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Tom Hastings: 1939-2021

Jan 9, 2021, 20:17 PM by Sally Harrison

NCHA Non-Pro Hall of Fame member passed away on Jan 4

Tom Hastings, 81, Valley View, Tex., the NCHA Reserve Non-Pro World Champion in 1985 and 1986, and many time Non-Pro Top 10 rider, passed away on Monday, January 4. An NCHA Non-Pro Hall of Fame member, who continued to show cutting horses into his eighties, Hastings also judged hundreds of cuttings and horse shows for NCHA, AQHA, APHA and the Appaloosa Horse Club. He especially enjoyed being a mentor and teaching new cutters.

As a boy growing up in North Texas, Hastings was drawn to cutting competition at Phillips Ranch, in Frisco, where B.F Phillips, the NCHA Non-Pro World champion in 1965 and 1966, had an impressive lineup of stallions and show horses, as well as the top trainer of the day, Matlock Rose. When Hastings graduated from Texas A&M in 1961, he joined NCHA and went to work for Phillips Ranch before going into the real estate business for himself.

After an eight-year hiatus from showing, Hastings purchased the 4-year-old Rey Jay daughter Alice’s Rey Jay in 1975 and would show her to place fifth in the 1977 NCHA Non-Pro World standings. In 1976, Hastings purchased the 2-year-old Rey Jay stallion, Ollie Rey, who he showed as a 1977 NCHA Futurity Open Semi-Finalist and as 1978 NCHA Derby Non-Pro reserve champion.

Tom and his wife Susan stood Ollie Rey at their T-Bar Land and Cattle Co., in Pilot Point, Texas. But when Ollie Rey died unexpectedly in 1980, with just two crops on the ground, Tom purchased the stallion’s 2-year-old son, Ollie Tom, and trained and showed him successfully as a Non-Pro limited age event finalist, as well as reserve champion of the 1985 NCHA Non-Pro World Finals, and 1985 and 1986 NCHA Reserve Non-Pro World Champion.

The family will receive friends during a visitation at 10:00 a.m. on Saturday, January 16, at First Rock Fellowship in Aubrey, Tex., followed by a funeral service at 11:00 a.m. Burial will be at Roselawn Memorial Park in Denton, Tex.

Memorials may be made in Tom’s honor to the National Cutting Horse Association Foundation. Online condolences may be shared at slaymemorialfuneralhome.com.