FUTURITY HEAVYWEIGHT
It’s no secret that roping futurities are exploding in entries and purses. But long before Trevor Brazile brought his rodeo cowboy fame to the tiny struggle-bus niche of rope horse training, the futurity spotlight was on a hand from California.
Hailing from just north of Salinas, 35-year-old Andy Holcomb has been quietly putting three to five young horses into futurity short rounds at both ends. Three years ago, Holcomb won the ARHFA World Championship in Open Heading and $20,000 aboard an eye-catching, grey 6-year-old named Blue Berry Please (plus claimed fourth on a 5-year-old stallion named Trap This Cat for another $10,000). “Blue Berry” was a horse the owner had sent him to sell.
That was typical. For decades, rope horse trainers have had to serve as part horse-trader, part colt-starter and part jackpot horse fixer-upper, while
