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Tina Bush, standing with her horse, Chexman Dunit, recently added two World Championship titles to her list of achievements.
She’s known as No. 13033 on her American Ranch Horse Association membership card, but that’s not all that sets the cardholder apart from the rest.
Tina Bush, 60, who lives south of Palatka inside Caravelle Wildlife Management area near Rodeheaver Boys Ranch, recently added two World Championship titles to her list of achievements in the horse competition arena with the help of her quarter horse, Chexman Dunit.
The World Show was at the World Equestrian Center in Ocala from June 28 through July 8. The 11-day event featured 109 classes, where Bush competed in 14.
She won World Champion Novice Amateur Cow Catching and World Champion Novice Amateur Ranch Roping titles while taking fourth place in the Champion World Novice Amateur Ranch Reining and third place in the World Champion Amateur Versatility Challenge.
“This is one of the biggest events I have won and placed in so many different categories,” said Bush, who has been competing as part of the American Ranch Horse Association for six years.
She has owned her palomino dun for six years. Bush said “dun” describes the color markings on Opi, the horse’s barn name, with his golden coat and platinum blonde mane and tail.
“This is the first year I have been able to compete at the American Ranch Horse Association World Show,” said Bush, who is considered a novice amateur in the sport with limited showing experience.
Bush said the complex nature of the competition makes winning events even more gratifying.
“I had 30 seconds to turn a cow in the arena and rope it within the time limit,” she said. “To compete you ride in with your loop ready and call for your cow, read your cow, set yourself up and your horse has to rate the cow so you are close enough to rope it and rope.”
Bush describes ranch roping as going into a herd of cows and roping the one that bears the number that is called to you as you cross the timeline.
“You have one minute and 30 seconds without making the herd run,” she said. “Then you find your cow with the number and get your horse quietly as close as you can to rope it.”
For Bush’s wins, she received two belt buckles, two ribbons, two vests, a pillow and a knife.
“I want to thank my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ for allowing me to be able to win and compete with my horse,” she said. “He has blessed me tremendously. I give him all the glory and honor.”
Opi, who is 9 years old, is Bush’s only horse for now and she feels a close connection to him.
“God gave me a partner and friend that will do anything for me if I learn to ask him the right way,” she said. “You have to devote yourself and your horse to training in different disciplines and lots of miles daily.”
Bush was born and raised in New Mexico, while her husband, Mark, was born and raised in Jacksonville until his family moved to Gainesville, where he went to high school. The Bushes moved to Palatka in 2012.
“I am very proud of her,” Mark Bush said. “She has worked hard getting ready for the world competition. She loves to compete and train her horse. All her hard work has paid off.”
Tina Bush has competed in Bushnell, as well as Statesboro, Georgia, several times.
“I enjoy the people that I meet and the ability to show my horsemanship with all the different classes,” she said. “For example, a trail course to a working cow horse class.”
Bush’s interest in horses started the first time her mother put her at 9 months old on a horse with her dad, and she’s been riding one ever since.
“I have had horses all my life, having grown up on a ranch in New Mexico,” she said. “I was riding horses before I could even walk.”
