Matt Dillon Dun It has done it – adding yet another coveted title to the Bend stallion’s increasingly lengthy show resume.

Ridden by professional horseman Todd Crawford of Blanchard, Okla., the 1997 palomino quarter horse owned by 3 Peaks Ranch in Bend earned a world championship title in senior working cow horse last month at the American Quarter Horse Association world championship show in Oklahoma City.

While Matt Dillon Dun It owners Bill and Esther Jackson are no doubt accustomed to victory laps with their multiple title-winning horse in reining events, they were surprised on Nov. 17 in Oklahoma.

Their 8-year-old stallion, whose barn name is Simon, has been under saddle at working cow horse for only six months.

”It was hard to believe, because he’s such a beginner at this particular discipline,” said Bill Jackson last week from Oklahoma City. ”To see him do as well as he did was just an awesome feeling. It’s very thrilling.”

In the working cow horse event, points are awarded based on two separate performances: Horse and rider must first execute a reining-type pattern with figure eights, lead changes and sliding stops, called dry work. Then, a cow is introduced into the arena, and the team must control the movements of a single steer at a run, heading it off and turning it both ways along the fence, then bringing it into the center to circle it once in each direction.

The class winner is the team awarded the highest combined score from the two events.

Matt Dillon Dun It and Crawford were ranked fourth out of 55 horses after the preliminary round at the 32nd annual world show. The pair was among 15 finalists to be called back for a championship round. The duo’s combined performances in the dry and cow work totaled 451 points, six points higher than the reserve champion horse.

”Oh, it was awesome,” said Jackson, recalling his stallion’s world championship performance. ”His score was extremely high.”

The Jackson’s purchased Simon – sired by Hollywood Dun It and out of Rosalie Dillon – in 1998 as a yearling from Hooker Creek Ranch in Bend.

The platinum-colored stallion, currently standing at stud in Stephensville, Texas, has won multiple National Reining Horse Association titles throughout his career, along with lifetime earnings topping $132,500.

The two-week AQHA World Show is the largest and richest single-breed championship show in the world, with more than $2.2 million awarded to nearly 2,000 professional and amateur exhibitors in 86 classes.

To qualify for the invitation-only show, a horse must have earned a predetermined number of points from AQHA-approved shows during the qualifying year.

Bill Jackson said future plans for Matt Dillon Dun It and Todd Crawford include entry into the National Reined Cow Horse Association’s World’s Greatest Horseman competition.