The NRBC announced in late March that Paramount Network has come on board as the exclusive naming sponsor of the Yellowstone Rookie Shootout. This new event will be a highlight of the NRBC with Rookie Riders vying for an opportunity to make the 5-person Rookie Shootout on Friday night April 20 – center-stage in the Great Southwest Equestrian Center.
“Yellowstone,” Paramount Network’s new epic scripted dramatic series, is written and directed by critically acclaimed, Oscar®-nominated screenwriter Taylor Sheridan (Wind River, Hell or High Water and Sicario). Sheridan won Best Director Un Certain Regard at the Cannes Film Festival for the universally lauded film, Wind River.
The partnership between NRBC and Yellowstone came about because, in addition to being the creator and producer of Yellowstone, Taylor Sheridan is also a reiner! Sheridan explained, “For me, reining has grown from curiosity to passion to obsession. It is a sport that provides entire families with opportunities to compete and play together in an environment that embraces both camaraderie and competition. And above all, no other equine sport involves such complete trust and connection between horse and rider.”
He continued, “My inspiration to create Yellowstone was to introduce more of America to the ‘cowboy way’ and promoting the sport that I love with the series was something I always intended to do. Likewise, the reining horse industry has been very supportive of me and being a sponsor of the NRBC, the largest derby in the world, I feel will be mutually beneficial to the series and the sport of reining. A career highlight of mine is a scene I wrote where Kevin Costner is looking to buy a stallion for his ranch. Andrea Fappani, Tim McQuay, and Tom Foran performed on modified reining patterns. Andrea rode Lil’ Joe Cash, Tim rode Custom Made Gun, and Tom rode Walla Walla Starbuck. We essentially filmed a sales video for the sport of reining. It was interesting to watch a scene with a pillar of the acting community interacting with a pillar of the reining industry while riding one of the sport’s most impressive stallions.
“Before we started shooting the scene, we were all loping in the arena, warming the horses up, and I couldn’t stop laughing – I was getting paid to ride Lil Joe Cash in the Bitterroot Mountains in Montana. Reining has given me a tremendous amount, and it pleases me to no end when I find ways to the same for the sport of reining.”
In “Yellowstone”, world-renowned actor and Oscar winner Kevin Costner serves in the lead role as John Dutton, who controls the largest contiguous ranch in the United States under constant attack by those it borders – land developers, an Indian reservation, and America’s first National Park. It is an intense study of a violent world far from media scrutiny – where land grabs make developers billions, and politicians are bought and sold by the world’s largest oil and lumber corporations. Where drinking water poisoned by fracking wells and unsolved murders are not news: they are a consequence of living in the new frontier. It is the best and worst of America seen through the eyes of a family that represents both.
The impressive cast list for “Yellowstone” also includes Wes Bentley, Kelly Reilly, Luke Grimes, Cole Hauser, Kelsey Asbille, Dave Annable, Danny Huston, Gil Birmingham, Josh Lucas, Jefferson White, Gretchen Mol, Jill Hennessey, Patrick St. Esprit, Ian Bohen, Heather Hemmons, and Denim Richards.
“Yellowstone” premieres on Paramount Network Wednesday, June 20 at 9:00 pm ET/PT.
Yellowstone Rookie Shootout Rules:
The top five composite scores plus ties from Wednesday and Thursday Rookie classes will advance to the Shootout with no additional entry fees. The Shootout final round will be held Friday night prior to the start of the NRBC Open Classic Challenge. At NRBC, everyone gets a chance to win, and many get more than one chance, so on Sunday, everyone who competed in both preliminary rounds of the Shootout except for Friday night’s champion can enter the Yellowstone Rookie Shootout Consolation round where another great prize will be given to the champion!