The “Australian Open” of cutting has once again kicked off at AELEC, bringing in Australia’s – and some of the wider world’s – best cutting horses and their riders into Tamworth.
The National Cutting Horse Association’s annual futurity has called AELEC home ever since the purpose-built and “world-class” equestrian facility was built, and this year has seen significant growth, according to NCHA President Wayne Brown.
“It’s the opening week of our show – one of the biggest for a number of years,” Brown said.
“Our entries are up over 20% this year, we have nearly 900 competitors this year, over 480 horses, I believe, and prize money over $950,000, so it’s quite a major event.”
Cutting is a sport based on practices familiar to any culture that’s worked cattle from horseback – separating a single beast from the herd, and preventing them from getting back to it, though the form the NCHA Futurity used the rules and structures formalised into a sport in America.
“It’s a traditional American cow/horse event that’s been running in Australia for over 50 years, with some of the best equine athletes in the world you could expect – great genetics, great trainers, and just a lot of excitement to watch it.”
Todd Graham, one of the biggest names in Australian cutting and the first Australian to amass more than a million dollars in prize money, has turned up to complete, but there’s also locals, Brown said, like Woolomin rider and breeder Hugh Miles, of Hugh Miles Breeding & Performance Horses, who’s fresh from taking out the top prize for campdrafting at Willinga Point on the south coast.
With such a huge amount of prize money at stake, the standard is high to train hard, and develop some of the best horses around, with dedicated cutting horse breeding studs and facilities, animal nutrition specialists like Prydes Easifeeds in Gunnedah, and a host of specialised veterinary services all needed to keep the sport going.
The event, Brown estimates, will inject between four-and-a-half and five million into the Tamworth economy, “in both the short and long term”.
“We have a lot of trainers based here – breeding facilities, training complexes.
“Fifteen days we run for,” Brown said, “I think it’s like equal to the Australian Open.”
“Our competitors and our members get excited about showing here
“We have international judges in from the US, and they see the facility for the first time are quite amazed by it.
“So it is world class.”
Even so, the event is growing, Brown said, stretching even AELEC’s capacity to accommodate it all, with the organisers having set up 96 portable stables just to accommodate all the horses/
“There’s a lot of excitement about the sport,” Brown said.
“We call it the Yellowstone effect – but I think just the excitement of the riding and watching these cutting horses are making the sport grow.”
Prue Simson, AELEC’s Manager, is keen to keep the relationship going.
“NCHA has been involved in AELEC since its inception, so to have them coming back is very important, and they continue to grow which injects more money in to the economy – not only for the people who are staying here, but it’s all the areas that they’re travelling from as well,” Simson said.
For some competitors, the journey taken to get here is proof of the dedication required, with Vicky Holden, her horse Pip, and her husband – previous champion Corey – making the journey all the way up from the Mornington Peninsula.
“This is my 20th Futurity,” Holden said, “We come up every year.”
“My husband has won the NCHA Derby before, and he’s won the Classic twice.”
Tori Palmowski is down from Toowoomba, and was watching the opening events before saddling up her own horse – Amaru Coco Gauff, after the American tennis star and, presumably, the last leader of the Incan Empire – and entering some of the later events.
“I don’t compete until the last four days,” Palmowski said, “in the Non-Pro Derby and the Non-Pro Derby Limited.”
It’s been a lifelong affair for Palmowski: “I’ve been coming to this show since I was a baby – a very long time, well over 15 years” – a tradition Palmowski is continuing, with a baby in a stroller at her side watching the horses.
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