Sliding into the History Books: Kaci O'Rourke Cinches NRHA Futurity Championship

Level 3 and 4 NRHA Open Rider Kaci O'Rourke made history in more ways than one this weekend with her big win on The Firemen at the 2024 NRHA Futurity.

Kaci O'Rourke celebrates her NRHA Futurity win with The Firemen. / National Reining Horse Association via Facebook

The first weekend of December 2024 has shaped up to be an exciting one across all western sports disciplines, with three big-ticket events occurring across the country. Of course, these were the National Cutting Horse Association Futurity, which was wrapping up in Fort Worth, TX and the opening weekend of the National Finals Rodeo kicking off in Las Vegas. The third of these: the National Reining Horse Association Futurity, taking the stage for one final time at the storied Jim Norick Coliseum in Oklahoma City. 

The NRHA Futurity, which also happens to be the world’s richest reining and the association’s most important and highly anticipated event of the year, first took place in Ohio in 1966. Twenty years later, the event was moved to the Jim Norick Coliseum at the Oklahoma City Fairgrounds - a building that’s played host to world-renowned events such as the National Finals Rodeo and iconic musical artists like Elvis Presley. 

History was already set to be made at the 2024 NRHA Futurity, regardless of who walked out with the championship ring and roses, as a new coliseum’s in the final stages of construction, and this year’s the last that the Norick will play host to the event. 

But for NRHA 2024 Open Futurity Champion Kaci O’Rourke, a little more history stood to be written before saying goodbye to the well-loved venue. 

O’Rourke, an NRHA level 3 and 4 open rider and horse trainer out of Aubrey, TX, entered two horses in the Futurity preliminary go rounds held the last week of November and qualified them both for the open semifinals. On Lil Showstopper, she marked a 216.5 and 213.5 in the preliminaries and semifinals, respectively, for a composite score of 430, and on The Firemen, she left with a 224 and a 218 for a composite of 442. This qualified The Firemen, a 2021 Inferno Sixty Six x Redhot Walla stallion owned by Peter and Courtney Morgan, for the pinnacle event of the Futurity: the Level 4 Open Finals, held Saturday, December 7th. 

Up against reining legends such as Andrea Fappani, Casey Deary and Jason VanLandingham, each with multiple qualified horses in the finals, nerves were no doubt high for O’Rourke, but in true professional fashion, she kept her cool under pressure, sliding into a huge 229 score in the clean slate finals round. Not only did this claim O’Rourke and The Firemen, who she calls “Thiago”, the Level Three Open Futurity Championship, but it cinched them the coveted Level Four Championship ring, as well. 

This win secured O’Rourke’s place in reining history as the final futurity champion crowned in the Jim Norick Coliseum, and also as the first woman ever to win the title. She’s only the second open rider in NRHA history to win the Level Four Championships as a level three rider, preceded only by NRHA open rider Cade McCutcheon, who claimed the feat in 2019. 

With The Fireman claiming such a great accomplishment at such a young age, it’s no doubt that we can expect deep tracks and quick turnarounds from this duo for years to come.