Chase Dodd has always loved horses but he never dreamed he would one day have the opportunity to not only own a few, but train them too.

A horseback riding party at his neighbors' house to celebrate his 14th birthday changed the direction his life was taking-- after only one ride, he was hooked.  Because at the time Chase's family couldn't afford to keep sending him to lessons, the neighbor made a deal with him:  he could earn trail rides by catching and cleaning fish.  Despite this generous offer, after awhile Chase's school and work obligations grew to the point that he had to stop riding altogether.

When Chases' older brother turned 20, he bought some land and a horse for Chase to ride. At the time, Chase only knew how to saddle a horse and clean their hooves and whatever he had managed to learn while riding on his neighbors' trails.

One day Chase was having his horse shod and he inquired about the farrier business. The farrier said business was steady, he had 4-5 clients per day and after thinking about it for a while, Chase decided that he might be able to make a better living by being a farrier than he could at his current trade framing houses. In pursuit of this new career, he enrolled in farrier school, eventually building up a large clientele base in Southeast Tennessee, Northwest Georgia and Northeast Alabama and, after a year of shoeing part-time, he transitioned into full-time farrier work.

Being around horses day after day and learning with his own horse sparked Chase's interest in training.  After attending a few clinics on horsemanship, watching multiple clinicians' DVD's on starting and training horses, and reading a lot of trade and industry publications, he decided to enter the Extreme Mustang Makeover competition.

Extreme Mustang Makeover competitions have helped mold Chase into the trainer he is today. With only 100 days to gentle a wild horse, and after placing 15th at his first competition, he was very pleased and decided to continue to compete and be involved with the Mustang Heritage Foundation. Since his initial success, he has competed in four more EMM events and has placed: 15th of 50; 10th of 80; and, at his most recent competition, 6th of 13.  He's particularly proud of this most recent event, as all of the competing trainers were hand-picked from hundreds nationwide.

Currently, Chase is still working as a farrier, training his fifth Mustang and training clients' horses as well. While he still attends other trainer's clinics to learn new techniques and approaches, Chase has begun to host his own well-attended clinics within the community.  He lives in Soddy Daisy, Tenn., with his wife and two children, on a 1200 acre farm with boarding facility. His future plans are to transition his business, S.O.S. Horsemanship, to provide training only and he is in the process of planning an equine community full of amenities, including 25 miles of wooded riding trails.

Dennis Auslam does training, lessons and clinics out of his facility, Redwood Stables in Morton, MN as well as conducts clinic at remote locations. He also has been a presenter at several horse fairs in the Midwest. Dennis has 28 years of horse experience at all levels. He specializes in starting colts and also works with performance, halter, pleasure, and trail horses. Whether training any breed of horse, passing along techniques or teaching responsibility to young riders through lessons, it gives him great joy as a trainer and instructor to be able to expand people's knowledge of the potential of their horse and the relationship between horse and owner. Some of his accomplishments include year-end championships in rodeo associations and successful showings in AQHA and ABRA.

Bryan Owen and Donna Woods, owners of Photonic Health, LLC are avid horse enthusiasts who are dedicated to improving the health and lives of animals with natural healing methods.

Both of them are well-versed in a multitude of healing methods and combined, hold several certifications in equine, canine, and feline acupressure, equine touch, and spiritual response technique.   Their main focus is Cold Laser Therapy, also known as Red Light Healing or Photonic Therapy.

Through extensive hands-on experience, they have identified Cold Laser Therapy as being one of the easiest, safest, and most effective modalities available.

During our presentation, we will show horse owners how to locate, identify and release your horse's pain points using a combination of applied kinesiology and cold laser therapy.  By being able to identify some of the more elusive issues horses experience such as lameness, teeth problems and cinchiness, horse owners can easily address and relieve their horses of pain and enjoy a happy, healthy and content horse.

With almost 20 years of study in psychology-based horse training and 15 years instructing courses and clinics, Karen Scholl brings a unique perspective to the horse industry with her program, Horsemanship for Women.

Karen describes that, “Horses look to the leadership qualities of other horses for survival, and because most women are not taught leadership skills from an early age, it’s very common for us to become fearful or frustrated with our horse.” 

By traveling all over the country teaching courses, Karen offers safe, supportive clinics where women learn the skills to communicate with their horse with lasting results.  Even the husbands are impressed!

With a AA Degree in Equine Science, many years of teaching technical courses in the corporate environment and twenty years of horsemanship study, Karen brings a unique mix of educational skills and horsemanship abilities that are particularly suited to help women develop leadership, confidence and trust in themselves and with their horses.

“I’ve had extensive study in psychology-based horse training, and because I didn’t grow up with horses, I completely relate to the challenges so many women face.  At the completion of every clinic many say that they are no longer afraid of their horse!”  Karen says,  “It’s the most rewarding thing I can imagine doing for people.”

