The past few weeks have been hectic for cutting horse trainers.

Calendars crammed with early futurities, late high-dollar events, NCHA Futurity preworks, two-year-old training – and occasionally, time for photographers like me, there on behest of owners, who need photos of their NCHA Futurity Sale consignments – complicate their schedules.

Last week I was able to catch up with several riders, including Phil Hanson, who shows LHR Smooth Jamie May, current leader in the race for 2010 NCHA Horse of the Year. Hanson worked another Smooth As A Cat daughter for me, 2-year-old Wareable, consigned to the 2010 NCHA Futurity Sales by her breeders, Jim and Carolyn Ware.

Sherry Chamberlin, owner of LHR Smooth Jamie May and Lazy H Ranch South in Weatherford, Texas, Hanson’s training headquarters, was also on hand, as were Chris and Michelle Hare, breeders of Pounce, the mare that Hanson recently showed as reserve champion of the Brazos Bash Derby and the NCHA Derby.

Both LHR Smooth Jamie May and Pounce are NCHA Futurity Sales graduates.

The consignment deadline for the 2010 NCHA Futurity Sales has been extended to October 25 because of additional demands on the sales’ producer, Western Bloodstock, which will also conduct the Buffalo Ranch Dispersal on October 13-14, and the Waggoner Ranch Complete Dispersal on October 29 and 30.

The NCHA Futurity Sales attract more buyers than all dispersal and alternative sales combined. Buyers from 36 states and six foreign countries purchased horses at the Futurity Sales in 2009.