The Olds Cutter's Classic will carry on this August after the Olds Regional Exhibition (ORE) previously cancelled the event.The ORE declined to host the event after being notified that the Canadian Cutting Horse Association (CCHA) cancelled its 2013 Finals, which would have been held at the ORE earlier this month.Scott Wardley, president of the Alberta Cutting Horse Association (ACHA) said the event was reinstated because of interest from association members.“Just the cutters coming forward and helping with some sponsorship and membership dictating that they wanted the show. And that's Alberta – most of the cutters are in Alberta,” Wardley said.The Cutters Classic will feature horseback riders extracting a single cow from a herd of cattle from August 22 to 24.“Because they couldn't have the Canadian Finals so they cancelled the Olds Classic. But in conversation in the last couple of weeks, we resurrected it and convinced Olds to put it on,” he said.Regarding the 2013 CCHA Finals, a lack of entries resulted in the cancellation of the event, according to a statement emailed to the Olds Albertan from Tami Gardner, executive director of the ORE, last week.The ORE was given just more than two weeks' prior notice, Gardner wrote.According to a May 21 letter from CCHA president Les Timmons to affiliate presidents, the number of entries fell far short of what was needed to make the event economically viable.“At entry deadline, May 15, 2014, only 21 entries were received by the CCHA Office. We decided to wait until the 20th, the Monday after Silver Slate show … which increased to 66 by Monday night. Timing – number of large shows, together with the cost of travel, entry fees, etc. I believe all factored into the low entries,” Timmons wrote.Even with 130 entries last year, the CCHA still lost $5,000, Timmons continued.The letter stated that 120 entries might have allowed the CCHA to break even.The timing of the decision frustrated the ORE, according to a chain of email correspondence obtained by the Olds Albertan between Gardner, Wardley, CCHA Finals chair Mary Lynn Zirnhelt and the CCHA executive committee.“This is most disappointing news and we are regretful that an event of the stature of the Finals is victimized by political maneuverings and self-interested external influences that may or may not be in the best interest of the Cutting Horse fraternity as a whole,” Gardner wrote to Zirnhelt and the CCHA executive on May 20.“Further we are appalled that a prime weekend in our facilities is being left open with only two and one half weeks' notice.”In her statement to the Albertan, Gardner wrote the Finals were a third party rental for the ORE.The emails obtained by the Albertan would indicate that was not so.“ORE is left without revenue for this weekend only because of our commitment to the CCHA and managing the Finals collaboratively rather than a third-party rental with a signed contract and non-refundable deposit,” the May 20 email from Gardner stated.Timmons, who was one of the recipients of the emails, confirmed that no contract was signed between the CCHA and ORE, nor was any deposit paid for use of the facilities.“We just gone by a verbal agreement and it's been there for seven or eight years now,” Timmons said.Since 1979, the ORE has been a registered charity under its former name, the Olds Agricultural Society.About one-third of the ORE's revenue came from government funding in 2013.The financial toll incurred by the ORE resulting from the cancellation of the Finals remains unknown.The ORE had been in talks with a supplier to rent cattle for the event.“To ensure the satisfaction of the Cutter's (sic), ORE was taking a hit on the cattle supply for the Finals as we committed to source the cattle at $40 per head back in February and had to ultimately pledge $45 per head,” Gardner stated in her email to the Albertan.She added, “this last minute cancelation (sic) is an embarrassment to our reputation with this new supplier.”Timmons said that while the money for the cattle supply was committed, the ORE did not actually pay for cattle rental.“Exactly. Same thing with the judges, same thing with the announcer. There was no reimbursements paid to (anybody),” Timmons said. “The only thing it cost them was the fact that the arena possibly, and I don't even know if it did, sit empty for that weekend.”Gardner's emails suggest that the ORE might have been caught in the middle of a dispute between the CCHA and ACHA.“Finally, it may appear that ORE's impartial relationship with both the CCHA and the ACHA has not served us as well as one may have hoped. The political, competitive interactions between these two entities has compromised ORE's position within the Cutting world,” Gardner wrote to Wardley on May 20.“The underlying motivation to produce the Finals in Calgary's new facility and create a greater level of control over the event is creating a divisiveness between certain Alberta members and those that value the traditions of the CCHA. This is unfortunate as it was never an outcome ORE anticipated. More importantly, ORE has no vested interest in the internal wrangling of the two associations, we simply wanted to continue to produce a great show with benefits to the Cutters and a moderately healthy financial compensation for ORE.”Wardley denies there is any kind of feud between the ACHA and CCHA, adding that he played no part in the cancellation of the Finals.“I know there's been rumours going around there's grievances between Alberta and committee and cutting horse but there isn't,” Wardley said. “It's not true. Alberta fully supports the Canadian (Cutting Horse Association). We tried to promote the Canadian Finals with our members.”When asked if he knew where those rumours could have emerged from, he declined to comment.“No idea. I think I do but I'm not going to say,” he said.Timmons denied any tension between the two organizations but admitted that the ACHA, the CCHA's largest affiliate, has a differing vision from other members and has significant influence on cutting in Canada.“Maybe because they're so large, the Alberta people don't have the same outlook towards the cutting horse industry as the smaller affiliates,” Timmons said. “A lot of people in Alberta are more towards bigger shows, more money, more added purses, stuff like that whereas the smaller affiliates have to go with smaller added purses and work with smaller numbers and maybe more … grassroots cutting.”Gardner could not be reached for an [email protected]