Tools designed to adjust for the limited strength of women and free safety video downloads are just some of the opportunities Karen offers to help women gain more confidence, feel safe and have more fun with their horses.

Go on Karen’s website, www.karenscholl.com to register to receive a newsletter and notices when Karen is teaching in your area.  Or call Karen’s office at 888-238-3447.

TJ was born in Glen Innes Australia. At 8 years old his grandfather, Sid Kirkwood, took him to a clinic by Australian Kel Jefferies, one of the first in natural horsemanship. TJ instantly knew he was going to train and work horses and studied the methods that were not so violent.

He was a young rodeo cowboy, including bull riding and bronc riding and was also on the Bushman’s Horse Racing Circuit. TJ work in Japan, Europe and now the United States and has grown in popularity every year.

TJ has competed in the Mustang Challenge make over for two years in Madison Wisconsin and now returns by popular demand to the Northern Illinois Horse Fest Trainer Challenge again for 2009.

TJ uses his C.A.L.M. or Calm Australian Methods to showcase his abilities. TJ now trains from Milton Wisconsin.

Jean Philippe Giacomini, internationally known as ‘JP’, was born in France where he received a formal education in equestrian sports through the French Cavalry system at his neighborhood riding club. Later, he studied dressage with Master Nuno Oliveira in Lisbon, Portugal and at the National Portuguese stud of Alter Real with Don Jose Athayde. Because he found that the advice “by the book” often failed him for correcting training problems, he had to figure out on his own the intricacies of horse training by trial and error. 

He rode many ‘green’ colts, raced in a few steeplechases, evented, show-jumped and trained his first of many Grand Prix dressage horses when he was 17 years old. Through his travels, he studied the techniques of great riders from many countries and various disciplines. He was lucky enough to ride horses trained by direct students of the great French luminaries (Decarpentry, Cuyer and others) as well as Portuguese and German masters’, such as Dr. Borba and the late Herbert Rehbein. Later, he worked on well over 10,000 remedial horses during clinics given on three continents. 

While producing international champions in dressage and Show Jumping, he coached event riders to win several major championships, ride in the Olympics and be awarded five Gold and Silver FEI medals. This facet of his work gave him the opportunity to check and develop the validity of his approach against the best in the world as well as innovate in the field of holistic sport horse management. 

This combination of theoretical knowledge and empirical experience resulted in the eventual creation of his own “Essential Horsemanship Training System ”. It is centered on the “Relax Reflex Reward” technique (“The 3R’s of Riding”™), used throughout a long catalogue of constantly refined lessons based on a short ‘check list’ of unalterable principles applicable to every training situation. This ‘Reality Training’ approach has resulted in the discovery of some of the simplest, yet most revolutionary solutions ever devised to resolve specific issues of equine behavior and biomechanics.

JP trains his five beloved Lusitano stallions (he calls them his ‘living laboratory’ and you can see them at www.baroquefarmsusa.com or visit them in Houston, TX). Besides being a distinguished linguist and writer on horse matters, JP is an amateur artist who enjoys writing poetry, sculpting and drawing. He is married to photographer Shelley Giacomini. Together they have five wonderful children: Colomba, T.J., Tegan, Tara and Ruy-Philippe.

From colt starting to finish work, from racing thoroughbreds to gentling and training wild mustangs and other feral breeds, Suzanne Myers has over 20 years of professional experience training horses.  Her Next Level Horsemanship (NLH) program places a strong emphasis on holistic horsemanship through the development of the handler's timing, feel, and balance, and accentuating the horse's responsiveness to its rider through combined methods in natural horsemanship and classical dressage.  Suzanne believes that you can maximize both partnership and performance.  In April of 2008 she won the prestigious Midwest Mustang Challenge held in Madison WI against 55 of the nation’s top trainers becoming the first woman to win the Mustang Heritage Foundation sponsored event in which trainers had just 100 days to gentle, start and prepare a wild mustang for competition and freestyle performances.
                 Suzanne also holds a Bachelor’s degree in Animal Production, a Master’s degree in Pathobiology, and a Doctorate degree in Veterinary Science from the Pennsylvania State University.  She has worked extensively in applied diagnostics and research at the University’s Animal Diagnostic Laboratory.  Her research interests include equine immunity to viral pathogens and to vaccines.  With combined experience in academia and horsemanship Suzanne often works as clinician and invited lecturer, helping people realize their horsemanship goals as well as  interpret and understand often confusing management and scientific information important to equine owners.     Suzanne is a member of AQHA, NRHA, The American Society for Virology (ASV) and has presented at various equine expositions and national venues including The Annual Conference for Research Workers in Animal Disease and The American Association of Veterinary Laboratory Diagnosticians.  For more information on Dr. Myers and her Next Level Horsemanship program, visit her website at www.nextlevelhorsemanship.com or email her at Suzanne@nextlevelhorsemanship.com. 

