The 2021 American Rope Horse Futurity Association World Championships are returning to Fort Worth, Texas’s Will Rogers Memorial Center Oct. 21-23, set to pay out over $700,000 to the best young horses in the Western industry’s richest sport.
The ARHFA World Finals, held in the John Justin Arena alongside the National Reined Cow Horse Association’s Snaffle Bit Futurity, will crown champions in Open, Intermediate, Limited and Non-Pro heading and heeling, with each horse and rider combination scored by a panel of judges who combine their scores on technique with the time on the clock. The event also pays out a 4-year-old incentive within the main futurity.
2020 Results:
Kirchenschlager Stuns Field on 4-Year-Old X My Ich for ARHFA Heading World Title
Thorp and Juiced Up Cat Win ARHFA Heeling World Title in Dominant Fashion
World Champions like Trevor Brazile, Wesley Thorp, Chad Masters and Paul Eaves will test their horses’ abilities against horse-show veterans like JD Yates, Les Oswalt and Brad Lund in the only event of its kind, boasting a record 1,036 entries across each division.
“The American Rope Horse Futurity Association World Finals is helping drive the evolution of the Western performance horse industry forward faster than anything else that’s happened in this sport in years,” said 26-time PRCA World Champion Trevor Brazile. “The horses that excel at the futurity level are tailor-made to compete for the recreational roper or the top 15 in the world. The quality and longevity of the horses is a top priority for all of us.”
Watch Brazile and Miles Baker prepare their horses and share their secrets on Roping.com.
The event kicks off Oct. 21 with the first three full rounds of the futurity heading and the first go of the futurity heeling. Oct. 22 will feature gos two and three of the heeling, with the short round of both the heading and heeling tentatively scheduled for 6:30 p.m. with rider introductions first. The event will wrap up Oct. 23 with the Non-Pro heading’s two full rounds and short go followed by the Non-Pro heeling in the same format.
“The Rope Horse Futurity is the only place you can see this many top ropers, under these conditions, on young horses, go head-to-head,” ARHFA Founder Jay Wadhams said. “Sure you get to see the best guys in the world run one steer a night in Las Vegas in December, but you can see most of them enter five young horses over four rounds—and then help their buddies on the other end—in Fort worth in October. And it’s free to come watch on top of that.”
This year the ARHFA World Finals will also offer a $20,000 Royal Crown Breeder’s incentive for eligible horses, as well as an additional $2,500 in Chrome Cash from the American Paint Horse Association to the highest placing Paint-bred horses in the futurity.
For more information, visit americanropehorse.com.
