Tom Holt’s yearly path resembles a road map, much like the route he has taken to becoming one of the most recognizable voices behind a microphone in the cutting horse industry.
People skills, especially his love for kids, probably were bred into him. His appreciation for the incredible horses that control testy, uncooperative cattle is a different matter. That love affair literally has grown from the ground up as he cleaned stalls, groomed horses, drove a tractor to prepare arena dirt and worked in show offices.
The National Cutting Horse Association World Championship Futurity is the 18th cutting horse show of 2006 announced by Holt, who lives in Weatherford, Texas, with his wife of 25 years, Colleen, and his mother-in-law, Margaret Weber. He also worked at an Oklahoma City event for the National Barrel Horse Association.
His shows range from week-long events to NCHA major events that occupy over three weeks. He acknowledges that his total miles pale in comparison to those traveled by weekend haulers, but his 30,000-mile-plus year is “seldom stop” once it begins with the Abilene (Texas) Spectacular in January. “When I left Augusta [the Augusta Futurity and Classic], I actually was leaving for Paso [Paso Robles, Calif., and the Pacific Coast CHA Spring Roundup],” Holt said.
In between Augusta and Paso Robles, he stopped in Tunica, Miss., for the Memphis Futurity; Amarillo, Texas, for the NCHA World Finals; and Las Vegas for the South Coast Winter Championships. Then, he stayed home for the NCHA Super Stakes and Classic in Fort Worth, before going to the NCHA Western Nationals in Ogden, Utah; Reno, Nev., for the PCCHA Derby; and Las Vegas for the Breeder’s Invitational. “I stayed [on the road] for the barrel race; I had one day to get to Oklahoma City,” he said. The last half of the year has been in Fort Worth for the NCHA Summer Spectacular (Derby and Classic/Challenge); Amarillo, Texas, for the West Texas Futurity; Franklin, Tenn., for the Music City Futurity; Paso Robles for the Wine Country Futurity; Weatherford for the Brazos Bash; Las Vegas for the South Point Futurity; and Reno for the PCCHA Futurity.
He flew to only one event, the Wine Country Futurity, and hauls his wardrobe from place to place in a sports utility vehicle. Holt, 51, went on only two trail rides as a youth, mainly because his two sisters loved horses. The son of Howard (now deceased) and Jessie Holt, he grew up in Rochester, N.H., where his dad was office manager for a public electric company. He graduated from the University of New Hampshire with a physical education degree, minoring in business and history. He had played basketball and football briefly in high school and at New Hampshire, was team manager on the university’s football team for five years. After graduation, he went to work for a Yuba City, Calif., semi-professional football team, which had recruited some of his friends.
At the end of the first year, Holt had planned to return to New Hampshire and teach, but the day before he was to leave, he was offered a job as the team equipment manager at the local junior college, Yuba College. He was put in charge of halftime entertainment at basketball games and, later, at football games. “Colleen had a dance studio; she had 300 students, so we had a variety of students come in and it helped us put people in the seats,” Holt said. “It evolved into football games and it was the second year of football that we got together.” Because Colleen worked until 9 p.m., Holt started going next door to watch cutting horses being worked at a facility owned by Burt Greenwell, a veterinarian who raised 1983 $3,000 Novice World Champion Cathouse Thursday.
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Article courtesy of Quarter Horse News/Robert Eubanks
