EC March/April, 2006
David recently left his home at Northwind Ranch with his wife, Julie, and two year-old son, Gage. He had worked for the Kern family at Northwind for over three years and thoroughly enjoyed the program he was working with there. “The Kern’s were super-nice to me and gave me a great opportunity when they hired me, but I have always dreamed of being able to train horses for the public. Going out on my own was just the next logical step to follow my dream.”
This dream started when David got his first horse at age nine. “I begged and begged my parents to buy me a horse. Neither of them had any horse interest, but they did a lot to support me. My first horse was a big buckskin mare named Tyree’s Brick. She did a lot of different events but wasn’t very good at any of them!” he says. “She did help me learn about horses, though. She taught me how to ride and how to just be around horses. I rode her for awhile and then ended up selling her to a 4-H kid that lived around us. At that point, I decided I wanted to train.”
David laughs, “I know that’s pretty early, but I thought teaching a horse was really cool. I started buying some yearlings and two year-olds so I could break and ride them. I really tried right away to learn the right way to train a two year-old.”
“I started working for a western pleasure trainer in Tulsa named Jeff Herd. I was 13 at the time. My dad would drop me off with the horse on his way to work. I’d get a riding lesson in the morning and then work for Jeff the rest of the day to pay for the lesson. My dad would come back and pick me up after he got off work for the day.” David chuckles as he points out, “My dad pulled that horse trailer to work every day during the summer!”
When David turned 14, he began living at Herd’s ranch during his breaks from school and continued to work there through his sophomore year of college at Oklahoma State University. “During my junior and senior year of college, I did my own thing. I had a little house and a very small-time training facility. I’d keep five or six horses in training at a time, and I’d ride anything anybody would bring me. I mean anything! I broke halter horses, rode cow horses… you name it, I rode it.”
While attending Oklahoma State University, David started out in pre-veterinary medicine. Although he had been bitten by the horse-training bug, he still had his child-hood desire to become a vet. “I didn’t want to be just a vet, I wanted to be the top equine surgeon in the country,” David says.
During his time at OSU, however, David decided his desire to train horses was too strong to continue on the track to become a vet. He graduated in 1999 with a degree in animal science and a minor in agricultural business. Then the resumes started.
“I had sent out a bunch of resumes and heard back from four or five really promising jobs. One of them happened to be Gil Galyean. I had met Gil at horse shows while I was at OSU and I really appreciated his training program. My wife, Julie, and I were dating at the time and Paws Up Quarter Horses (where Gil was training out of) was only about 20 minutes away from her parents’ house. It was a no-brainer,” David says.
Working for Gil Galyean was better than the young trainer could have ever expected. “Gil helped me tremendously. He taught me so much about training and being a horseman. He really helped teach me how horses think, act and react. Gil taught me the most about training horses. He taught me the kind of time and patience it takes to really become a good trainer. He is, hands down, my mentor in this business.”
Not only did David get the opportunity to learn at Galyean’s, he was also given the honor of showing several exceptional horses. In 2000, David showed Krymsun Hot Invite, a three year-old mare owned by Rebecca Bailey of Batavia, Ohio. The team rode to many accomplishments in 2000, including Krymsun Hot Invite being named the NSBA Limited Three Year-Old Horse of the Year and David being named the NSBA Limited Rider of the Year.
The following year, David met a stallion that would further his career immensely: One Hot Krymsun. Rebecca Bailey had been so impressed with Krymsun Hot Invite’s accomplishments, she decided to send the mare’s full brother, One Hot Krymsun, to Gil as well.
“It just happened that Gil had two phenomenal two year-olds that year. Gil chose to show Invite Moonlight, owned by Cecilia Hylton, because he had ridden her mother before and knew the mare really well. I got to show One Hot Krymsun, which was great because I had really liked Krymsun Hot Invite the year before.
“I have to really thank Becky Bailey and Gil for standing behind me and letting me show Jet instead of getting a catch rider. I had done a lot of work on him, so they decided to let me show him. I was just the assistant! I hadn’t won anything big or even shown at the World Show, but Jet and I really clicked,” David says of his opportunity.
