Local reining horse, Smiley Starlight, has been winning in national shows

02/07/2007: The town of Watonga, Oklahoma has been announced over the loud speaker at quite a few Quarter Horse shows over the last year as the home of Smiley Starlight, a reining horse stallion owned by Bill and Janet Williamsen.

Reining is a western event designed to show the athletic ability of a ranch-type horse within the confines of a show arena. Each pattern includes small slow circles, large fast circles, flying lead changes, rollbacks over the hocks, 360-degree spins done in place and exciting sliding stops that are the hallmark of the reining horse. You can read more about reining at www.nrha.com.

Smiley Starlight recently won the Circuit Championship in Senior Reining at the National Western Stock Show Pre-Denver Show and also the Reserve Championship in the NWSS Senior Reining class. You can read more about Smiley Starlight at www.bittercreekranch.com.

The Williamsens purchased the Bitter Creek Ranch (formerly the Cronkhite Ranch) two years ago and are raising reining/cow horses and cattle. Janet Williamsen has also just won the 2006 Oklahoma State Championship for Amateur Select Reining and the Reserve Championship in Novice Amateur Reining on a horse named Little Smart Chic.

Janet Williamsen is the daughter of Harold Blackledge (Blackledge Aerial Sprayers) and Ruth Ann Blackledge of Watonga, who are from families that have farmed and ranched near Jet, Oklahoma since the Cherokee Strip Land Run. Bill Williamsen was born and raised in Colorado and is from a pioneer Nebraska farming and ranching family.

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