Team Awards at Championship
First Man/Man team wins $1,000
First Man/Woman team wins $1,000
First Woman/Woman team wins $1,000
The Corky Award, named for Skip Lightfoot's and Curt Riffle's Ride & Tie partner Corky, cash award to be announced, the first pro-am team to finish if a pro-am team does not win the event. Read more about this award by clicking here.
Photo - Corky "at work" with Terri Milkovich during the April, 2004 Shine and Shine Only Ride & Tie near San Jose, California.
Photo Courtesy of Debbie Cabrera, Photo Finish Photography-pfp@debbiecabrera.net
The Corky Pro-Am Award will again be given to the top place pro-am team at this year's World Championship Ride & Tie. The $300 award was created in 2003 by Curt Riffle and Skip Lightfoot (Corky's co-owners) to honor the best pro-am team at the Championship (unless they finish first and qualify for the Pat's Purse Award).
Curt and Skip hold the record for the most team miles (1283) and the most races (28) in the history of the sport, and Corky holds the record for the most number of races completed (41) and is third for the most miles completed (1109) and number of years competing (14). At 24, Corky is still active and expects to do one or two ride & tie events this year.
"Skip, Corky, and I teamed almost exclusively during most of the 1990's," according to Curt. "Corky has always had such a fun, Go-For-It attitude, especially at the start, and he still does even into his senior years!" Curt and Skip thought of the Corky Pro-Am Award to honor all of the new people that Corky has helped bring into the sport. "We practice ride & tie almost every weekend, and we usually ask Corky to take care of the new people who may be joining us." "When it comes to races, we are very selective these days who gets to use Corky. It is usually one of us with a novice or amateur, but Corky definitely prefers women to men. I think it is because they usually are better riders and they certainly weigh less than Skip!"
Competitors know Corky best because of the wide-track gait of his hind legs when he is at a fast trot. "It kind of looks like an ostrich. Everyone knows it is Corky once they see him go by them." "He is a push-button ride & tie horse. When we want him to stop so you can tie him to a tree, we just say "tie". Then he gives you about 2 seconds to get into the saddle after you un-tie him. But he has been know to hide behind trees when he gets tired hoping we'll run past him."
Corky lives at Skip's Lightfoot Stables in San Jose, CA. He is in a 40+ acre pasture all year long with about eight other ride & tie and endurance Arabians. In addition to good quality hay twice a day, his workout diet consists of oats, Purina Performance 200, beet pulp, corn oil and rice bran. For the past four years he has also been getting Platinum Performance as well as 99S (Glucosamine Sulphate). Corky also has used a Supracor saddle pad for about the last five years. During the week, he is used by Becky Hart to give riding lessons to, you guessed it, girls. According to Curt, "One time I arrived at the stables in the middle of a week day, and there was Corky tied at the tack shed with pink bows in his mane. He actually looked like he blushed when he saw me get out of my truck, and certainly avoided eye contact!"
"We hope he'll be with us and be healthy for many years to come. Who knows, he might even help a pro-am team win the Corky Award!"
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