Empty Stalls

If ever a horse could be credited with changing lives, it is Miss Plain Plain. The 1992 mare by Just Plain Colonel and out of Miss Master Blaster, by Master Blaster, was a cutting-trained mare when Scott and Darnell Trueblood bought her from John Ward, who bred her on the Ward Ranch in Tulare, California. Yet when she passed away at age 29 with then-owner Kevin Cantrelle, the mare boasted four finalist appearances in the World’s Greatest Horseman competition and earned Reserve twice. She also produced the 2017 National Reined Cow Horse Association Snaffle Bit Futurity® Open Champion, Plain Catty (by Bet Hesa Cat). It is quite a story.

Russell Dilday said that she didn’t have a barn name, and instead everyone called her Miss Plain Plain. A self-described green trainer when the Truebloods, of Ducor, California, purchased the mare, Dilday showed her in reined cow horse events. In 2001, he took her to the World’s Greatest Horseman.

“She taught me what a fence turn and a steer stopping run should feel like,” said Dilday. “That mare was incredible on the fence. Next to ‘Slider’ [Topsails Rien Maker], she is the best horse I’ll recall. If I hadn’t had her, I don’t know if I could have been ready for Slider. She was second twice and third once, and showed in the second-ever World’s Greatest. When I started showing Slider she became a full-time broodmare.”

With NRCHA earnings of $71,642.10 and cutting earnings topping $20,000, the mare held her own in the show pen. As a broodmare, Miss Plain Plain produced seven NRCHA performers with earnings of $233,203.75, including Plain Catty, a 2014 stallion Jake Gorrell rode to the 2017 NRCHA Snaffle Bit Futurity Open Champion title, and Plain Baby Plain (by Topsails Rein Maker), a 2006 mare owned by Cantrelle that Dilday showed to the Intermediate Open Snaffle Bit Futurity Finals.

“She made Jake a Snaffle Bit Champion, the Truebloods, Kevin and my family received so much … and she was a $20,000 cutter! People spend millions to do what she did for our industry,” said Dilday. Our condolences go out to Miss Plain Plain’s connections.

Miss Plain Plain helped Russell Dilday become a mainstay in the World’s Greatest Horseman comPRIMO MORALES petition.