Ashley Schafer and Fiesta By Design took the Royal Crown Derby in Buckeye, Arizona, clocking a 16.905-second run and adding $5,202 to his lifetime earnings, bringing his LTE to $332,591.

Bred by Jason Martin and Charlie Cole, Fiesta By Design—aka “Mitch”—is a 2019 gelding by Slick By Design out of HP Fiesta Fame, a Dash Ta Fame mare.

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“I love running him on a standard pattern,” Schafer said. “I can let him use his wheels and trust him enough to let him run hard and he’ll shut down and turn. I dropped my inside rein going to the first barrel, but I was able to pick it back up towards the middle of the barrel. Fortunately, with Mitch, you don’t really have to touch him going around the first barrel, so I just let him turn and he worked really nice. He smoked the second barrel, but I don’t feel like I set him up well for the third barrel. He just had a really nice, clean, smooth pass.”

Building Trust

Schafer started Mitch on the pattern as a 3-year-old and immediately connected with his willingness to please.

“He’s always been a really insecure horse,” Schafer said. “He’s very needy and needs to trust me. When I started riding him, I could really feel that, but he was so soft and trainable. He’s always been a favorite of mine. I would love to build him a stall in the house so he could just live with me. He’s like a big dog, and I love that.”

Mitch thrives on positive reinforcement, something Schafer loves to give him.

“I love getting to know these horses and their personalities,” Schafer said. “It’s fun to have a horse that depends on you for confidence. I always work on giving Mitch positive reinforcement because he’s so insecure. I talk to him, love on him, and let him know that it’s okay.”

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Fiesta By Design’s Future

Mitch’s future remains open-ended, but Schafer is optimistic about his potential.

“He actually missed about six months of his futurity year,” Schafer said. “He had some little issues that cost him a lot of that year, but he really capitalized when he did run and still won quite a bit of money. I plan to take him to the derbies this year and maybe a rodeo or two. I’m running my other derby horse, Chrome Plated Fame at some rodeos, so I might enter Mitch as well. My main focus is on making him more solid and confident—we’ll see where it goes from there.”

Royal Crown Derby First Round Results

Full Royal Crown Derby results can be found here.