Between Caroline’s passionate presentations on horse-human relationships, to her inspiring liberty and freestyle demonstrations with her horses, Caroline Rider is becoming one of the equine industries most popular clinicians and performers.

Mike Branch has been traveling the southeast U.S. the past few years with the BLM giving demos to the public on the gentling process of the American Mustang. Mike was nominated as BLM volunteer if the year for 2008. Mike's work with these wild horses has lead to being in Brandon, Manitoba's first ever Colt Start Challenge, as well as given him invitations to the United Kingdom where, he went in March of 2009 to visit and do demos for several "Wild Pony" groups. Mike then received an invitation from the "Friends of the Dartmoor Hill Pony Society" to represent them in one of England's largest shows,..."Devon County" (May 2009) where Mike also had the opportunity to perform for and receive formal introductions to Royalty.

Mike has now done several demos and clinics all over the United Kingdom, not only with the Dartmoor, but the "Exmoor", and several other breeds as well, and will be going back this late summer for a few new venues. Mike  has now been invited to South Africa for Jan. 2010.

Juli is the owner/manager of Golden Gait Stable located at 23803 Grange Road in Marengo and offers boarding, leasing, starting horses, remedial training, and horsemanship lessons in riding, training and care. She considers her facility a place where horse-lovers and horses can bond and grow together in skill and knowledge.

Juli’s background includes training in Jumping, Dressage, Saddle-seat, Western, Trail and Gaited Horses. She’s taught hundreds of riding lessons, offered badge work for scouts, worked on behalf of Pony Club of America, and held clinics for HAHS, Northern Illinois Horse Fest, etc. She has shown, fox-hunted, and ridden competitive trail rides. Now she commits most of her time to educating future trainers, future and novice horse-owners, and uneducated horses. Juli is available for clinics, consultations, training, and lessons.

Juli’s training philosophies are based on communication skills and passive leadership. Her emphasis is on safety and positive growth. Juli offers a unique program which is geared to teach people how to train their own young horses. She works together with them and their horse, guiding them through her holistic, no-stress, step-by-step training methods. She will be presenting her most popular clinic on Spook-proofing Your Horse and Changing Fear to Curiosity.

She also teaches accredited equine training classes for Kishwaukee Community College . The classes are: “Equine Ground Training Basics, Starting Under Saddle, Stable Management, and Equine Business Basics”, and are held at her farm. The curriculum includes videos, demonstrations, discussions, and hands-on work with horses. The college awards “Stable Management” certificates to those who complete the program successfully. For students wanting more personal attention and hands-on work, Juli offers small group intensive classes on equine training and care (limited to 4 students.)

You can read her articles in the “Sentinel”, and the “Horse’s Mouth” (equine publications) or look them up on Illinoishorse.com.

Juli welcomes questions from readers on training issues, and often responds to these questions in her column. She has written her first book “PRELIMINARY HANDLING FOR YOU AND YOUR HORSE”, which covers the foundations of horse training and handling. She is currently working on her second book about her passive ground work methods which will be released in 2004.  

Look up her web-site at www.goldengaitstable.com.

Debi Metcalfe – Missing Horses, Tack, Trailers and Horse Identification 
Often referred to as the “John Walsh” of the horse industry, Debi Metcalfe is perhaps the most recognized expert in the field of horse recovery, theft prevention and horse identification.

More than just a pasture fence was broken when thieves took Idaho, from Debi Metcalfe’s husband in Shelby, North Carolina, in 1997. Important ties binding her family together were stressed by the abduction of a horse they viewed as a member of their family. They reacted with confusion—people still steal horses?!—and fear. When she realized local law enforcement considered her family’s loss a minor matter, she took action.

Debi began what would prove to be one incredible journey. Her quest led she and husband Harold into the dangerous world horse thieves inhabit. Along the way she discovered unexpected allies and recovered Idaho in a church parking lot 51 weeks later in Tennessee.

She didn’t see it coming but Stolen Horse International had started forming itself as soon as she sent out her first plea on the Internet by email to anyone who would listen. Little by little people joined this unnamed group linked together by big hearts, kind hearts and broken hearts.

Dr. Tom Tweeten is a scientist with more than 35 years of experience in Analytical Chemistry. He has worked with industrial chemicals and human and animal nutrition to develop chemical testing procedures to insure product quality and integrity.

About eleven years ago Dr. Tweeten and a couple of young entrepreneurs began developing a line of horse care grooming products. Since Dr. Tweeten is a horse owner and show competitor, he has worked to create products that are healthy and beneficial for his horses, while achieving the aesthetic results he wants. Dr. Tweeten’s experiences enable him to focus on developing a way to properly prepare and groom a horse so that it is beneficial to the animal. Based on this presentation you will learn what you will want to include in your tack box to maintain a healthy appearance of your horse.

