Jordan Futch Shines Winning First Futurity Title Aboard A Shot Full Of Shine

First-time Snaffle Bit Futurity competitor Jordan Futch topped the Level 1 Open Futurity riding a gelding that shined under the arena lights.

Florida native Jordan Futch had no expectation of winning a check at the 2024 National Reined Cow Horse Association (NRCHA) Snaffle Bit Futurity, yet she and A Shot Full Of Shine (Nu N Shiney x Pozotaz x Pepto Taz) earned not only the Level 1 Open title, the pair qualified for the Limited and Intermediate Open Finals at the Fort Worth, Texas, event. The win still sounds unbelievable to the 28-year-old trainer.

“This is the first time I’ve entered and the first horse I’ve gotten to keep and train from the first saddling to the Futurity,” Futch said. “I was super excited to be able to win the Level 1 and qualify for the Finals in the Limited and Intermediate. It was really, really neat on this horse. He is not bred like other horses in the show, he is out of a no-name mare and by a no-name stud.”

Jordan Futch (Center) receives her silks for the Limited and Intermediate Open Finals from NRCHA Executive Director Emily Konkel (L) and Metallic Cat representative Debbie Roberts (R). * Photo by Amy Olson

“Squirt” is owned by Sienna Grace Dziza and was bred by Johnny and Mariah Jerviss and was sent to Futch to start as a 2-year-old. Dziza fell in love with the prospect and has supported Futch through this process. Early on, the trainer says that the gelding didn’t feel like a Futurity-level cow horse prospect.

“We pony-loped him through the pre-futurities but never asked a whole lot,” she said. “I have not put my hands down and trusted he would come together in the show pen, but [at the Snaffle Bit] he answered my call for everything I asked. Since I had not called on him in the show pen and didn’t really know what I had, so I hoped to have clean, pretty runs and look like I had a horse that was broke. I didn’t expect to come home with much, if anything at all. Everybody hopes to make the finals or any kind of money, but I didn’t expect for him to answer the way he did in the pen.”

For Futch the win helped ease a little bit of the worry she and her fellow trainer, Robby Jennings, have felt while at the show. From Bushnell, Florida, Futch’s training barn was in the eye of Hurricane Milton. Thankfully, Jennings’ clients evacuated the horses they left at home.

“I am thankful the people that he leases [a barn] from out of Live Oak [Florida], Jane and Rene Cairo, when I called them they were nice enough to go and get my horses that were left at home,” Futch said. “From what I understand, the barn I keep my horses in is ok, and it sounds like it will be semi usable when I get home.”

Futch and A Shot Full Of Whiskey ride a high from the Level 1 Open win, which earned a $20,000 check for their composite 650.5 (212 herd/219.5 rein/219 cow) into the Finals this weekend. For a young rider that grew up trail riding and didn’t shift to training until after her first year of college, it’s a dream come true to have the show she’s having in Fort Worth.

“I got into the Western performance industry and got the itch, and it all ended up here in the cow horse world,” she said. “Since Robby’s come into my life, my program and confidence has flourished. I have a couple clients that were with me from the beginning and still sending me down the road on their horses and believed in me, Beth Lewis and Christina & Justin Wheatley. Ben Baldus has helped me and been a mentor. It’s hard to come out and trust the work you’ve put in for the last two years and that your horse will be there and answer the call, but he did.”

Jordan Futch (R) and Robbie Jennings (L) proudly receive Futch’s awards. * Photo by Amy Olson