Madalyn Colgrove, 18, won her first Mercuria/NCHA World Series of Cutting Non-Pro Championship with One Catty Cupid at the Augusta Futurity. • Photo by Kelsey Pecsek.

Colgrove And Cupid Break Through With Mercuria Win In Augusta

Madalyn Colgrove said she wasn’t nervous before the Mercuria/National Cutting Horse Association (NCHA) World Series of Cutting event at the Augusta Futurity. Two cows into Thursday night’s Non-Pro finals, that began to change.

“I knew I was having a really good run going and I knew I just had to cut the last cow clean and hope that I make it to the buzzer,” she said.

She and One Catty Cupid, a daughter of One Time Pepto, marked a 220 to take the lead from Lindy Ashlock and Little Miss One Time, but Colgrove had to wait for one more pair, Cade Shepard and Gini One time, to compete. Given what happened to the Boligee, Alabama, resident when Shepard followed her into the pen at last year’s All American Quarter Horse Congress, Colgrove wasn’t about to celebrate early.

“I was Reserve in Ohio and I was winning it until Cade. He was actually the last horse, and I was next to last in Ohio, and he beat me in Ohio, so in this show [Augusta] he went last and I was next to last, so I definitely was watching,” she said. “But, Austin’s his dad and he’s our trainer, and we’re always pulling for each other, so I would’ve been just as happy.”

It was Equi-Stat Elite $7 Million Rider Austin’s advice that helped Colgrove win in Augusta.

“He told me before I went down there just to make sure that I cut clean; that before I went down there a [219] was leading it, so if I just got cut clean it could possibly go my way. And [that] everybody was just trying too hard,” she said. “So, I just tried to cut real slow and calm, and luckily we got it done.”

Colgrove’s grandfather, Joel Colgrove, Sr., bought One Catty Cupid from another of Shepard’s clients. The 2011 red roan mare out of ARC Catty Dual (by Dual Pep) was bred by Arcese Quarter Horses of Weatherford, Texas.

She earned $10,914 for the Augusta win, which pushed Colgrove’s lifetime earnings to more than $550,000 and the mare’s to more than $190,000, according to Equi-Stat. Reserve Champion Little Miss One Time (One Time Pepto x Puddykat x High Brow Cat) earned $8,611 for Ashlock, an Equi-Stat Elite $1 Million Rider who also owns the 2010 mare.

“Cupid” is extremely smart on a cow and has a strong desire to do her job, Colgrove said.

“Ever since we saw her when she was three, she’s just always been a good mare, always,” she said. “She goes down there and tries her hardest every time. She definitely has the heart to go do it.”

Colgrove thought the crowd at the James Brown Arena may have helped elevate Cupid’s performance. The show in Augusta, Georgia, is noteworthy because of how many local residents come out to watch the cutting, she said.

“[There’s] not a lot of shows you go to that there’s a crowd, a local crowd, that comes out to support it,” she said. “Any finals here, there’s always a local crowd that comes out.”

Thursday night’s crowd saw Colgrove get her very first win at a Mercuria event. She’d come close before after falling only a half-point short at Congress, but never been the champion.

“It feels awesome,” she said. “I really don’t know how to describe it, but it’s good feeling.”

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