Rising Talent Horsemanship Vol. 5 February, 2022 rthorsemanship.com
Creative Training Methods -By Emily Colyn
Experiencing Burros -By Lexi Barnes
Balancing Family and Work -By Jillian Smith -& MORE!
Featuring 3 Up-and-Coming Trainers “Burros can definitely be stubborn, but once you win their trust they will do so much for you!” -Lexi Barnes Lexi Barnes and her burro, Star
~Rising Talent Horsemanship~
Editorial Page Information Rising Talent Horsemanship seeks to highlight new and established horse trainers.
Rising Talent Horsemanship
Volume 1, Issue 5, February 2022
Legal Any views, opinions, or training techniques expressed in Rising Talent Horsemanship are not necessarily those of the editor, nor can they be held accountable. Rising Talent Horsemanship, VanFleet Mustangs or Samantha Van Fleet will not be held responsible for any copyright infringement or misrepresentation on the part of advertisers or highlighted trainers. Any correspondence to Rising Talent Horsemanship, its editor, or publisher are assumed for publication. All stories (verbal or printed), photos, news items, and any other submitted materials, solicited by Rising Star Horsemanship or not are assumed to be legally released by the submitter for publication.
EDITORS Sarah Burgner Sam VanFleet Contributing Writers Lexi Barnes Emily Colyn Emily Crowley Jillian Smith
www.rthorsemanship.com
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~Rising Talent Horsemanship~
Meet the Editors... Hey there! I’m Sarah, and I reside in Jonesborough,
Tennessee. Like most little girls, I have been in love with all things equines since I was 6 years old. From pretending I was a horse myself, to starting my own colts, loving on mustangs, to jumping in the show ring, I have never been able to get enough of God’s most gorgeous creation, the horse.
Now, twenty years later, I have started my own natural horsemanship mentoring business and am elated at the opportunity to be a collaborator and editor of this magazine!
Hey guys, I’m Sam, a 22-year-old trainer
whose passion is gentling, training, and rehoming mustangs to get them out of holding. My other passion is helping other horse owners communicate with their horses better. Over the past few years I've developed my business through YouTube, clinics, training, taking and teaching lessons, learning through internships, social media, etc. My goal is to help other young trainers grow their businesses as well and connect the equine community… which is why I began this magazine.
Sarah and I are so excited to bring you this magazine full of content. We hope you enjoy!
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~Rising Talent Horsemanship~
Table of
Contents
Emily Colyn
Lexi Barnes
Read about Emily’s well rounded approach towards her mustangs and burros.
Learn about how Lexi discovered her love for burros.
Emily Cowley
Jillian Smith
pg 5
Take a look into the summer that changed Emily’s life and her determination towards her goals. pg 11
pg 8
Get inspired by Jillian’s mission and personal story of pursuing her family and her horsemanship dreams. pg 14
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The Trainers
February Features
~Rising Talent Horsemanship~
Enjoy the unique stories of each one of these talented young ladies!.
Emily Colyn with mustang, “Scooby.”
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~Rising Talent Horsemanship~
Emily Colyn Trainer Norco, California
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Age 17
Emily, is a young trainer based in sunny Southern California. She believes
in a diverse and adaptive training program. No two horses are the same and there's no one way of training that is the best for all. She works in a calm, quiet manner and is always searching to find the method which is best for teaching each particular horse. She has taken up a collection of different disciplines to increase the diversity of which she can train and teach with. From western pleasure and reining to dressage and jumping she strives to expand her knowledge of the equestrian world and the different training methods they use. Emily now regularly competes in TIP challenges to challenge her training abilities with a variety of different mustangs and burros. She offers training and lessons and specializes in working with wild burros. Contact infoPhone number: (951) 858-5467 Email: emilyanncolyn@att.net
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Emily’s insight continues…. Whether you're just getting your feet wet in the horse world or been riding since you were little it's important to realize there is always more to be learned. You can always grow as a rider and trainer and should be willing to better yourself by learning. For me learning and practicing a variety of disciplines has widened my toolbox of skills I have to train with. Throughout the last year I have faced some of the most challenging and reactive horses I've ever dealt with. Simply tightening your grip on the lead was enough to unnerve them. In a challenge where you only have about 100 days you can’t waste precious time fighting with a mustang who overreacts. Previously working in the discipline of western pleasure taught me how quiet and soft your cues can be and still be effective. Learning to stay so calm in the saddle for the clean western look translated beautifully to being on the ground and keeping the same calm constant pace is reassuring to these nervous animals. I believe training them in a more assertive fashion would’ve led to them not being finished at all or being more fearful down the road. While an extremely quiet method worked wonderfully for some, others need a more assertive approach. When working with more testy animals you have to be quick to shut down their misbehavior before it grows to a full fight. Working in so many different disciplines has taught me various ways to effectively do this. With the reining horses we . right we’d stop, back, would use backing as a correction, if the horse didn’t pick up the lope and ask again. This has worked well as a simple correction for the mustangs, backing is something the learn very early on so the tool is almost always there and is a different motion which works as a great quick change of pace for their mind allowing them to drop whatever they were fighting about. I would have never learned how to effectively use that correction if it wasn't for the time I spent reigning. Examples like these go on and on for me. You can always learn new ways to teach the same thing and you should keep this in mind when handling the many different horses you will encounter. Broadening my experience has allowed me to train every horse to the best of my ability and work in a way which is easiest for each of them to understand. My best advice to riders and trainers everywhere is to get creative when it comes to all the different challenges you may encounter when it comes to training horses, there will
never be just one answer.
