Oklahoma City, OK – July 3, 2008 – The National Reining Horse Association (NRHA), the governing body of the sport or Reining, has reached a milestone achievement in the Association’s history – the 50,000th competition license.

Kiowas Lil Diamond, owned by Tobyann Faingold, was assigned license #550,000 on July 1, 2008. The first license issued was #500,001. It was assigned in 1990 to Electric Coffee, currently owned by John Rosi. The most recent milestone was license #540,000 in 2006 to Red Smarties, owned by Eric Mercier.

“We are very excited to see monumental growth in the number of horses licensed to compete at NRHA events. Nearly 25% of all licenses have been issued in the past two years. I think that is a tremendous indicator of the growth and excitement in the reining industry,” said NRHA Executive Director Dan Wall. “As the governing body of the sport, we are proud to see reining expand and improve not only here in the states, but also all over the world.”

All horses competing in NRHA events are required to have a license. NRHA competition licenses are permanent when issued to each horse. The licenses do not need to be renewed each year. However, they should be transferred to update ownership when a horse is purchased or sold.