#Spotlight
𝐀𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐚 𝐓𝐚𝐥𝐤 Italian Marco Salvatori made his way to the 2022 Metallic Cat NCHA Futurity. He came back home with third-place honors in the McAlister Assets Amateur Finals.
Let's hear it from Salvatori, NCHA of Italy President. “I am obviously very happy with the result of this overseas trip. This was my first Futurity in the USA, so for me and my horse, Paydey, it was a very first. Paydey is sired by Stevie Rey Von out of Zen And Tonic, was bred by Michael Cooper, and trained by his son Lance [Cooper] who – in my opinion – is one of the most talented new generation cutters. This was the very first horse he trained completely by himself and I must say he did an amazing job because this is a very solid horse, fast, very expressive, and—at the
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same time—a great horse for an amateur rider like me. I would have been just as happy to make the SemiFinals, but being able to get into the Final was really the best of what I could aspire to, also because there were many talented amateurs I had to show against. "I managed to cut three good but very challenging cows. Maybe I should have worked them a bit more but they were very fast so I decided to balance the risk with having more control of my run. For me, for the horse, for Rosy o’ Grady’s cutting horse team, but also in general for European cutting, I think this result is a demonstration that we as well can aspire to compete in an event like this. I really want to thank my family who came with me and supported me from the beginning, all the Italian friends who were at the show, and those who followed and supported us from home. Naturally, a huge thank you to our trainers Martina Annovazzi and Pietro Valeri who helped me find a good show strategy. "I would especially like to thank all the Cooper family and their team who took care of the horse in the best possible way, the excellent turnbacks I had the honor of having in the arena with me, and Gildo Minichiello who worked for us for several years and now is based in the States. The best thing about this adventure is the great memories.” www.internationalhorsepress.com
