Dewey Smith: A Legacy of Form to Function

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34 – January/February, 2026

By Brittany Vermeer

Dewey Smith fit his first Halter champion when he was just 14 years old. That early taste of success in the winner’s circle of the South Texas Paint Horse Club Futurity provided a glimpse of what was to come.

The early introduction to breeding, raising, and showing his own horses started Dewey on a path that would lead to many more wins, collaboration with some of the industry’s biggest names, and a 43-year career spent working with some of the top Halter horses in the world.

“My mom and dad, Charlene and Don Smith, didn’t train horses. But Dad owned a few running horses, and Mom used to run barrels and poles. We lived in Midlothian, Texas, and I did it all,” Dewey says.

Dewey rode Western Pleasure horses, showed Halter horses, and kept a few horses in training while he was in college. The defensive tackle at Tarleton State got a degree in Animal Science with a minor in Chemistry and Nutrition. It was the ideal course of study for a budding horse trainer with a love of equine genetics. After he graduated from college, Dewey started accepting outside horses for training.

“I’ve been training horses probably since 1983. It just seemed like the right fit. I had a knack for it, so I stayed with it,” he says.

These days, Dewey and his wife, Tammi, live in Bellefontaine, Ohio, with their youngest son, Colton. Their business is a partnership with well-respected industry veterans Jerry and Penny Robinson. JL Robinson & Dewey Smith Quarter Horses is known for World and Reserve Champion, BHF Champion, and Congress Champion stallions like FG Born Legacy, FG Mr McDreamy, HippiesAndKowboys, and Whoisit. While these stallions, and their get, hold their own in the Halter pen, Dewey is adding a new facet to the breeding program with Ranch Riding.

Form to Function

Click here to read the complete article
34 – January/February, 2026