NRHA $5M Rider | 2019 Horseman of the Year | All 5 Major Event Champion
Craig Schmersal grew up in Columbus Grove, Ohio, where his father Chuck inspired and supported a love of horses from an early age. The summers he spent riding with multiple NRHA Futurity Champion Mike Flarida were formative — and set the stage for a career that would take him to the top of the sport and keep him there for three decades.
He earned his first NRHA paycheck in 1988 — a modest $61.38 — and from that starting point built one of the most complete resumes in the history of the sport. By his own admission, he has missed the NRHA Futurity Open Finals only once since 1995 — a consistency that speaks as loudly as any single championship.
Schmersal is the only rider in NRHA history to win all five major events at the Level 4 Open: The Run For A Million, The NRHA Futurity, The NRHA Derby, The National Reining Breeders Classic, and The Quarter Horse Congress. That achievement alone places him in a category of one.
On the international stage, he was a member of gold medal Team USA at the 2002 World Equestrian Games in Spain aboard Tidal Wave Jack. He won the 2005 FEI World Reining Masters and was a multi-time gold and silver medalist at the 2006 and 2010 World Equestrian Games — three WEG campaigns that produced a consistent presence on the podium for Team USA.
The 2017 NRHA Futurity was a particularly meaningful milestone. Though Schmersal had won every other major NRHA event over his career, the Futurity crown had eluded him — until Face The Attitude delivered a 224.5 run on the final night in Oklahoma City to claim the championship that completed his collection.
In 2019, he won the inaugural Run For A Million Invitational Co-Championship — posting a 229.5 with No Smoking Required, the stallion he has ridden to more than $458,000 in career earnings. That same year, he was named the NRHA Horseman of the Year — a peer-voted distinction that speaks to the respect he has earned beyond the scoreboard.
Schmersal currently operates his reining business in Scottsdale, Arizona, with his wife Ginger and their four children. He also promotes stallions Pale Face Dunnit (NRHA Two Million Dollar Sire) and No Smoking Required, further demonstrating his commitment to every facet of the reining industry from breeding to the show pen.
Craig Schmersal rides Superior Saddles by Andy Mashke — the Craig Schmersal Allround Saddle in the Superior lineup reflects his riding philosophy: a saddle that performs equally in the reining pen and in whatever the sport demands next. Built for complete riders, by a complete maker.
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