The Inaugural Lone Star Futurity at the TAQHA Texas Festival
By Delores Kuhlwein
A love for the industry and the Western Pleasure horse recently inspired Tommie Prichard and Paula Czapko to create the inaugural Lone Star Futurity, coming up Saturday, April 22nd, in Waco, Texas.
What they didn’t expect was for the futurity to take off in a huge way!
Paula Czapko
“Years ago, the Heart of Texas futurity was huge and everyone always looked forward to it,” explains Tommie. “We thought since the Florida futurity no longer exists for April, it would be the perfect time to try a new futurity to help the pleasure industry. We want everyone to see what a great facility Waco is, and we’re hoping this year will be great and next year will be even greater.”
They’ve had such an incredible response, Tommie explains, she ended up spending all of this past Sunday working on sponsorship invoices – and they just had started to spread the word about the new futurity two weeks ago.
“We’re putting all the sponsorship money and 90 percent of the entry fees back into it,” Tommie adds, and we’re going to let people sign up right here at the show until 5 PM the day before with no late fee. Entry fees are only $200 because we’ve tried to make to where people will want to come.”
Tommie Prichard
The positive response they’ve experienced includes support from NSBA, who is furnishing trophies – Bronze for the 3 Year Old Open and Pewter for the 3 Year Old Limited. They were also welcomed with open arms by the Texas Amateur Quarter Horse Association, including Pat Clements and Georgianna Renouard, and TAQHA worked with them for a late morning shut down of the show so they can hold their futurity with four judges. Tommie says TAQHA was instrumental in involving NSBA.
Tommie rides with Angie Cannizzaro of CAC Show Horses, who is sponsoring a large crawfish boil for after the futurity as well! “Everyone has been so good about this, and we didn’t expect it to already be this large!” says Tommie. “Paula was out all weekend putting together sponsorship thank you bags for the show.”
The Equine Chronicle will additionally be sponsoring one of the breakfasts at the show!
If people want to sign up now, they can call Tommie (all numbers are on the flyer pictured) and get it arranged, and she says the TAQHA is working on an entry form for them. “We want to welcome all the pleasure horses back to Waco – it’s a good central location and a great facility. We want this to be a win-win for the pleasure industry!”
TTF 2023 schedule with Super Sires
THE TEXAS FESTIVAL STALL RESERVATION FORM (1)
Access show forms at the show secretary’s site: https://www.maneequine.com/
