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Lifetime Earnings
$4,235,525 |
Lindy
Burch began blazing trails in 1980 when she captured the
National Cutting Horse Association Open Futurity Championship
with a record 225.5 points on Mis Royal Mahogany. The victory
was unprecedented in more ways than one, as she was the first
woman in the history of the sport to win the prestigious event.
The previous year, Lindy had become the first woman to claim the
title of NCHA Open Futurity Reserve Champion. To this day, she
remains the only woman to have earned that distinction. In
addition, she is one of only six open riders that have earned
back-to-back NCHA Open Futurity titles in the 50 year history of
the event.
Lindy shook down the thunder once again, when she marked a
historic 233 at the 1998 NCHA Open World Finals - a score that
was not to be topped for some 13yrs. Bet Yer Blue Boons, her
mount, was a mare that Lindy had raised and trained. Three years
earlier, riding another homegrown mare, Shesa Smarty Lena, she
had become the first rider in history to win all four go-round
of the NCHA Open World Finals.
In 2000, Lindy marked another singular accomplishment, as the
first woman to win the NCHA Open World Championship. She claimed
the title on Bet Yer Blue Boons, while once again wining the
NCHA Open World Finals.
Raised in Chino, California, Lindy grew up riding a horse the
way most kids ride bikes. As a teenager, she competed in
gymkhana events and got her first taste of cutting with a local
trainer, who taught her the mechanics of the sport. Intent on a career in veterinary medicine, Burch majored in
zoology at UCLA and received her master's degree in
endocrinology. While studying for her doctorate, she began
competing in local cutting events and soon found herself with a
small stable of show horses, including Diamond Mystery, the
horse she rode to Reserve Champion of the 1979 NCHA Open
Futurity.
While she was showing Diamond Mystery, Lindy conducted a cutting
clinic for the staff of the Oxbow Ranch, owned by Dan Lufkin,
cofounder of the famous Wall Street firm of Donaldson, Lufkin &
Jenerette. Lindy & Lufkin ultimately formed a partnership that
saw Oxbow Ranch become a leader among cutting horse owners and
breeders.
By the late 1980's, with 170 horses under her
direction, Lindy was dividing her time between the Oxbow Ranch
in Carmel, California and Oxbow South in Weatherford, Texas.
Then in 1995, with the goal of focusing on a small, elite group
of broodmares - including Bet Yer Blue Boons - and their
offspring, Lindy designed and built her own facility in
Weatherford.
To date, Lindy hasn't quit setting milestones. She was
elected President of the National Cutting Horse Association in
2000, becoming the first and as yet only distaff leader in the
organization's 72 year history. Prior to that, she was the first
woman to serve as President of the Pacific Coast Cutting Horse
Association.
Ranked among cutting's All-Time leading money earners, with over
$3.6 million earned to date, Lindy has not missed an NCHA
Futurity since she first performed at Fort Worth in 1978 and has
been an Open Finalist or Semi Finalist most years.
Currently, Lindy chairs the NCHA Horse and Cattle Welfare Task
Force. She serves on the NCHA Finance and Limited Age Event
Committees; the AQHA Horse Research Committee; the CSU Equine
Orthopedic Research Committee, she also serves as the annual
voice of the Careity Foundation - Cancer Care - Celebrity
Cutting during the NCHA Futurity, as well as the NCHA Sponsors'
Cutting during the Summer Spectacular.
In 2001, Lindy was inducted into the National Cowgirl Hall of
Fame, one of the many honors she has received, as well as
inclusion in the Texas Cowboy Hall of Fame, the NCHA Riders Hall
of Fame, the NCHA Members Hall of Fame, the PCCHA Members Hall
of Fame, the PCCHA Trainers Award and the PCCHA Ed Smith
Memorial Sportsmanship Award. |
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