What did we learn from our trip to Texas? We learned that our instincts were correct. When on the hunt for horses Texas is well worth the trip. Actually, that's an understatement. Texas is chock full of horsemen and hospitality and contrasts. Of big cities, complicated interstates and fast drivers (the Katy Freeway out of Houston was a shocker) and seemingly endless rural “Farm to Market” roads with field after field of horses, horses and more horses.
We have had an amazing time. We started our journey in Katy meeting up with old friends like Sterling and Melissa and Patty L. at the Houston Arabian Show at the Great Southwest Equestrian Center. Got a chance to say a quick hello to the talented Megan Jenkins. Wow what a nice facility!
We made our way northward to Weatherford and the exceptional Western Cross Ranch. Holly, Jenna, Linden and trainer Kristin couldn’t have been more welcoming and the chance to visit a program that is so many generations deep with such success in both the halter and performance divisions is a rare opportunity. I strongly encourage anyone that loves beautiful horses combined with some of the best horsemanship around to contact Holly or Jenna and arrange a visit. You won’t be sorry!
Moving even further up the state it was a treat to test drive horses trained by renowned trainers, Josh Quintus and Gordon Potts. And it was on this leg of our trip that we made a new acquaintance and someone I look forward to getting to know better, and that’s Shelly Carns. She's the type of breeder that we’re always looking to support…a small program but focused on trainable athletes. Shelly puts a lot of thought into not just getting a beautiful foal on the ground, but looking ahead to what that baby will have as a future and putting a lot of consideration into the education of those babies.
A couple of days is certainly not long enough to even scratch the surface of the depth of horse experiences to be had in the big state of Texas, but that’s all the time we had and we wrapped it up with a visit to Solstice Training Center. While I’ve never met Wendy Gardiner, I’ve followed her online feed so actually felt like we’d already met. We made a new friend as well...trainer Greg Axmann. It’s always great to meet horsemen like Greg. For my friends that want to know what kind of horseman Greg is, let’s just say he’s the closest thing to our friend the late great Dan Bruce that I’ve seen in a long time and that’s about the biggest compliment I can give.
You KNOW we have lots of photos but at the moment not lots of time because we had a couple of cool last- minute additions to our adventure. More about that in the days to come! Cheers from TeamTrox
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