Caring and maintaining a horse takes time and money. Taking time to work with a horse is an important part of getting the most out of a person’s investment whether it is preparing for a show or going for a trail ride. I will share some thoughts and ideas why grooming is not just for showing BUT an important part of communicating and building trust with a person’s horse.

There are three aspects of grooming that will be presented. They include:

• Showing how the grooming process can help both the rider and the horse relax before beginning an activity. It helps both partners in the riding activity come to a common mental state.
• Talking about selected tools that work best for grooming. Each tool will be demonstrated, showing how to get the most out the grooming device.
• Summarizing of how to select different grooming aids and what to think about when looking at the ingredients they contain. Have you ever thought how the horse grooming process differs from human grooming?

Through participation in the presentation, a person will begin to have a deeper appreciation of how this type of quality time can strengthen their relationship with a horse, enhance the appearance of the horse, and enrich their riding experience. I invite people who are both new to riding horses as well as the experienced horse person to attend.

Don Smith is a long time Mule owner and rider with many years of Mule experience. Don will show you the differences in Mule training and horse training by getting in to the basic mental and physical differences between the two.

Don has raised, trained and shown championship mules across the USA.

Join Don with his unique approach to mules at the Northern Illinois Horse Fest

Born and raised on a farm in Wisconsin, Dave has been riding, driving and/or training horses since he was eight.  He has been conducting Natural Horsemanship clinics throughout the country since 1994 on a variety of subjects including: Horse Starting, Leadership from the Ground Up, Foundational Riding Skills, Intermediate Riding skills, Basic Ranch Roping, Preparing the Horse For the Trail, Horse Camping, Fundamentals of Team Penning, Preparing the Horse for Driving, Working Cattle Skills and Leadership Training for the Horse Enthusiast.

Millions of years of evolution and natural selection have developed Equus Caballus  into an animal not just aesthetically beautiful in form and function, but also superbly able to survive and adapt to an incredible variety of environments.  This willingness to adapt to his environment is the basis of his learning, and what we use to teach the horse.  The more we understand about the instincts he is born with and the behavior he learns as a herd member, the easier it is for us to know how to teach the horse.

There are two things that are important when teaching the horse: what to teach him (your curriculum) and how to teach him (your methodology).  The horse doesn’t care what you teach him to do, he is only interested in how he will be treated.   If we place our emphasis on how we teach the horse, we’re building a relationship that develops a willing partner; if we place the emphasis what we want him to do, we end up with a reluctant slave. 
 
Every horse handling problem relates to one of, or a combination of, three elements in the horse/human relationship: Trust, Respect or Communication.  It is our job as the horse’s teacher to recognize where the student is having problems, and adjust our approach to meet his needs.  For both partners in the horse/human relationship: Trust gives them the freedom to act, Respect motivates them to act, Communication tells them how to act.

Dr. Thibeault earned her Bachelor’s degree in Molecular Biology from the University of Colorado and her Doctorate in Veterinary Medicine from Colorado State University.

A lifelong horsewoman and certified riding instructor, she practiced equine medicine for 15 years before taking her expertise into the classroom - teaching Equine Studies at Midway College in Kentucky.
Catherine Thibeault, affectionately known as Dr. Mom, accompanied her on daily rounds and emergency calls after retiring from a career in business.

Clancy, the Border Collie, was their constant companion. Dr. “Mom” has authored this marvelous ne book...I make horse calls....She Speaks in the lecture forum each day.

Harmony Horsemanship……  “It’s all about the horse”

 Harmony Horsemanship LLC is owned and operated by Ted Schlueter and Paulette Stelpflug.

Harmony Horsemanship LLC. was established in 2000.  Teddy and Paulette have taken the best training methods and incorporated them into their program.  They teach more than methods.  They teach a philosophy.

 Traditional training methods primarily rely upon strength, force, and restraint devices to control a horse.  Instead of trying to get a horse to react, Harmony Horsemanship will get the horse to respond.  Harmony Horsemanship’s “soft” method of training focuses upon communication with the horse.  Hindquarter Control is one of the most common terms and concepts that you will hear and learn from Harmony Horsemanship.  The power of the horse is in the hindquarter. 

Chris Bohenek brings over 13 years of working horseback experience in handling both horses and cattle to his students. After having worked for different ranches throughout Montana, starting colts and taking care of cattle, Chris and his wife Lynne relocated to the Bitterroot Valley of Montana. There, Chris does clinics and demonstrations locally as well as traveling abroad, using his natural horsemanship and Vaquero style integrated with his “Core Balance”TM (trademark pending) exercises to help both horse and rider. Chris also works with neighboring cattle and is always building quality Vaquero style ranch geldings and taking in a select amount of outside horses for training.