A Day In The Life... by Brittany Bevis

by Brittany Bevis

It is early morning. He listens to the voicemails on his cell phone while sipping his coffee and reviewing the business agenda for the upcoming day. Today’s items include intensive training sessions, coordinating product acquisition and dispersion, and meeting with clients to discuss goals for future performance. This individual isn’t a high-powered business manager or even a CEO of some Fortune 500 company. He is a modern day horse trainer.

The traditional description of the quintessential cowboy usually conjures images straight out of the Wild West. A sharply creased cowboy hat, fringed chaps and jingling spurs complete the picture of a horseman traversing the plains atop his trusty steed.

Although their physical appearance may have changed slightly, a desire to preserve the time-honored traditions of horsemanship and a passion for the art of teaching horses remains a core part of modern day horse trainers.

Four nationally-renowned horse trainers express their views about the definition of a true horseman and comment on the current state of the horse-showing industry.


Garth Gooding	Scott Suggs

Rusty Green	Mike Hachtel

Garth Gooding, a Paint-horse trainer from Fennville, Michigan, said he started riding horses before he could even walk and has been training horses for 25 years.

“Besides being a talented rider and having a feel for the horse, there is a certain amount of charisma that the really great riders have that makes it look fun and easy,” Gooding said.

A colleague of Gooding’s is another Paint horse trainer located in Pilot Point, Texas, Scott Suggs.
The mark of a true showman has a lot to do with people skills and convincing someone to think a certain way without saying a word, Suggs said. He said the experience of competing with a horse in a show pen is similar to being on display for people who are essentially “window shopping.”

“I concentrate more on the people outside the arena than I do on the judges,” Suggs said. “If you can show to the hundreds of people around the rail watching, you will have certainly done a good job showing to the three or four [judges] in the middle.”

For someone to be a great showman, that person must understand how people think and, as a result, demand respect and visually draw everyone to the arena to watch him compete, Suggs said. A great showman can talk to you without saying a word when he shows a horse; he makes people believe that the particular animal is as good as, or better than any other he has ever sat on, Suggs said.

The mark of a true horseman is having the ability to think like a horse and convince the animal to do whatever he asks, on cue, at any point in time, Suggs said.

Rusty Green, a Quarter horse trainer and accredited judge, located in Pilot Point, Texas, said by putting in countless hours of day-to-day repetitions, a rider can create a certain level of consistency and trust that a horse needs in order to perform to the best of their ability.

“The thing about training is that every horse is different,” Green said. “You’re dealing with all the different facets of all different personalities.”

Suggs mirrored this sentiment when he said each horse has to be looked at separately because each animal has different personalities and levels of talent. A good horseman realizes that horses “are not all square pegs that fit into round holes, that each one is different,” Suggs said.

Suggs said his biggest career goal is to be remembered as a true horseman who tried to create horses with strong foundations that were able to continue competing successfully long after they had left his influence. Unfortunately, what is becoming apparent in the new generation of horse trainers is a lack of desire to be good horseman and instead a focus on the instant gratification of winning a certain event, Suggs said.

Gooding said his generation growing up wasn’t as specialized and, as a result, benefited from being exposed to many different disciplines and a vast diversity of horsemanship skills that helped to produce better horseman.

“The younger generation has grown up in a specialized era and I think they lack some of the horsemanship skills because of it,” Gooding said. “While the younger generation may have just as much talent and the ability to achieve a desirable end result, it may be more of a ‘quick fix’ means of getting there because of their lack of understanding of the foundations of horsemanship.”

Instead of instant gratification, the focus should be “to achieve the parts of success of our business that mean more than just a belt buckle or a gold trophy,” Suggs said. Knowing “at the end of the day that I had a valuable product when I was finished,” is what is truly important, Suggs said.

While having a desire to win and goals to strive for is admirable, in the end a horse will need to continue on in a place that is beneficial to the industry, Suggs said. The real reward is “knowing that you were able to take a horse that knew nothing and teach it to go around basically unassisted, on its own, in a pressurized environment,” Suggs said.

Mike Hachtel, a Paint horse trainer in Collinsville, Texas, who has trained horses since he was 16 years old, said a lack of commitment and desire for fame is unfortunately what he sees in the future generation. What is obvious is the tendency of “training for today and not three years down the road,” Hachtel said.

This is a result of not having a lot of foresight and focus on longevity, Hachtel said.

“Sometimes it isn’t having the prettiest truck and trailer, but what you unload out of it and how the horses perform that matters,” Hachtel said.

“[Horse showing] has become such an art, credit has to be given to someone who can take a horse from a two year-old to a five year-old status and every time it is presented to the public have it be sound, happy and presented well, win lose or draw,” Hachtel said.

Green said four or five of his colleagues have horses that he has admired for years.

“Some of them were great horses and some of them were good horses, but all of them are still going around and in that sense I would say that it was a great program and a great job,” Green said.

People’s tendency to focus on the notoriety and monetary aspect of showing horses isn’t necessarily their fault, Green said. The way the current futurity system is evolving, with the introduction of higher stakes and the opportunity of competing for larger purses of money, may result in people hurrying through a horses training to achieve a desirable end result, Green said.

While business interest and basic human nature lead us to that focus, the reality is that adding monetary value to competitions provides positive exposure for the industry as a whole, Suggs said. Ultimately, despite the lure of winning more prestigious titles for larger amounts of money, each one of these trainers said they continue to pursue this career mainly for the love of the horses.

“It is something that definitely has to be in your blood, it can’t just be a means of a paycheck,” Gooding said.

“I wouldn’t trade with Bill Gates,” Suggs said. “This is ingrained in me; it’s all I really know.”

Suggs said he is truly lucky to have the opportunity to wake up every morning and get paid for doing a job he loves.

“We would probably pay to do it, if truth be known,” Suggs said.

Green said while he enjoys training horses, it is even more satisfying to be able to teach someone else how to ride and watch them succeed.

“If all I had to do would be to deal with the horses, it would be a perfect life,” Green said.

“You’ve got to have it in your blood,” Hachtel said. “On paper the job is about winning and losing, but it is about the challenges, definitely not the pay.”