From NCHA’s Daily Chatter
Justin White and Wild Hickory Bob shut out the competition late in the finals to win the NCHA Non-Pro Futurity with 222.5 points. Jason McClure and Jaebars Miss Quixote finished as reserve with 219, while Amateur and Non-Pro Limited champion Philip Layne claimed third place with 218.5 on Dual Ya Scoot.

“It’s a dream come true,” said White, 21, who purchased Wild Hickory Bob as a “pretty tough and bowed up stud” from a horse trader last June. White gelded the horse just days after the purchase and finished training him for the Futurity.

“I knew I had a pretty good horse, when I came here,” said White. “But I wasn’t thinking about winning. I was just thinking about advancing.

“He was cowed down and ready to go tonight. My first cow was a great one and after that one, I didn’t have any doubts. I wanted to stay aggressive, so I went for a cow that we wanted on the back wall and brought her up and she was a good one.”

When White quit his second cow, he quickly chipped a third from the top of the herd with 22 seconds left on the clock.

“I just came with her and threw him down and tried to show the best I could,” White said. “My horse was really dialed in.”

It has been an unprecedented week for Philip Layne, 17, the youngest Amateur Futurity champion on record. The home-schooled high school senior, who moved to Weatherford, TX with his mother this past summer to be close to the cutting action, earned a total of $83,049.

“My horse really came through for me,” said Layne, who made 10 trips to the herd this week. “In that last run, I could kind of feel him getting a little bit tired, but not to the point where we were worried about him at all. He could still go again right now. He’s got a big heart. He’s an awesome horse.”

Layne purchased his gelding just weeks before the Futurity from former Non-Pro champion Chad Bushaw, who split 10th place on Cats Ruby and was also a finalist on Coffee Cat 204.

“It was a business decision to show mares rather than geldings” said Bushaw, whose mare A Cat Above brought the top price at yesterday’s Preferred Breeders Sale. “I’m really tickled for Philip. You have to sell good horses, too, when you have a cutting horse program.”

Ken Mock trained Dual Ya Scoot for Bushaw.

Read more stories from the NCI Building Systems NCHA Futurity in today’s Daily Chatter, edited by Sally Harrison.