Boyd Rice and Arc Cat Her Please won the 2008 junior cutting world championship, after a work-off with Andy Sherrerd and Tanga Rey.
It’s not very often there’s a work-off for a world championship title, but when there is you can bet there’s riding to see. There were 17 top horses in the junior cutting finals on November 19. Ninth in the go, Boyd Rice and ARC Cat Her Please (owned by Kurt and Angie Harris, Whitesboro, Texas) set the bar at a 220. When Andy Sherrerd and Tanga Rey (owned by Cowan Select Horses LLC, Purcell, Oklahoma) also marked a 220 five goes later, everyone watching wondered what would be the odds for a work-off? In the scoring, the high and low judges’ scores are dropped and the middle three are used. To break a tie – you first add all five scores, and then you go to Judge No. 1’s high score. But Boyd and Andy came out dead even, and the crowd cheered. In true cutting spirit, both men turned back for each other in the work-off. Andy cut first, but cut only two cattle, leaving the door open for Boyd to take the world championship. Boyd and the little bay mare have been quite a team, earning almost $90,000 through National Cutting Horse Association competition. “She pretty much gives me everything she’s got, every time I show her,” Boyd said, in his in-the-arena interview. The Journal caught up with the Harrises shortly after the win.
Q. What does this win mean for you all?
Angie: A tremendous amount; it’s wonderful! It’s really wonderful.
Kurt: Well, it’s really hard to put into words – it’s kind of been a dream of ours. This mare, we bought her as a 2-year-old in Reno (Nevada) at the (National Reined Cow Horse Association) Snaffle Bit Futurity and put her in training with Boyd Rice. We really wanted to make a cutting horse out of her. We showed her as a 3-year-old in the Snaffle Bit and then started going to NCHA events after that. The mare has just matured and gotten better and better. She just really exemplifies the traits of a nice cutting horse. She’s got a really big heart; she gives everything we want every time. We never dreamed that we’d have one like this. Tonight, with the finals and the run-off, I guess the most special part was being in there with our friends in the stands. And they were yelling and screaming; we were all having a great time.
Q. What were you all thinking as we were all waiting to see if there was going to be a work-off?
Kurt: Well, I don’t know. We weren’t sitting together because we were too nervous.
Angie: I can’t sit and watch the cutting, hardly, I just can’t take it. It’s two-and-a-half minutes too long! (She laughed.)
Kurt: After she marked a 220, I was too nervous and I couldn’t watch the rest; there were too many good horses left. I went back to the stalls and checked on a few horses. When I came back, a friend told me we were going to have a run-off. Then I got really nervous.
Q. Is there anyone you all want to thank in particular?
Kurt: Boyd and his whole team. They are just wonderful people. He’s definitely a very talented trainer, but their family and whole operation has just made the experience showing this mare a dream come true. And Arcese Quarter Horses for raising this mare. They’ve really backed us and supported us in everything we’ve done with this mare and made a lot of things possible.
Q. You bought this mare as a 2-year-old at the NRCHA Snaffle Bit Futurity sale. What made you buy her?
Kurt: We’d told Boyd to keep an eye out for a nice show mare that would make a good broodmare. Conformation, mind, it means a lot to us. And a certain bit of a career. I knew this mare’s mother, Moonstruck Cat. Phil Rapp showed her, and I liked her a lot. She had a pedigree that we can go do a lot of things with in our broodmare band, her conformation, she didn’t have a show record, but the good Lord took care of us.
Right after we bought (this mare), we were walking out, and I told Boyd, well, I bought that broodmare I was looking for. He said, really? What did you get? I said, the only trick to it is, you’re going to have to give her a record. Boyd’s just done a tremendous job.
Fun Fact: Kurt and Angie also own 2006 Featherlite Superhorse RS Lilly Starlight. Angie says picky “Lilly” never liked her or females in general, but ARC Cat Her Please “loves everybody.”
WINNER STATS
Horse name: ARC Cat Her Please Pedigree: 2003 bay mare by Chic Please x Moonstruck Cat by High Brow Cat Exhibitor/Trainer: Boyd Rice, Spearman, Texas Owner: Kurt (D.V.M.) and Angie Harris, Whitesboro, Texas Breeder: Arcese Enterprise, Weatherford, Texas
Total class entries: 58 Purse: $75,800
World Champion Prizes: Custom-designed gold-tone trophy, Montana Silversmiths buckle, neck wreath, gold medallion, Cripple Creek-logo jacket, world champion patch, Tex Tan product, Justin Boots
