EC Blog Post – A Team Worth Believing In

By Michelle Prather-Merkley

At the beginning of the 2022 NCHA Futurity, Taylor Sheridan, the co-creator of the mega-hit Yellowstone, implored the audience at Will Rogers Coliseum to not let their babies grow up to be plastic surgeons, the world has enough of them. He said we need more cowboys and, as was the case as the evening came to a close, cowgirls. Lindy Thorn, riding Phil N’ Dangerous, owned by Misty Greeson, was the first woman in twenty-two years to win the sport’s most prestigious trophy.

 

It is all nice and good to encourage our youth to choose the western lifestyle, but if they do,  most will not be able to afford the horses that sell this time of year for up to $ 1.5 million. It is the plastic surgeons and oil money that are writing the big checks for big time horses. At this year’s sale, yearlings with bad x-rays were going for over $25,000, an amount that is unattainable for someone working even an average medium income job. The sport can implement as many leveling systems in the show pen as they want, but they can never level out the advantage in the sale pen. Many believe, that cutting, at the highest level, is becoming a rich person’s sport.

 

Then, like a fairy tale, comes a horse like Phil N’Dangerous. “Phil” is a homegrown Hottish stud out of a mare that owner, Misty Greeson, bought for $25,000, Lil Maddy Rey at the end of her 4-year-old-year. The horse had only won $7,000. She was the little horse no one wanted to buy. She was not even nominated for the Super Stakes. However, in a perfect trifecta, horse, trainer and owner started to come into their own at the same time. Last year Maddy was hauled for the World and made top 15 in the Open. This year, owner and horse made the Unlimited Amateur World finals after not starting to haul until September. Maddy’s earnings are now over $150,000.

 

While his momma was on the road earning checks, Phil was at home doing what two-year-olds do—learning to be a cutting horse. People tend to romanticize a horse’s formative years once they are winners, but have no doubt, trainer and owner knew this horse was special from the start. One of his first rides, owner Misty rode him bareback. After a few reminders of how a stud should not act on Lindy’s ranch, he became as tame as any gelding.

 

Misty could have taken Phil to a big-name trainer. It was obvious he was that good, but she stayed where she was. Initially, Misty had picked Lindy to train her horses because she was looking for a female trainer. In the cutting horse world, those are few and far between. She stayed because Lindy trains a hell of a horse. As a two-year-old trainer she is behind the scenes and often doesn’t get the recognition for the championship horses she has trained once they leave her barn. The beautiful thing is Lindy doesn’t care. She is content doing all the work and getting none of the glory.

But the attention came, regardless, once Phil started going to futurity pre-works. People  wanted to know what horse that was and who was riding it. It validated what Misty and Lindy had known all along; Phil was the real deal.

 

I had a chance to talk to Lindy after her big win. She told me about her days in the trenches, the hard work and long hours working for someone else and then building her own business from the ground up. She worked for a couple of different trainers, including NCHA futurity winner, Tommy Marvin, for several  years. She remembers the name of the first horse she got to show in cutting while still an assistant, MK Spoonful of Hope. In poetic manner, Tommy sat in the corner for his former assistant on her winning futurity run. While in the winner’s  circle, he said he was probably more excited about Lindy’s win than his own seventeen years ago.

 

Much will be made of the fact the Lindy was only the third woman to win the much-coveted futurity championship and it had been twenty-two years since the last. I asked Lindy if she experienced any hardships being a woman in such a male-dominated sport. She said none, that she had been accepted into the ranks without hesitation. Men such as James Payne, Lloyd Cox, Sean Flynn and others took the time to mentor and encourage her. We have reason to be proud as an association when no longer does your gender hold you back in your pursuit for greatness and, at all levels, women have a seat at the table.

 

And the women did rally around Lindy. It is such a small club that they take care of their own. Futurity winner Lindy Burch gave her a pep talk before her finals runs. Last year’s reserve champion, Cara Brewer, helped her pick cattle and held herd for all of her runs. Lindy walked by a  group of woman who stayed long after the show was over, to give her one last cheer. It  was sisterhood at its best. She said she hoped if one thing came out of her win it was that maybe one little girl might dream about becoming  a trainer, instead of marrying one. To which she was quick to add she feels most trainer’s spouses are the hardest working  people of the team and least recognized. She knows, her husband Troy is an integral part of her program.

 

It’s hard not to cheer for Lindy, Misty and Phil. They were unknown underdogs coming into the show. They come from humble beginnings. Lindy had never made an Open futurity final. They are the equivalent of Kentucky Derby winner California Chrome, who was bought for $8,000 and dubbed “the working man’s horse.”

 

This team gives us hope that at the end of the day, the working man does have a chance of winning the NCHA futurity. That the world does have enough plastic surgeons and there is hope a younger generation will carry on the western tradition. And maybe, just maybe there is hope that there is a little girl who will grow up to be the next Lindy and she will know the string of women who rode before her.