~Rising Talent Horsemanship~
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As long as it takes for them to find trust and joy…
“Never again will harm threaten you” is the promise we make to every horse who crosses our path. While spending time with these mustangs, you can feel their gratitude every single day. Contact Sweetbeau for more info. email: info@sweetbeauhorses.org phone: 805-591-0533
Sweetbeau YouTube Channel “Sweetbeau Horses”
@sweetbeauhorses Located in Creston, California
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~Rising Talent Horsemanship~
Lexi Barnes Southern California
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Age 11
Hi my name is Lexi Barnes and I am 11 years old from Southern California. In 2021 I signed up to compete in my very first TIP challenge which was the SoCal TIP Challenge. TIP stands for Trainer Incentive Program, which was created by the Mustang Heritage Foundation to help get mustangs and burros out of holding and started in their new domestic life. I chose to compete with a Burro because I thought it would be easier than a horse for my first time. The burro I selected I was a yearling Jenny who I named Star. What I found out while training Star for this challenge was that it wasn’t at like I expected, it was hard, but it was still a lot of fun! I learned a lot about myself and burros. Star and I did well in our competition, we also won the Rookie Youth Champion for being the youth with the highest combined score! I was also the youngest competitor. Lexi competing with her burro, Star, at the 2021 SoCal TIP Challenge
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Triple Crown Success with Burros! Lexi and Chloe the Burro Photo Credit: Tabitha Smith
Next I decided to sign up for the second leg of the Triple Crown TIP Challenges which would be held in Las Vegas. The burro I selected I had met while visiting the ridgecrest wild corrals and although I had wanted to compete with a horse this round I fell in love with this burro and named her Chloe that day. Once we got her home we quickly got to work. She had a lot of natural draw to me and we formed amazing friendship. She was different than training Star, she was more sensitive and more forward which helped me learn new things about training. We put in a lot of long hours even working in the dark at times. All our hard work paid off at the Las Vegas TIP Challenge where we won all three of our classes and took home the title of Champion Youth Burro! The third and final leg of the triple crown I drew a horse to compete with but unfortunately he was too much horse for a young youth trainer like myself and a month into the competition I started with a new burro to train. KC was from a very recent gather so still had a good amount of flight instinct with new things. She presented new challenges for me. She was not a fan of obstacles and needed a lot of confidence building and leadership from me. We went on to finish 3rd place overall with only two months training time! My burro won best condition Burro and I won the Rising Star trophy for being a young trainer they see lots of potential in!
It might be hard but it’s a lot of fun and you can learn a lot from the burro and they help get you ready for the competition because they can be stubborn but once you win their trust they will do so much for you. While Lexi has a few more years to decide if she wants to train burros for others… you can still follow her barn’s page here!
Shining Dream Ranch FB Page
Counter Designs! ~Rising TalentCanter Horsemanship~
Mystery of the Mustang
. . LEARN MORE 10
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~Rising Talent Horsemanship~
Emily Crowley Trainer -
Emily’s Mustangs -
Big Water, Utah -
Age 17
My name is Emily Crowley, I am 17 years old, and from Big Water Utah. I have been around horses since I was three years old. Since then I’ve been around horses everyday. I was in 4-H for three years. I got my first horse at age five and showed western pleasure. In 2018 a friend told me about an opportunity to train a mustang in the TIP program. After the first competition I was hooked and since then I have trained 8 mustangs. I have won three TIP challenges. I’ve dabbled in barrel racing just for fun here and there but I enjoy the groundwork part of training horses and watching their personality come out as they get comfortable with people. I enjoy helping people with their horses. I currently give lessons and take on client horses. Right now I am working on starting colts under saddle and teaching people the basics about horses.
