bergen, he reached out to longtime friend and NRCHA $3 Million Dollar Rider Corey Cushing, who lived just down the road at the time.
“I took lessons from Corey,” Fappani says. “When I moved from Italy to work with Todd and John, Corey was there, too. We’ve stayed good friends. I’d go over, ride with him, learn, and just have fun. It evolved from there.”
Rancho Oso Rio, Fappani’s training facility, was originally set up for NRCHA and NRHA horseman Randy Paul, complete with a cutting round pen and a large arena for down-the-fence work. Still, Fappani initially planned to travel to local cow horse trainers for hands-on work. That decision quickly shifted.
“I thought I’d just haul to cow horse trainers, but I quickly realized I didn’t have the time,” he says. “Reining is my business, and cow horse is more of a side hobby—though it’s not really a hobby because I want to do it well. I told myself I’d stick with it only if it didn’t take away from my reining. So far, it hasn’t. In fact, I’ve taken a lot of what I’ve learned in cow horse and applied it to my reining. And since we already had the infrastructure at Rancho Oso Rio, I can work cows first thing in the morning and still get on with the rest of my day.”
With a facility in place and some quality lessons under his belt, all Fappani needed was a horse.
“I didn’t want to buy a finished horse. I wanted to go through the whole process and learn how to train one,” he says. “I got [YaketyYakDontTalkBak] as a green 4-year-old in 2022. I wanted to be involved in the training and then go show. I quickly realized I had to change a lot. I used to think horsemanship was horsemanship, and you just applied the same principles in different ways. But riding a horse on a cow is very different from how we ride our modern reiners.”
Letting Go
Making the 2023 Snaffle Bit Futurity finals quickly became Fappani’s main goal as he stepped into cow horse competition, and he committed fully to sharpening his skills to get there.
“Everything from my body position to where I looked, to how I applied leg pressure. I felt like a rookie,” Fappani admits. “I had to relearn so much. After riding a certain way for more than 20 years, retraining my body at 45 was more involved than I expected.”
But he wasn’t the first trainer to face this cross-over challenge. To help him through it, Fappani turned to Bergen, his longtime friend and former mentor.
“I went through that transition from reining to cow horse,” Bergen says. “Reining is about complete control. Every step is guided. But working a cow is almost the opposite. You still need foundation and discipline, but now you want the horse to start thinking for themselves. You teach them to wait, but also to take over when the time comes. You’re just there to guide them through the situation.”
Though Fappani could lay a solid foundation at home, he knew true progress would come from competing. Despite not feeling fully prepared, he was pushed by Cushing to enter two horses, YaketyYakDontTalkBak and Eight Karat Diamond, owned by Dr. Harry Prince, in the 2022 Western Derby in Scottsdale, his first cow horse show.
“I’m glad I felt what it’s like to take a cow down the fence in a show,” Fappani says. “I didn’t make the finals, but I did well in the cutting and decent in the reining. What surprised me was how fast you have to think in the fence work. Things happen quickly. I told myself I’d take six months, put myself in more show situations at home, and try to make things more comfortable before going back into the show pen.”
While Fappani and Eight Karat Diamond won the Level 1 open cow work and rein work preliminaries, the consummate perfectionist wasn’t happy with the overall results. He put his head down and focused on improving, returning to the cow horse arena in August 2022 at the National Stock Horse Association Pre-Futurity and Derby in Las Vegas. There, aboard 3-year-old Reysin Sum Hash, he won the limited open snaffle bit class. Though he sold the horse shortly after, the experience ignited his passion for training cow horses from the ground up.
“Trying to do three events—and be good at all three—is harder than I expected,” he admits. “It’s more challenging than reining alone because many of the skills contradict each other. You have to be a really clear communicator with your horse so there’s no confusion between you, him, and the cow.”
Bergen agrees, recalling how reiners used to frustrate him by suggesting that cow horses should rein better or perform better in other ways.
“Andrea is such a great horse trainer,” Bergen says. “He understands a horse’s mind and has been a quick learner. These cow horses are wired differently. They have to think quickly on a cow. Reiners, the way they’ve bred them, are not as quick-minded, and that’s how they need to be to be competitive.”
Finding His Stride
As Fappani neared his 2023 goal of making the Snaffle Bit Futurity finals aboard Lectrifyn Metallic, then owned by Tim Anderson, he was already fine-tuning his training plan for 2024.
“I didn’t want to be the reiner who had the high score in reining but struggled everywhere else,” he explains. “I focused on the cow work, especially the herd work, because it was the hardest for me. The cues were the opposite of reining, and after 30 years of doing things one way, it was a challenge. In 2023, I spent most of my time working out of the herd to become more comfortable.”
To improve his herd work, Fappani purchased a snaffle bit prospect from a cutting program. While he and Lectrifyn Metallic had success, winning the Limited Open Snaffle Bit Futurity division, Fappani wanted more.
“After the Snaffle Bit Futurity, I felt solid in the herd and reining, but the fence work still needed more attention,” he says. “Now with a bit of experience, I thought starting my own horse could help me get more time in all three disciplines.”
While training that 2023 horse, Dean Tuftin offered Fappani a cow horse prospect—a full brother to Nineteen Ten with 30 days of training. DT Lil Big Time began training early on, and Fappani enjoyed the process. “I felt ahead of where I’d been because I could put the basics on a 2-year-old while learning with my 3-year-old.”
Preparing two horses for the 2024 Snaffle Bit Futurity, Fappani’s goal was consistency and a return to the finals, which he achieved with the roan stallion. With DT Lil Big Time, he earned over $48,500 between the Rogers Heaven Sent Ranch Futurity and the Snaffle Bit.
Cow Horse Camaraderie
With the challenge of training three events, trainers often work together to see how they can tackle the task for the betterment of their horses.
“I’ve had a lot of help. I’m the first to ask questions; I bug people. And people have helped me without me asking,” Fappani says. “I think they welcomed me because I didn’t come in as a threat. I didn’t buy a $300,000 horse and act like I knew everything.”
One of those willing to help is Don Murphy, NRCHA Hall of Fame trainer and renowned “trainer’s trainer.”
“Coming to cow horse after another discipline can be an advantage if you’re open-minded, but it can hinder others,” Murphy says. “I helped Andrea mainly over the phone and we did an [Along For The Ride] podcast together. He’s a great horseman—he understands horses. He’d try something, then we’d talk it through, and he’d try again. He’s easy to help because he’s so smart about his horses.”
The shared challenge of training a cow horse brings horsemen together, and the shared highs and lows of competing with another animal in the pen solidifies that bond. It’s all working toward a new goal set by the longtime horseman. One that may eventually include training a bridle horse for cow horse events.
“For me, it’s not about earnings but personal success. The challenge will be to see if I’m able to train two horses to be able to compete at the Snaffle Bit Futurity in three events. I go step by step. I set a goal of what I want to do on a horse, and then after the Futurity we will have a new goal to build on,” Fappani says.
“Sometimes when you push yourself to be better at something new, it also makes you better at what else you do. I think [learning cow horse] is making me better at the reining. It’s not that I was bored or didn’t like what I was doing, but making my brain work harder and open up my vision has made me sharper in the reining.”
—H&R—
