Lindy Burch
Cutting

In 1980, when Lindy Burch became the first woman to win the NCHA Futurity, the media played gender to the hilt. But Burch's real accomplishment was her score of 225.5 points - an NCHA Futurity record that still stands. It was just her third time to ride in the Futurity and she had won the reserve championship the year before. Only four other riders have earned back-to-back open NCHA Futurity titles: Buster Welch, Shorty Freeman, Leroy Ashcraft and Bill Freeman.

Today, Burch is one of the sport's all-time leading money earners. She splits her time between the famous Oxbow Ranch and her own new 160-acre facility near Weatherford, Texas. But the long road to Texas began on the backstretch of a Thoroughbred track near Los Angeles.

Growing up in Southern California, Burch spent weekends and summers exploring Van Nuys and Sepulveda Dam on horseback. Her father, a machine shop owner, enjoyed trail and endurance competition and from the time she was a toddler Burch often rode with him. "I grew up on horses like most kids do on bikes," says Burch, who had her own horse, Beaver, when she was five. "I'd leave the house at daylight in the summer and be gone until dark."

Lindy Burch was the first woman to win the National Cutting Horse Association Futurity, the first woman to campaign an NCHA Open World Champion and the first woman to serve as NCHA president. Burch has also served as president of the Pacific Coast National Cutting Horse Association.

Burch has been inducted into the National Cowgirl, NCHA Members, NCHA Riders, Texas Cowboy and PCCHA halls of fame. Her lifetime earnings total $2,793,847.

These days, Burch trains and breeds cutting horses. She lives in Weatherford, Texas.

2008 Show Recap/2009 Schedule

Career Highlights

• First woman to win the NCHA Futurity
• First female NCHA Open World Champion
• Inducted into National Cowgirls Hall of Fame
• Inducted into NCHA Riders Hall of Fame
• Holds all-time high-point record for NCHA World Championship Finals
• Campaigned NCHA Hall of Fame Horse, 2000 World Champion Bet Yer Blue Boons
• Number 11 all-time NCHA money earner with $2.4 million