Jimmy Richards was pretty pleased with results from the 7th annual Foothills Bucking Horse Futurity event held last Friday (August 17).

While Richards has normally held the futurity event at the Cochrane Lion's Rodeo Grounds, this was the first year the futurity was added to a long list of events held at the Cochrane AG Grounds as part of the Cochrane Fair.

Making the choice to relocate the event was not something Jimmy was pursuing but something that pretty much fell into his lap. "The Lion's Club treated me fantastic but I was tired of asking for sponsorship money and I don't live very close anymore. When the Ag Society approached me, I wasn't shopping around, I just wasn't going to have it. They wanted something to offer on Friday night and they liked what I was doing before."

With smoky skies, Richards feels the futurity still attracted a few hundred people and feedback so far has been positive. "Everybody I talked to was happy about it and overall everyone had good things to say."

The other exciting part was the education the event provided. "I hope we educated some people. I knew until people saw it they wouldn't really understand it but I think now people that watched it, especially, the dummy portion, understand it a little more."

In total, about ten contractors and approximately 40 horses competed in the event and the horses' performance was top notch. "I think all in all the horses were pretty impressive. Everyone tries to raise the best that they can because you have to pay an entry fee so you really want to bring the best ones."

High ranking horses can find themselves competing in the National Finals Rodeo (NFR) held in Vegas and in some cases be purchased by elite and professional rodeos. Richards shares a couple of horses that competed in his past futurity's have been sold at the NFR. "Last year in Vegas I think the highest selling two-year-old was about $6500 but the average was around $2500 but a few years ago one of the highest selling broncs (5 years old) sold for $50,000 and another for maybe $80,000. There have been two that I know of for sure that have been through my futurity and ended up at the NFR."

The event did see one mishap when a horse belonging to a contractor north of Maple Creek was injured. Although Richard's is not sure of the horse's current status, he says they do what they can to keep the event safe. "We always have a vet on site and unfortunately sometimes these things do happen but they happen out in the pasture too."

There will likely be some minor tweaks made but for the most part, Jimmy is optimistic the futurity will continue on. "I think the Ag Society was happy. I am going to have a meeting with them in a month or so and we'll go through some things that we would both like to see improved and things we were happy with. Then hopefully we'll start planning for next year."