2009 - Phil & Dot Rodey

 

Phil and Dot Rodey have had a life time

involvement in reining stretching back to

well before NRHA (Australia) or Reining

Australia came into being.

 

In 1988 Phil and Dot organised two

meetings (one at Cobbitty and one in

Dubbo) to see if there was enough

interest in forming a Reining horse

association here in Australia. In 1989 at

Tamworth the first Board was elected

and in the same year the first NRHA

Futurity Show was held at Whittlesea,
Victoria. A full reining program with a
$3,000 Futurity washeld – the ten board
members each donating $300 for the
Futurity prize money. 

 

The first NRHA Futurity was judged by Mario Boisjoli (USA) and won by Miss Bucks ‘n’ Chex ridden by Paul Farrell.

Phil Rodey was elected the first NRHA President and seven times he donated his services as Show Manager/Arena Director for the NRHA Futurity Shows.

 

Dot handled all legalities and the organisational arrangements to form the NRHA. Dot was the NRHA Secretary/Treasurer for seven years. For ten years Phil and Dot were a professional show management team for many major western horse shows. However they always donated their services to run the NRHA Futurity Shows.

 

Phil and Dot resigned from the NRHA Board in 1996 to concentrate on their business “ Phil Rodey Horsemanship”.In 1992 Phil was made NRHA Honorary Life Member Number One and in 1996 Dot was made Honorary Life Member Number Two.