A little bit about me. Horse training has become my second career in life. I did not have the advantage of growing up in a horse family or community. I started from scratch later in life. With that said, I think I had the advantage of not having learned bad habits that I had to break.
I first started to learn how to ride and train with the professional instructors at Utah State University. While I was there, I was fortunate to meet and become good friends with several world class trainers with whom I still ride on a nearly daily basis. My horse career started eleven years ago when I went through the USU equine program. I took riding fundamentals, advanced western riding, advanced English riding, stable management, and horse production. Four years ago, I was invited to become an adjunct professor teaching the riding fundamentals class at USU, which I had taken as a student just five years before. While attending USU, I opted to take the colt starting class three times and started three colts.
Since then, I have started well over 200 colts, and shown competitively in the URCHA, MVRHA, and open shows with multiple 3, 4, and 5-year old colts I have started. I have served as a director on the board of the Utah Reined Cow Horse Association and Mountain Valley Ranch Horse Association. I have chaired the Cache County 4-H Two-Hand program, Winter Ride Nights, and served on the Education Committee. I competed in my first 100-day Mustang Challenge in 2015. Since then, I have been fascinated with the Mustang. So much so, that I have become a TIP trainer (Trainer Incentive Program) for the Mustang Heritage Foundation.
In 2020, I entered my first Extreme Mustang Makeover. My mustang, WFR BOOM CHICA BOOM, and I won the overall championship of the Extreme Mustang Makeover California. We qualified for the finals and then placed first in both the Compulsory and Freestyle classes. At the same time I was training that mustang for the Extreme Mustang Makeover California, I was also training another mustang for the Southern Utah Wild Horse and Burro Festival Trainer Challenge. At that competition, My mustang, WFR Going Gray, and I won the Trainer Challenge. We placed first in all four Trainer Challenge classes. I then entered WFR Going Gray in the open show and we won the Extreme Trail course against 25 seasoned horses. We also won the Open High Point buckle , Super Horse Award (highest total points by one horse), and the Overall Festival Championship (most combind points by one rider).
I enjoy helping to guiding colts and mustangs from unfocused, frightened animals to steady and confident companions. I am continually amazed at the versatility, athletic ability, courage, trust, and loyalty mustangs and domestic horses possess.