Top cutters compete for futurity honours

More than 500 riders will compete for more than $700,000 in prizemoney and trophies throughout the 14 day event, with the open final finale to be held on June 8.

The futurity will include several riders from the US and two US-based judges.

NCHA general manager Greg Sinclair said the event would use 6000 head of cattle from the Tamworth region.

"It's been challenging to find cattle with the drought but we've got regular suppliers for NCHA events," he said.

"We pull the cattle from a 200km radius around Tamworth."

NCHA president Peter Shumack said having such a high standard of competition made it hard to predict who would come out on top.

He said there were plenty of top contenders in each division.

"Competitors spend two years trying to get to the futurity but until they drop their hand down in the show situation they don't know how the horse is going to perform," Mr Shumack said.

"You don't know what's going to happen until the adrenalin gets going and there's money on the line."

Mr Shumack said having successful dams for the past decade had lifted the sport.

"The mares producing cutting foals are proven show horses, so the likelihood of their foals being good cutting prospects is higher than ever before," he said.

This year will see a record number of entries for the open futurity, with 148 horse and rider combinations.

"There has been an increase in syndicate-owned horses with the professional competitions because of the big prizemoney offered," Mr Shumack said.

It's not only the professional events growing, with the non-professional division attracting 103 riders in 2014, up from 88 entries last year.

"It's a very family-orientated sport, where the whole family gets involved, so we're seeing the number of non-professional competitors grow," Mr Shumack said.

"There are plenty of people out there just cutting for fun, but we bring those people and the professional cutters together for two weeks."