Shawn Hays and MoonShineAndTwoAdvil earn 2024 World’s Greatest Horseman Championship

During the National Reined Cow Horse Associatioin (NRCHA) Ray Shell Ranch and Western Bloodstock World’s Greatest Horseman rein work finals, Shawn Hays stopped so hard on MoonShineAndTwoAdvil that his hat almost fell off. After his 224.5 point fence run, Hays was so excited he took the hat off himself and thrust it towards the sky. His excitement was felt throughout the whole Will Rogers Coliseum, although no one knew it at the moment, Shawn Hays and MoonShineAndTwoAdvil had just become the 2024 World’s Greatest Horseman Champions.

He’s Earned It

MoonshineAndTwoAdvil is by EquiStat Elite $65 Million Sire Metallic Cat and is the top earner out of Little Short Stuff (by Shorty Lena). The 2014 gelding has seen his share of show pens and impressive crowds. He has earned $171,470 according to EquiStat, a figure that nearly doubled with this championship.

Shawn Hays removed his hat and pumped it in the air out of excitement from a great fence run. * Photo by Amy Olson

“This will be the fourth time I’ve shown him here,” Hays explained. “The first year I showed him I was third. The second year I had a little bauble on the steer stopping and missed, didn’t make the finals. Last year we made the finals and broke the barrier, missed again in the roping. So this year I decided I better practice my roping a little better and it worked out.”

Hays’ dedication to the bay horse and improving his roping skills paid off in a big way. Steer stopping isn’t the only event to eliminate competitors though. During the preliminary rounds, the pair marked a 214.5 in the herd work, but Hays didn’t get rattled.

“It’s a four event deal and even if you even if you stub your toe, you’ve still got three more events to come back,” Hays said. “Last year, I think I was a 210 and still came back and made the finals. This year everybody was like ‘oh man sorry, your herd work didn’t go very good in the prelims,’ I was a 214.5. Shoot I’m four and a half points higher than I was last year so we were sitting good.”

The same mentality helped in the finals as well. Hays and the bay scored really well in the first two events on Saturday (221.5 Herd/ 222.5 Steer Stopping), however, they lacked a few points in the third event marking a 217 in the rein work. Hays was looking forward to showing off in the final event, the fence work.

“Really my specialty is the fence work. That’s where I think I shine at,” Hays said. “And anyone that’s in the reined cow horse deal I think that’s what it’s all about, the fence work. You know the reiners have the reining and cutters have the cutting and I think our event is all about the fence work. But we still have to be good in all the others, and it’s getting to where you have to be really good at all four.”

Shawn Hays and MoonshineAndTwoAdvil in the steer stopping. * Photo by Amy Olson

A 224.5 down the fence sealed in their composite score at a 885.5, but they had some waiting to do. Hays and MoonshineAndTwoAdvil were the first competitors to go down the fence during the finals.

Before and After

Hays has been riding the gelding bred by Witchita Ranch since he was a three-year-old, and the two have shared more than just a few long days and sleepless nights.

They were the American Quarter Horse Association (AQHA) Junior Working Cow Horse World Champions in 2019, the National Reined Cow Horse Association (NRCHA) Open Hackamore World Champions in 2020, and have competed in The Run For A Million’s Cow Horse Challenge twice, in addition to their World’s Greatest Horseman appearances.

Trainer Shawn Hays became an NRCHA $1 Million Rider last fall after the Snaffle Bit Futurity. MoonshineAndTwoAdvil contributed heavily to that accomplishment as did his owners, Randy and Angela Massey of Knoxville, Tennessee.

“Clients are what make this thing go around,” Hays said as he pointed out Massey’s newer horse in his training.

Paint It Blak (CR Gotcha Covered x Herbs Lady x Grays Starlight) is also owned by the Masseys and qualified for the Snaffle Bit Futurity Open Finals with Hays last fall.

As for MoonshineAndTwoAdvil, it’s up to the Masseys what his career will look like in the future.

“They’ve been great owners. They’ve stuck with me through thick and thin and I gotta thank them for for hanging in there with me,” Hays said. “I don’t know if we want to do The Run For The Million one more time. But you know, this might be a good note to retire him on, but I just have to leave that in their hands.”