NCHA News

As the hammer fell, and the auctioneer called out, “Sold” on hip #2041, a red roan filly by Metallic Cat, marked the sale of the highest selling 2-year-old mare to date in a NCHA Futurity Sale. The filly who broke the record, was named Summer Shandy. Sitting in the stands was her former owner, Chad Bushaw, who had sold the filly as a yearling during the same sale a year prior. Having watched what had just taken place, Bushaw was left wondering, “Did I sell the horse that could have been ‘the one’?”

At the previous year’s sale, where Bushaw sold Summer Shandy, he had bought another roan filly by Metallic Cat. The bittersweet saying, “you have to sell one to buy one,” led to that newly purchased roan filly being named Bittersweet. Little did he know, Bittersweet would soon be setting the Triple Crown events on fire. 

“I liked the way she was bred certainly, and more so I was impressed by her presence,” Bushaw said. “I have a bit of a different way of evaluating yearlings, and she just struck me as looking like an intelligent athletic horse when I first saw her, I knew I wanted to try to own her.”

Bushaw believes it is that same athleticism and intelligence he saw that first day makes her the horse she is both in and out of the show pen. 

“These are traits she had from day one when we started her, and every day while I was training her as a 3-year-old, she showed me these same characteristics that she has in the show arena,” Bushaw said. “She tries hard to please and does anything I ask of her.”

It has been Bittersweet’s integrity and athletic ability that has gotten her to the winner’s circle every time she has walked into the herd under the Fort Worth lights. Her first trip in the pen, she marked a 216 and it has only gone up from there. She won the 2017 Non-Pro Futurity with a 225 and went on to tie for Non-Pro Champion title at the 2018 Super Stakes with a 222. 


Chad Bushaw and Bittersweet, 2018 Super Stakes Non-Pro Co-Champions.

Chad Bushaw and Bittersweet, 2018 Super Stakes Non-Pro Co-Champions.

Less than a month, later she went on to win the Non-Pro Derby at the 2018 Breeder’s Invitational in Tulsa, Oklahoma. She finished in the top 10 both go-rounds and finished out the finals with a 223. 

Their win at the Breeder’s Invitational put Bushaw and Bittersweet in a league completely of their own. Not many horses have won the Triple Crown title, which consist of winning each of the NCHA Triple Crown Event – Futurity, Super Stakes, and Summer Spectacular– in the same division, let alone in the Non-Pro. Armando Costa Neto and Watch Me Whip are the only ones to have won the title in the Non-Pro division back in 2015-2016. 

If Bushaw and Bittersweet win the Non-Pro during the Summer Spectacular, they will not only join this elite group of horses and riders but will be the only horse and rider duo to claim the Triple Crown title and win the Breeder’s Invitational in the same year. 

“As crazy as it sounds, I really don’t think I’ve shown her close to her potential yet,” Bushaw said. “I’ve yet to have a perfect run on her, where my cuts were as clean as I’d have liked, or where we got to cut the exact cows we wanted.”

When asked how Bushaw was preparing for the final leg, he simply explained it is business as usual, with the exception of a few extra cookies, of course. Bushaw is taking advantage of the short break before the Metallic Cat Summer Cutting Spectacular to spend time with his two oldest sons, Charles Russell, 14, and Will, 11, getting them ready for the Youth World finals and maybe take a family vacation, if they are lucky.

“I am really not preparing any differently for the summer show than we have for any others,” said Bushaw. “I’ve taken this time to get a few more embryos from her, and other than that she lives outside 24/7 with some of my other 4-year-old mares she has grown up with, in a 20-acre pasture just being a horse.”

Regardless of the outcome at the end of Summer Spectacular, Bushaw is thankful for this mare and hopes to continue to enjoy her. His goal is to finish showing her this year before letting both of his sons take a few turns on her, as well. 

“My plan is to just cherish her and be thankful every day we get to own her and have her be here on the ranch, wearing our brand, and someday being able to ride some of her babies,” Bushaw said. “Kind of like my wife, I’m not sure what I did to deserve this mare, but I am sure thankful to have her in my life.”