FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

December 27, 2005

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NCHA Crowns Five New Futurity Champs

2005 Futurity Champions include many first time winners

Open Futurity Finals

(Fort Worth, TX) —Tommy Marvin and Highbrow Supercat, owned by Paul Dean of Claremore, Oklahoma stole the show with a two-point win over veteran NCHA Futurity champion Ronnie Rice on Peptocandy, owned by Kelly Schaar. Marvin was the third rider in the last set of Finals competition and won the Futurity Open Championship with a score of 226.5 points.

Open Reserve Champion Ronnie Rice scored 224.5 points as the next to-the-last rider in the first bunch and remained unchallenged until Marvin’s winning run in the second bunch. Im Countin Checks, ridden by Matt Gaines, was third with 222.5 points, while Jerries Dual Legacy, with Graham Amos, and Autumn Acre, with Phil Rapp, earned 222 points with exciting performances in the first set of cattle.

First-time Open Futurity Champion Tommy Marvin, was as humble as he was excited as he spoke of his win.

“It’s a dream come true,” said Marvin, who had placed second in the Open Semi-Finals with 220 points. “It’s usually nerve-wracking, but I had a lot of confidence in the cows we had picked. And they were easy to cut and the horse just rose to the occasion.

“She has a showy style and she is real gritty,” he added. “It’s just a combination of things that a lot of horses have, one or the other, but she has both.”

Highbrow Supercat’s owner Paul Dean is a small animal veterinarian from Claremore, Oklahoma. He purchased Highbrow Supercat privately, as a yearling, from C. Anderson.

“Paul has had horses with me for several years,” said Marvin. “But we sold them every year. This is the first one that he said, ‘We’re going to keep this one and

show it.’ “I knew as soon as I got her, I was almost sure that I would be showing her here, if she stayed healthy. She was easy to train and always tried to be good. I never

had to fuss with her at all. She doesn’t take much loping. “She’s just like a dream

horse.”

This is not only Marvin’s first Futurity championship, but also his first championship in an any NCHA Triple Crown event. He was reserve champion of the 1990 NCHA Derby on Hickory Prescription, owned by Willard Walker, and fourth in the NCHA Futurity.

Non-Pro Futurity Finals

A 223-point ride in Non-Pro finals made Sandy Bonelli of Petaluma, California the first woman to win back-to-back NCHA Futurity championship titles. It had been 30 years since Buster Welch won back-to-back Futurity titles 1962 and 1963, before the inception of the non-pro division. This is Bonelli’s fourth title, which puts her one title away from Buster Welch’s record of five NCHA Futurity championships.

“My mare was fabulous tonight,” said Bonelli of Blue Leboon, whom she purchased as a weanling from Benny Martinez. “That second cow was fast and I wasn’t sure if I could hold it, but I did. Then we turned around and Lindy (Burch) yelled at me to cut a cow, any cow. Paul Hansma pointed out a black cow coming around on the outside. I cut it and it turned out to be a good cow. “A lot of it is just sheer luck. But I have terrific helpers. It takes a team.”

Bonelli first saw Blue Leboon, named for her breeding and Blue Roan color, while she was still at Oswood Stallion Station checking on one of her own fillies. It was there that Bonelli became fascinated with the young Blue Leboon.

“I knew nothing about the mare,” she recalled. “But when she walked up

to me and spooked, there was something about the way she drew back and dropped her head and turned around.”

This was the first time Bonelli purchased a weanling that she chose on her own.

“It sure could have gone either way,” she said. “But I had wanted a (horse out of) Peptoboonsmal and she’s out of a Doc O’Lena mare, so you’ve got to figure there’s a pretty good chance of her being a good mare.”

After purchasing Blue Leboon, Bonelli decided to personally train the new horse.

“She is one of the easiest horses to train that I’ve ever had,” she said. “She’s really smart about a cow – she knows where she should be to be able to control a cow. And she stays low to the ground all of the time and spreads her hocks. She does it right. It just comes naturally to her.”

Last year, Bonelli won the Futurity Non-Pro class on another horse of hers, Midnight Rondeevous. That horse was bred from Shakin Flo, whom she rode when she won the 1997 Non-Pro Futurity title. Bonelli won her first Non-Pro Futurity title in 1989 on Bella Coquette, and was also a reserve champion in 1993 and 1986. Bonelli’s lifetime earnings are in excess of $3 million.

Amateur Futurity Finals

The second run was the charm for Jim Langdale riding Red Money Merada. Having shown the same horse earlier that day, Langdale climbed aboard Red Money Merada a second time to score a 219 in the finals, and claim the title of Futurity Amateur Champion.

