Each year, the National Snaffle Bit Association remembers NSBA past president, professional trainer, breeder and exhibitor, the late June Warren, with the presentation of the June Warren Memorial trophy, to the champion of the Breeders Championship Futurity Three Year Old Open Hunter Under Saddle class. This year’s winner was RS WhyDoYaDrank and Keith Miller, showing for owner Madeleine Bayless.
June served as NSBA president in 2005, and passed away following a two-year battle with brain cancer in 2010. She was a multiple AQHA World and Congress champion in Hunter Under Saddle events and made a huge mark on the breeding industry with the NSBA Hall of Fame stallion, Last Detail. June was inducted into the NSBA Hall of Fame posthumously in 2013.
Remembering June
NSBA Past President Leslie Vagneur Lange, of Greeley, Colorado, noted “June and her partner, Ron Horn, really led the way in the breeding of Hunter Under Saddle horses. They were on the ground floor in not only breeding, but campaigning the Hunter Under Saddle horses they raised. June was also a huge advocate for NSBA, and in fact she is the one who invited me to get involved with NSBA, when she asked me to serve on the Hunter Under Saddle Committee.
“She was also a big supporter of developing the Breeders Championship Futurity because she saw the value in giving back to the stallion owner, the breeder and the owner, so that they each had an incentive to participate in the BCF. She made a huge image on NSBA, the Hunter Under Saddle discipline and the industry.”
Professional Trainer Beth Case, of Pilot Point, also remembers June. “I remember talking with June at the NSBA World Show in 2006 when it was just getting started, and she told me that this show was going to be the biggest horse show of all - and she was right. Look at it now!
“I’ll also never forget buying a four year old gelding, Must Be A Detail, from June. She had won a lot on him as a two year old, and then I won a lot with him as a four year old. Later he won a ton of things with the entire Papendick family from the Senior, Select, to the Amateur. She sure put a foundation on the horses she trained.”
Non-Pro exhibitor Laurel Champlin’s daughter, Krista, won the AQHYA 18 & Under Hunt Seat Equitation on Rikers Legacy with June Warren as their trainer and coach in 1997. “We were at the Blue Ribbon Circuit in Tuscon, Arizona. I had told Krista that she could go to any trainer she wanted with her horse. Krista watched all of the trainers, and said ‘I want June Warren. She is so talented. I watched her show, I love how she shows, and I want June.’ We went to June and Ron for about two years, and she helped Krista win her one and only AQHYA world championship.
“I had known June since I was like 16 years old. We had a relationship and were friends and had shown together, and in fact I also trained with her for a while. That’s one of my greatest memories – that she made Krista a world champion. I’ll also always remember that she had beautiful whippets,“ noted the Pilot Point, Texas, exhibitor.
“In 2011, they had the first Breeders Championship Futurity Three Year Old Hunter Under Saddle Memorial class in June’s honor,” explained Professional Trainer Trisha Yamber, of Roberts, Georgia. “I had made it my goal to win that class, not so much to win the class itself, but to win it in June’s honor. I didn’t win it, but that was a class I always tried to win. She was a great competitor.”
Susan Kaplow was a long-time client of June Warren's. "June was our Southern Belle who loved Ron, her students, her horses and her whippets!" she said. "She always had a smile, even when her health was taking it's toll. Petite in stature, she had an enormous personality. She will never be forgotten."
NSBA congratulates RS WhyDoYaDrank, Keith Miller, and owner Madeleine Bayless on this very special win.
The NSBA World Championship Show and Breeders Championship Futurity continues through Sunday, August 18. To view the complete show schedule, complete show results or the live video feed during show hours, please visit nsba.com.
