Q: How did you arrive at your current job description?
A: Mostly because I have always trained on the side, and after my son was born I quit teaching school and went to training full time because the scheduled worked better
Q: So that's why you changed from teaching?
A: Correct, it's still "teaching" but just a little different and on my schedule.
Q: What's on of the biggest challenges you have faced in your career?
A: Probably just the physical strength aspect and that there is constantly repairs that need to be done. If I can handle the training aspect then you always need someone else to help with fence repairs, working with equipment, loading hay and all those related things, so you need some family help.
Q: What do you love about your job and what could you change if you could?
A: I love the challenge, and you never really get bored because you always have a constant influx of new horses coming in every 30-60 days. So even though your doing the same things and patterns it's a different horse which changes it up. I would change the weather, so I guess just be wealthy enough to have an indoor arena.
Q: What is one of the biggest high lights of your career?
A: I really enjoy when my clients do well more so then my self. I have had quite a bit of susses in the barrel world as far as being consistent, but not always having that fastest barrel horse but being consistent through out the year, so coming out well at the end of the year. last year I had taken four girls that had never gone to a larger show, so they go to do that and it was just a lot of fun seeing them do well. They didn't necessarily win but they did definitely have some highlight classes where you could see all their work pay off.
Q: What would you say is one of your biggest professional mistakes that you have made?
A: Probably not having people get all the paper work in that you need to have in for them, because its pretty easy to forget to have them sign off reliability releases or contract and things like that because every time I have had them not sign something I have a horses get injured, then you are worried to have to talk to the owners about that. I've had some cases where some people really gave me bad vibes and maybe I didn't fallow up on the first gut feeling that I shouldn't take their horse and then I had to give their horse back within a week because I knew in my gut that they had lied to me on what their horses could do but I went ahead and took it. In that case the horse reared up on me and I was injured and I should of just never had the horse, I should of just called them on their lie.
Q: What advise would you give to someone like me that is interesting in your professional field?
A: Be willing to work every day because you don't get any holidays, the horses are always out there even if you don't have to ride them. So ether you go big enough that you have apprentices that give you one day off but I know from watching my brother that if you go big enough you are still working all the time. If your considering this it's a 24-7 , everyday job. And you never get away with not having to fix repairs or fix a horse or things like that so you have to take that into consideration with your family if it's okay with you working everyday.
Q: Do you have any professional goals for your self looking into the future?
A: I would like at some point to get back into the show pin with someone else's horse. I don't think I want to do big shows again at all, but just to show again on someone else's bill, that's always a plus. And as far as the barrel racing I mean my next horse coming up will be able to hall to racing because I haven't been able to do that for 3 to 4 years, I've just done local things. But this year I'm planning on going to 5 big races or so this year so that should be a little bit more fun.
Q: So have you been showing in the past when you were younger?
A: Pretty much sense I was 7 and then I started 4-H when I was 8 and showed all the way pretty consistently till I was 18 when I switched over to barrels. So I haven't shown consistently probably for the past 10 years, I have had some colts that I have shown locally but that's a whole different ball game compared to the big shows.
Q: So it was College then that you started Barrels?
A: Yes, basically I switched to barrels because there wasn't the show opportunities close enough here.
Q: What training, education or life experience has been the most valuable to you in your profession?
A: I think that I put everything to use that I learned in college, I have a masters in education. Even though it's not in the class room I still apply all that when I'm teaching the kids or even just with the people that drop their horses off. It's very similar to parent teacher conferences when your talking about their horse because half the time they treat it like their child instead of their horse so I think I put all of that to use. I didn't necessarily have training on the horses except from all the trainers I learned from as I was growing up, but I didn't go to college for horse training at all. it was always something on the side that I did.
A: Mostly because I have always trained on the side, and after my son was born I quit teaching school and went to training full time because the scheduled worked better
Q: So that's why you changed from teaching?
A: Correct, it's still "teaching" but just a little different and on my schedule.
Q: What's on of the biggest challenges you have faced in your career?
A: Probably just the physical strength aspect and that there is constantly repairs that need to be done. If I can handle the training aspect then you always need someone else to help with fence repairs, working with equipment, loading hay and all those related things, so you need some family help.
Q: What do you love about your job and what could you change if you could?
A: I love the challenge, and you never really get bored because you always have a constant influx of new horses coming in every 30-60 days. So even though your doing the same things and patterns it's a different horse which changes it up. I would change the weather, so I guess just be wealthy enough to have an indoor arena.
Q: What is one of the biggest high lights of your career?
A: I really enjoy when my clients do well more so then my self. I have had quite a bit of susses in the barrel world as far as being consistent, but not always having that fastest barrel horse but being consistent through out the year, so coming out well at the end of the year. last year I had taken four girls that had never gone to a larger show, so they go to do that and it was just a lot of fun seeing them do well. They didn't necessarily win but they did definitely have some highlight classes where you could see all their work pay off.
Q: What would you say is one of your biggest professional mistakes that you have made?
A: Probably not having people get all the paper work in that you need to have in for them, because its pretty easy to forget to have them sign off reliability releases or contract and things like that because every time I have had them not sign something I have a horses get injured, then you are worried to have to talk to the owners about that. I've had some cases where some people really gave me bad vibes and maybe I didn't fallow up on the first gut feeling that I shouldn't take their horse and then I had to give their horse back within a week because I knew in my gut that they had lied to me on what their horses could do but I went ahead and took it. In that case the horse reared up on me and I was injured and I should of just never had the horse, I should of just called them on their lie.
Q: What advise would you give to someone like me that is interesting in your professional field?
A: Be willing to work every day because you don't get any holidays, the horses are always out there even if you don't have to ride them. So ether you go big enough that you have apprentices that give you one day off but I know from watching my brother that if you go big enough you are still working all the time. If your considering this it's a 24-7 , everyday job. And you never get away with not having to fix repairs or fix a horse or things like that so you have to take that into consideration with your family if it's okay with you working everyday.
Q: Do you have any professional goals for your self looking into the future?
A: I would like at some point to get back into the show pin with someone else's horse. I don't think I want to do big shows again at all, but just to show again on someone else's bill, that's always a plus. And as far as the barrel racing I mean my next horse coming up will be able to hall to racing because I haven't been able to do that for 3 to 4 years, I've just done local things. But this year I'm planning on going to 5 big races or so this year so that should be a little bit more fun.
Q: So have you been showing in the past when you were younger?
A: Pretty much sense I was 7 and then I started 4-H when I was 8 and showed all the way pretty consistently till I was 18 when I switched over to barrels. So I haven't shown consistently probably for the past 10 years, I have had some colts that I have shown locally but that's a whole different ball game compared to the big shows.
Q: So it was College then that you started Barrels?
A: Yes, basically I switched to barrels because there wasn't the show opportunities close enough here.
Q: What training, education or life experience has been the most valuable to you in your profession?
A: I think that I put everything to use that I learned in college, I have a masters in education. Even though it's not in the class room I still apply all that when I'm teaching the kids or even just with the people that drop their horses off. It's very similar to parent teacher conferences when your talking about their horse because half the time they treat it like their child instead of their horse so I think I put all of that to use. I didn't necessarily have training on the horses except from all the trainers I learned from as I was growing up, but I didn't go to college for horse training at all. it was always something on the side that I did.