With the 2013 show season underway, limited sponsorships remain available for the 2013 Walking Horse Trainers’ Association Riders’ Cup.  The Riders’ Cup is a season-long points program that awards prize monies to trainers for showing horses in professional classes at participating shows throughout the season.  In 2012, the WHTA added a pleasure division to the performance division.

Divisional sponsorships cost $2,500 per year.  The sponsorship comes with name recognition on all divisional Riders’ Cup classes in 2013, branding of the division in each weekly issue of the Walking Horse Report and online at www.walkinghorsereport.com.  Each sponsor is also recognized with a plaque of appreciation at the WHTA Horse of the Year banquet in December.

Performance division sponsorships remain available in the Aged Mare & Gelding, Young Trainers and Show Pleasure categories.  Pleasure division sponsorships are open in the Lite Shod, Park Pleasure and Classic Park Pleasure categories.

Those categories sponsored in 2013 include:
Two-Year-Old Mares & Geldings – Don Diego and Keith & Lorraine Rosbury
Two-Year-Old Stallions – Andrew Waites Family
Three-Year-Old Mares & Geldings – Baskin-Irby Construction
Three-Year-Old Stallions – QE Construction
Four-Year-Old Mares & Geldings – Molly Walters Family
Four-Year-Old Stallions – Molly Walters Family
Walking Horse Stake – Tennessee Walking Horse National Celebration
15.2 & Under – Buddy Stasney Buick/GMC
Open Specialty – Mississippi Charity Horse Show
Park Performance – O&W Moody Ltd./Wilsene Moody-Kwok

Since its inception in 2005 the Riders’ Cup program has awarded close to $500,000 to participating trainers.  Sponsorship of the program was at an all-time high in 2012 and participation in the program has grown over the years in both the number of participating trainers and horse shows.  Riders’ Cup standings are kept exclusively by the Walking Horse Report and displayed at its web site and in each week’s print issue.