Check out, connect, and contact Emily through her FB Page ‘Emily’s Mustangs”
photos by: Anouschka Rokebrand
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~ The Horse That’s Worth It ~ In 2021 there was a Triple Crown TIP Challenge. Socal TIP, Las Vegas TIP, and AZ TIP. My original plan was to do Socal and Arizona because Vegas was in the summertime where it gets really hot here and I usually am super busy. However, when it was time for Vegas there was this adorable gelding leftover and I knew I needed him. So I decided to do all three. For Socal I had the sweetest filly who wasn’t even a year old yet. We competed and got second overall! I had about a month before I picked up my vegas horse after that competition. When I picked my vegas horse up in July I could tell he wanted nothing to do with people. He was scared and just wasn’t interested, he took a lot of time to just be comfortable with people. Six months later and he still jumps at really fast movements. He’s just a horse who requires a lot of time. In September I picked up my Arizona horse, my plan with him was to just do short sessions with him while I was still training my Vegas horse. The second day we had my Arizona horse, Roscoe, he decided he didn’t like being in a pen by himself so he tried to jump my panels, he didn’t make it of course but did manage to bend my panel pretty badly. My Vegas horse took so much time and effort that by the time we were done showing I was tired and burnt out. I decided with work, school, and three other horses that Roscoe just wasn’t worth the time because he had a bad rearing problem and he was just a lot to handle so I was just going to get him to meet the TIP requirements and rehome him. I decided to pull out of the competition and then someone said to me “Life is always going to be busy and hectic. It doesn’t ever slow down. Make sure you make time for things that are truly important to you. You do so much good for these horses and you are part of a bigger picture. Bigger than yourself. If it’s something truly important to you,
you’ll find a way.” And after that moment I knew that I was going to have to make it work because this was something I wanted. I knew this horse had so much potential and I had to show it. So we threw a last minute freestyle together and we made it work. At the time I was also helping my mom with her challenge burro and my neighbor girl with her first mustang too. We got to the competition and with all the other horses around him, Roscoe was just too distracted to focus on anything so I gave him the day to just relax and explore the property. When it came time to show the first class was anything from perfect he didn’t stand still and he had to look at everything. He was young and in a new environment so it was not his fault at all. Our trail class was next and there were some scary obstacles. I was sure he would freak out about, but he did it perfectly and didn’t hesitate at any of the obstacles. He ended up winning first in all of his classes and winning me my first saddle. So don’t give up on those tough horses. It might just pay off in the end!
~Rising Talent Horsemanship~
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A Natural Approach to Health for a Happy Horse and Human! Have you ever thought about using natural remedies and supplements for your equine partner? As a natural horsemanship and natural living mentor, I'm passionate about properly taking care of our equine partners. Essential oils and holistic products are a great way to show your horse the love they deserve. From emotional support to gut health, sore muscles to cleaning up cuts and scrapes. No matter what you and your pony's goals are, I can help you understand and implement a regimen using safe, natural, and effective products from the inside out.
Interested in learning more? Email inquiries to onehearthorsemanship@gmail.com for a FREE virtual consultation to discuss the best products, aids, and supplements for you and your partner to have a thriving relationship.
~Rising Talent Horsemanship~
Pursuing Passion While Balancing Family, Life, and Work by Jillian Smith
Hi everyone! My name is Jillian Smith and I am a trainer from San Diego, California. I am a mother of 3, wife, and work a regular full time job. My goal in my horsemanship is to show that even if you are a mom and have a normal day job you can still accomplish any goals you can dream up. I have been involved in horses for almost 25 years and in the last 5 years I have discovered my true passion in gentling and training mustangs and burros. I hope to pass on this passion to my family and teach my children the joy of loving and nurturing all animals. We live on a small homestead and love instilling all aspects of western life into our daily lives.
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~Rising Talent Horsemanship~
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Jillian’s story continued,
I currently do TIP Challenges and train my own personal mustangs (plus 1 pony) and hope to compete in an EMM at some point in the near future. I love teaching adults how to advance their horsemanship and am available for lessons. I do not currently take on client horses, but am hoping to do so in the near future!
Contact InformationIG jilliansmith20153 FB Jillian Smith
Jillian and gelding, Orical at the 2021 Las Vegas TIP Challenge, where they won Reserve Champion!
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“Remember, you’re not working on the horse, you’re working on yourself.” ~Ray Hunt
~Rising Talent Horsemanship~
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