“I really think there are very few horses and riders that bond the way Jet and I did. I can ask him to do anything and he’ll do it. I understand him and he understands me. I didn’t truly appreciate that until after I was done showing him as a three year-old and realized you don’t have that connection with every horse.”
After showing One Hot Krymsun to World Championships in Two Year-Old Western Pleasure in 2001 and Junior Western Pleasure in 2002, David knew the level where he wanted to stay. “When I was a kid and growing up, I knew I wanted to train horses, but I wasn’t really sure how I wanted to do it. Once I started working with Gil, I learned so much about the upper level of Western Pleasure. I decided then that I wanted to stay in a top program that consistently produces Congress and World Champions.”
Although David appreciated his time working with Gil, he made the move to Northwind Ranch in 2002. “I talked to Gil about it a lot before I decided to leave. Julie and I were married and talking about starting a family and I was being offered jobs as a head trainer,” David says. “I would still be working for Gil at this point in time if he could pay me head trainer wages, but there’s no way any trainer can afford to pay an assistant like that.”
David and Julie left Purcell, Oklahoma and moved to Northwind Ranch in Pilot Point, Texas to work for Woody and Sheri Kern. At Northwind Ranch, David had the opportunity to ride another horse that stands out in his mind as ‘one of the good ones,’ Impulsive Lite. With David’s help, Blair Kern and Impulsive Lite garnered many awards, including a World Championship in Western Pleasure at the 2004 AQHYA World Show.
After three years with the Kern’s, David felt ready to step out on his own and train for the public in 2005. “I’m really hopeful and really excited for the future. It’s a big deal to me to be able to go out and pick some really cool horses to show and promote for the coming year. I have some exceptional two year-olds for the 2006 show season that I’m really looking forward to showing.”
“I also am looking forward to branching out a little in the future. I might do a little Western Riding and I already have a few hunt seat horses. I really would like to avoid doing all-around horses, though,” David explains. “What would really be fun is riding some cutting horses. Julie and I have always had the dream of playing with cutting horses. I would just do it on the side; I have no desire to do it professionally. I feel like to do it professionally at the level I want to be at, I would have to start all over and work for an upper-level cutting horse trainer, and I’m just not ready to do that.”
Although dabbling in the cutting horses would be fun, David’s passion hasn’t changed much since his early days; he still loves training two year-olds. “I enjoy retraining a horse. It’s challenging and interesting to take a horse that’s already been started and get it to go along with ‘my style.’ Even though I enjoy that, I really like taking one from start to finish. It’s just so cool to have one turn into a nice show horse and know you did all the riding on it.”
“I really try to be a horseman, not just a horse trainer,” says David. “My goal is to teach each horse all the basics. I go over the basics with them every day. If I can move each part of the horse and have them let me do what I need to do, I can get them to do their best.”
David attributes a lot of his passion for riding really good pleasure horses to Gil Galyean. “Gil showed me the mechanics you have to have behind a Western Pleasure horse to have a true winner. He showed me how to really get a horse going good, not just gimmicks that will only get you so far. He taught me to have a reason for everything I did.”
David uses many of the lessons Gil taught him as life lessons as well. He also sites Guy Stoops as an inspiration for many years. “I saw Guy at a lot of shows in Tulsa. To me, he was the living persona of a cowboy. He knew everybody and was always friendly. Even though I was just a kid for a lot of those shows, he always remembered my name and made sure to say ‘hi’. He inspired me more than anyone else in the horse industry.
“I also look up a lot to Brett Parrish now. Not only because he’s a good horse trainer, but because of his life and lifestyle. He’s just an awesome person and a great family man,” David says of his fellow competitor.
Although David competes against his friends on a regular basis, he doesn’t feel a sense of rivalry. “I try really hard to get along with everybody. We’re all competitors. We’re all after the same thing. There’s always people competing for the same goal, but we all have to do business together as well as compete against each other,” David says. “Anytime you have a business relationship with your competitors, a rivalry will hurt your own business. There’s no place for it. If you aren’t able to be professional with people, you’ll just hurt yourself.”
In that respect, David cites many competitors as mentors in the field today. “Gil is at the top of the list, obviously. Cleve Wells, Shane Dowdy and Jon Barry are all guys that I look up to and respect a lot. There’s different things with all of them that they’ve given me so much insight on; the business, judging…everything. I also respect Alex Ross tremendously. He has given me invaluable advice and I’ve learned so much from him.”
