Oh Cay Felix’s win in the National Cutting Horse Association Futurity (see my article and coverage in the NCHA Daily Chatter, Dec 18 edition, at http://www.nchacutting.com/) and the NCHA Futurity Sales ushered in an exciting new era for the sport of cutting, the richest arena horse sport in the U.S. NCHA Futurity Sales rank second-only to Thoroughbred race horses sales as the highest grossing horse auctions in North America.
As a bellwether of breeding trends, this year’s NCHA Futurity reinforced the dominance of High Brow Cat. The 1988 sorrel stallion, owned by Jack and Susan Waggoner, Bridgeport, TX, has been cutting’s leading sire for the past four years and has offspring earnings of more than $19 million, including $1.3 million from the 2006 NCHA Futurity.
High Brow Cat three-year-olds swept the NCHA Futurity Open division claiming the champion and reserve champion titles. Forty-six percent (12 out of 26) of the Open finalists were sired by High Brow Cat.; 26 out of 71 Open semi-finalists were also High Brow Cats.
“Breeding animals is just like building a building or a business,” said Jack Waggoner, whose business interests include insurance and lodging. “You have to have a plan and an ultimate goal. If you don’t you’re just propagating the species.
“You are trying for an ideal. That ideal may not be everyone’s ideal, but it’s yours – that’s what you’re trying to make.
“When we started to breed ‘Cat,’ people said, oh boy, he’s a High Brow Hickory and he’s this and he’s that. But I told them, he’s what I think a cutting horse should look like and act like.
“We’re raising contest horses. It isn’t a horse that you can use for everything. We’ve narrowed it down. It’s just like a field trial dog. He isn’t necessarily your family pet. He’s bred for competition.
“We breed these horses now to have try and heart. If they quit, if they’re not tough, we can’t use them. They have to be intent on the cow and work with intensity, and then they have to be tremendous athletes.
“And above all, they have to be intelligent. If they aren’t intelligent and don’t take training well, we’re not going to progress. There are horses that have won that are not too intelligent, but they’re not consistent and they don’t produce consistent winners.
“Every once in a while a horse like ‘Cat’ will come along and whatever you breed him to will produce a horse that will cut,” Waggoner added. “I’ve never seen a trained horse by High Brow Cat that wasn’t a good cutting horse.”