RODEO HORSE STOLEN PRIZED BAY GONE FROM FAIRGROUNDS.

Byline: Daily News

LANCASTER - A rodeo cowboy Sunday reported his champion quarter horse stolen from the Antelope Valley Fairgrounds.

``Horse thefts are rare, but we do have them sometimes,'' said sheriff's Deputy Rick Nolte at the Lancaster station, which took the felony grand theft report Sunday morning.

The bay quarter horse named Scorpion was taken from a barn at the fairgrounds Saturday night.

Scorpion belongs to Chad Krainock of Paso Robles, who makes his living as a rodeo cowboy and blacksmith, said his cousin Robyn Ramey of Lancaster.

``He (the horse) is approximately 15.1 hands tall with hardly any unusual markings, so somebody could fake the registration papers on him and sell him as a registered quarter horse under a different name,'' Ramey said. ``No one would know that he's a big-time rodeo horse.''

She said Krainock competes in Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association events all over the western United States with Scorpion. ``That's how he makes his living,'' Ramey said.

Krainock went Sunday to look for Scorpion at a rodeo in Glenville, Calif., she said.

Ramey said there would be a reward for anyone who finds the horse, but she could not specify how much.

Scorpion is a 13-year-old registered quarter horse used in the rodeo event of bulldogging, which is also known as steer wrestling.

The stolen horse is a bay gelding, reddish brown with a black mane and tail and black legs. It has one small white marking on its right leg.