by Ruthie Stewart

The bible says: Faith is the evidence of things hoped for but not yet seen. “The most exciting thing about the horse industry is that every day can be a life-changing day; it’s a faith business. You have to have faith. You don’t have to be religious, that’s not what I mean, but you have to have faith like the farmer or rancher has faith that it will rain and the crops will be good. You have to have faith that if you do the right things consistently, good things will happen,” says Dale Livingston.

Dale was born in Greenville, South Carolina and grew up in Lincoln, Nebraska. His father, Major Dale Livingston, was in the Air Force and his memories of his childhood were similar to many of the baby boomers raised in military families. “I grew up as an air force brat and we were always moving from place to place,” says Dale.

The Major became disabled and died when Dale was fairly young, so sadly they never had much of a relationship. Dale ended up as kind of a loner. He was a city kid and since no one around him had horses his only chance to get close to them was at the local rent stable and through horse books like The Black Stallion or My Friend Flicka and every equine magazine he could get his hands on.

“I just can’t remember not being drawn to horses. I thought all I needed was a horse and I could ride away from my troubles.” The aroma of horses, hay and straw, and the smell of leather that only bridles and saddles have when you walk in the tack room early in the morning were like perfume to Livingston. “I don't think anything smells as good as that. Trophies are nice to look at and reminisce about, but they have no aroma that I am aware of and they only feed your ego, not the senses.”

When he was 13 years-old he started working at a stable that rented horses for two dollars an hour. Dale was thrilled when the owner of the stables recognized that he could use someone like him and gave him a job. “I'm sure that it wasn’t my talent with a horse that convinced him at the time. I just kept hanging around and asking if I could do this or that and I didn't care what anyone else thought or said to me.” Including his family who thought that the barn was a crude place to hang around and the odors that accompanied it were awful.

“They would ask me, ‘Why do you keep trying to get a job at that stinking old barn working for that man for almost nothing?’ The pay was five dollars a day and a normal day was at least 12 hours.” When the owner told him they didn’t need him or tried to send him home, Dale just ignored him and came to work again the next day. “As I think back on it now, I laugh because I know I was a pain in the rear, but I just wanted to be close to the horses. The owner finally gave in, not because he needed me, but to get me out of his hair he gave me a job.”

As a young teenager Dale left home and never finished high school. All he’d ever dreamed of or thought about was training horses and showing them for a living. “I can't ever remember not loving a horse. I was consumed by my need to be around them and riding them at every opportunity I could find. Maybe it is because, in this land that is known for liberty and freedom, there is no greater feeling of freedom to me than on the back of a good horse.”

Persistence is another attribute Dale has in spades. He lives by the creeds, “Just don't quit; don't give up; hang in there; winners don't quit; and try again. He says triumph isn’t as much about our talent as it is TRY - combined with some UMPH, or plain old persistence.

Melinda and Dale Livingston met while Dale was working for E.B. Gee Quar-ter Horses in Arkansas in 1982. At the time, admits Dale, the two had nothing in common but she was the one for him. “She is my soulmate and until I met Melinda I never > >