Cutting World To Miss Jill Long, Cyndy Dvorak

This month, the cutting world lost two widely respected and well-liked women, NCHA Hall of Fame Non-Pro rider Jill Long, Gardnerville, Nev., and Cyndy Dvorak, Weatherford, Texas, wife of 2011 NCHA Futurity Open finalist Tom Dvorak. Here's a little bit about each of them.

Cyndy Dvorak Recalled As Great Mother, Wife

Five days after her death, and four days after her husband Tom Dvorak competed well in the Open finals at the 50th Borden Milk/National Cutting Horse Association Futurity, family members and friends recalled Cyndy Dvorak as "a great mother and wife."

Horsemen For Christ founder and cowboy preacher Joe Howard Williamson, also an avid cutter, officiated during the Dec. 14 service at Greenwood Baptist Church, Weatherford, Texas. People respected Cyndy's work as an emergency room nurse, but her role as a mother and wife clearly took center stage in her life, Williamson said.

"Throughout people's comments to me, her strength as a mother and wife repeatedly came through," Williamson said. "She wanted to spend time with her daughters and her husband and take care of her family."

Cyndy Dvorak & "Hootie"
One of the last things Cyndy did as a wife was encourage her husband, a longtime cutting horse trainer, to compete as a rider at the 50th NCHA Futurity in Fort Worth. Throughout the Nov. 23 – Dec. 10 competition, he'd ride during the day and visit his wife at night at Palo Pinto Hospital in Mineral Wells, Texas. Cyndy had worked there previously as an emergency room nurse. Her long battle with cancer forced her to stop working about five months before her Dec. 9 death.

Accompanied by the couple's daughters, Madison, 12, and Alyssa, 10, Tom traveled to Fort Worth and competed in the Dec. 10 Futurity Open finals. He finished what he'd started. He knew that's what Cyndy wanted, because she'd told him so.
"I think the biggest thing I want everybody to know is it was special having her as a wife," Tom said. "She was saving other people's lives while she was losing her own," he added.

Tom Dvorak and the former Cyndy Hunter were married Aug. 2, 1997. They both grew up in California and moved to Texas to help Tom's cutting career.
His wife did her best to prepare him and their daughters for her death, Tom said. One of the most touching moments that took place on Futurity day was having his daughters tell him, "Daddy, we'll take care of you."

In addition to her husband and her two daughters, Cyndy's survivors include sisters Pam Graham and Kathy Garofalo, brother-in-law Mike Garofalo and brother and sister-in-laws Paul and Julie Hansma, Weatherford, Texas.
Family members ask that anyone wanting to make a memorial donation support the Michelle Lynn Holsey Foundation, P.O. Box 652, Crockett, Texas.

Jill Long Made Many Friends Along Cutting Trail

Jill Long, a National Cutting Horse Association Non-Pro Hall of Fame rider, and the wife of Gardnerville, Nev., Open Hall of Fame rider Tom Long, lost her battle with cancer on Dec. 18, following a determined effort to shake off the disease.

Jill, a career earner of $511,248 as a cutter, according to NCHA records, married Tom 10 years ago. They'd been a couple 14 years. They traveled to many cutting events during that time and they'd made many friends.

Tom & Jill Long
Jill received her diagnosis of ovarian cancer in June. Three weeks later, she was on an operating table with a prognosis that didn't look good.

"She hadn't been sick and hadn't had a cold in more than two years," Tom said as he competed alone at the El Rancho Futurity in Rancho Murieta, Calif., during late September. "She ate right, she exercised right and she did everything right."

The original diagnosis was "devastating," to him and his wife, Long said. He added Jill's determined spirit and considerable support from family members and friends, including many of their fellow cutters, helped quite a bit as she battled the disease.

A benefit auction at the El Rancho Futurity, aimed at helping Jill and two other West Coast Cutters afflicted with cancer, initiated by a new group called Cutters Caring & Sharing, raised more than $80,000.

Jill, moved by the support she and Tom had received, wrote an open letter that she distributed and had read at the event. It stated, in part:

"… I truly feel like I am fighting this battle with all of you wrapped around me. You are an amazing, wonderful, caring family that I feel so blessed to be a part of. I can't imagine a better group of people to share my life with. I love you all.
"We are going to win. I will be back in the saddle at the beginning of the year showing, and most importantly, I'll be back with my friends."

At the time, Tom said the letter "really tells you from her heart how she feels."
In addition to Tom, Jill's survivors include her parents, George and Joyce Long, Boulder, Colo., step-children Michelle Dory, Jodi Long and Ryan Long, sisters Jamie and Jordan Lamb and step-grandchildren Katherine Long, Kelsey LaMunyon, Makayla Long, Haley Long and Zayne Long.

The Long family has requested that instead of sending flowers, friends honor Jill's memory by contributing to Cutters Caring & Sharing, in memory of Jill. Checks should be endorsed and mailed to West Coast Equine Foundation/Cutters Caring & Sharing, 7200 Lone Pine Drive, Rancho Murieta, Calif.