David feels that having a support system like this is what has helped the industry to succeed so much. “People like Gil, Alex Ross and Dale Livingston have not only helped me as a trainer, but have advanced our industry as a whole.”
In fact, David feels he has seen a huge change in the pleasure horse industry over the past few years. “I’m really pleased with some of the changes we’ve seen in the industry. It all boils down to judging. That’s where the future of western pleasure is,” David says. “Pleasure is such a subjective event. The only way to get better and better quality every year is by educating judges on what an ideal upper level pleasure horse is.
“Reiners improved their scoring a few years ago with a clips tape. It showed what a +1, 0 and –1 score was for each maneuver. This got everybody in the reining world on the same page,” David points out. “Dale Livingston helped to put together a clips tape for the NSBA, which is the right track. There needs to be more of that, so everybody knows what an ideal pleasure horse looks like, as well as an excellent, good, average and below-average horse. If they are all classified on a clips tape, there will be more clarity in judging.
“I’d really like to see the industry get where everybody knows what is acceptable for each gait in a western pleasure class. Not just the judges, but everybody: the crowd, ringmasters, trainers, everybody.”
David proved his dedication to improving the industry by stepping up and getting his AQHA judges card in 2005. He is currently committed to judging two AQHA shows in 2006, as well as applying for his NSBA card.
Although David spent a fair amount of 2005 studying for his AQHA judges card, he made sure to keep a few days open…namely, the Congress and the World Show, where he once again showed One Hot Krymsun. The pair won the Markel Insurance Western Pleasure Maturity at the 2005 Congress and the Senior Western Pleasure at the World Show. This final Western Pleasure World Championship allowed One Hot Krymsun to win the AQHA Triple Crown, with World Championships in Two Year-Old Western Pleasure, Junior Western Pleasure and Senior Western Pleasure.
“I give Jet full credit for being able to win the Triple Crown. He is one of the most consistent horses I have ever seen. Over the years, through all the classes, he always looks the same,” David says of his favorite horse. “He is freakishly consistent. His topline, self-carriage, movement, way of going…he is always the same. He is also freakishly strong behind his withers. I think that’s a big part of his ability to have such a consistent way of going.
“A very distant second to Jet’s natural ability is our relationship. I feel like he would do anything for me. He’ll respond to me even when I know he doesn’t want to.”
Not only was David impressed with One Hot Krymsun’s performance at the 2005 World Show, he was impressed with the Senior Western Pleasure as a whole. “This was probably one of the best groups of senior horses we’ve seen in awhile. I attribute a lot of that to the pleasure horse industry. There are a lot of trainers and judges out there trying to change the horses. People like Guy Stoops, Alex Ross and Dale Livingston revolutionized the industry.”
He explained, “When I say revolutionize, I mean they helped bring the industry back to where it was years ago. These changes have brought back a lot of longevity to our horses. Horses can only go so slow for so long. Going that slow is so hard on these horses; it’s just as hard as a reining horse doing sliding stops and spins year after year. Now the horses are moving out a little more naturally. I think that’s why we’re seeing more longevity in these horses and much more talented and sound senior horses out there showing. We’re not asking them to go quite so slow or do quite so much.”
David would also like to see more classes like the Equine Sports Medicine Challenge at the Reichert Celebration and the Masters Futurity at the Congress. “Having these big money classes makes western pleasure more exciting for the crowd. It becomes as exciting as some of the more spectator-friendly classes, like cutting and reining,” David says. The cutting futurity pays out $250,000. Every year, the crowd is glued to the ring. I’d like to see more of this brought to the pleasure industry.”
“As a whole, our industry has improved greatly in the quality and the ability of our horses,” David continues. “Twenty years ago, there may have only been one or two great horses per year. Now, you’ll find five or six really nice pleasure horses every year. I feel that is a huge testament to the western pleasure industry in general. It’s a testament to what everybody has been working toward for years; the breeders and trainers that have really put their lives into improving the industry and create a better, longer lasting pleasure horse.
“Change comes slowly, but it’s headed in the right direction.”
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