“I think I was sweating pretty good and it’s cold outside,” said Langdale, who had ridden earlier in the day in the Non-Pro Limited Finals. “We didn’t get along real good in the Limited, but he’s a good, honest gelding. He’s been real easy to ride and he never quits coming back with a cow.”

Although Langdale has been cutting for three years, this is his first opportunity to show in the Futurity. This year he showed in both the Amateur and Non-Pro and missed qualifying for the Non-Pro Limited semi-finals earlier in the day by half a-point before coming back to win the Amateur title. Last January, however, he won the Western Horseman Cup Non-Pro Finals on another horse, who, like Red Money Merada, was trained by Austin Shepard.

“Austin helped me buy Widows Intentions and I had so much luck on him last year that I won more money than I was supposed to,” said Langdale, who no longer be eligible for the amateur division in 2006 due to his earnings this year. “This was my only Amateur Futurity opportunity. “This has probably been the best year of my whole life,” he added. “My wife, Casey, and I are expecting a baby boy in February. I got lucky and won the Western Horseman Cup and now I won the Amateur Futurity. You could shoot me dead right now and I’d be happy. Austin’s always told me it would be nice to win anything in Will Rogers Coliseum. It’s such an historic place. I can’t believe it.”

Thirty-three year-old Langdale, manages the solid wood products division of his family’s forest product business in Quitman, Georgia. He grew up riding horses and worked for a ranch in Montgomery, Alabama in college. It was while he was riding horses everyday and working at the ranch when he vowed he would own a cutting horse one day.

“I worked for ten years and saved every penny I had and finally bought one,” he said. “Now I probably have more (of them) than I can afford.”

Limited Open Futurity Finals

Casey Green, Longmont, Colorado, ran away with the Championship Title in the Open Limited division with a score of 222 points. The title of Reserve Open Limited Champion went to Cody Hall, who marked a 218 on Cole Benedict’s horse, MH Ima Smartbodee. As the second rider in the first set, Hall’s score went unchallenged until Casey Green’s run on Buckaroo Boon late in the second set of cattle.

“She’s probably the best horse that I’ve ever shown here,” said Green of Buckaroo Boon.

Green speaks highly of the mare his wife bred and rode to win the Reserve Championship title in the Non-Pro Limited division.

“She can do some fancy stuff when she gets the opportunity, but she’s got a lot of stop and I picked three cows that would let her do that.”

When it came time to start training Buckaroo Boon, he sent her to Bubba Matlock, whom he credits for the horse’s early success.

“He did a terrific job,” said Green. He gets a lot of the credit. He put a good foundation on her.”

As for Green, he spent five years under the guidance of trainer Eddie Flynn while at the Rocking W Ranch, during which time he earned a spot in the Limited Open finals at the 2003 Futurity.

“I have to give Eddie most of the credit,” said Green. “Probably ninety-nine percent of the stuff I know came from Eddie.”

Limited Non-Pro Futurity Finals

Jennifer Pounds of Millsap, Texas, rode Doc O Color to claim the Non-Pro Limited Futurity Championship during the final week of the NCHA World Championship Futurity in Fort Worth.

Jennifer and her husband, Kory purchased Doc O Color as a 2 year-old last year during the futurity sales and teamed up to train the young horse; Jennifer broke the mare and started her on cattle, and Kory, who also competed in the Futurity’s Open division, finished the horse.

It was Jennifer, however, who led the horse to victory as the first horse and rider team to compete in the set. Jennifer and her helpers had cows picked out before her exciting run began, and her first place draw enabled her to work the exact cows she originally chose. Her high-scoring run set the bar early with the winning score of 218.5.

“All three cows I cut, we watched and liked,” said Pounds. “I was first in the herd and if they hadn’t been in the right spot, I wouldn’t have cut them. But everything seemed to go right. I’ve never really had that happen before.”

This is Pounds’ first win in Fort Worth. The Fort Worth Triple Crown events are among the most prestigious and competitive in the cutting circuit. Last year was Jennifer’s first Fort Worth show, and her big win this year comes after a disappointing run last year, in which she only made it through the first round of competition.

“This is the biggest achievement in my whole lifetime,” she said. I really feel blessed that we get to do what we do.”

The National Cutting Horse Association is made up of 16,000 members across the United States with a wide range of backgrounds. The sport of cutting has roots in Western ranching traditions, where good horses were a necessity for everyday ranch work and cattle handling. From cowgirls to CEOs, from firefighters to professional football players, the common ground is often in the cutting arena. Each year more than 2,200 NCHA-approved events are held throughout the country with more than $35 million in prize money awarded.

For more information about the NCHA or the sport of cutting, please call 817-244-6188 or log on to www.nchacutting.com.

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