Part of being an ethical professional is respecting your horses and your sport.
By Jennifer Paulson
When did your passion for riding horses start? You might not remember an exact moment or event—likely because horses were part of your DNA from birth. Your parents and grandparents raised you around horses and the horse community, and it was such a part of what defines you, that you couldn’t imagine doing anything else professionally. Or maybe your horse connection started from books and TV shows and movies, which led you to beg your parents for riding lessons or to own your own horse, leading to where you are today, as an NRHA Professional.
It doesn’t really matter where your first horse experience happened or how it came about, that connection led you down a path to work with horses day in and day out, through all kinds of storms—those of the literal weather kind, the financial kind, and even those caused by a pandemic.
How you chose reining as your focus could come from many different experiences. Maybe you grew up riding with a 4-H club and reining was an upper-level discipline that caught your attention. Perhaps you came by it naturally, with parents who spun and slid their way to paychecks. Whatever the case, this is your sport. You’re a student of the rules, an artisan of your training craft, and a sage coach for your customers.
Here, four NRHA Professionals discuss how they show respect for their profession, horses, customers, and the sport.
Part 1: A Way of Life, Billy Williams
Part 2: A Commitment to Horsemanship, Kole Price
Part 3: A Change in Focus, Jordan McBurney
Part 4: A Focus on the Horses, Peter DeFreitas
A Change in Focus
Jordan McBurney started out in barrel racing and didn’t begin reining until she was 17. The change in discipline brought a wealth of knowledge about the care and husbandry of her horses, but also a respect for the sport and the commitment NRHA Professionals provide to their horses.
“I have a lot of respect for this sport,” she said. “Coming from barrels, I learned so much when I came to reining.”
Training out of Rhodes River Ranch in Washington with her husband, Sean, McBurney takes the care of her horses to heart.
“Our horses are borderline spoiled,” she said with a laugh. “They get fed on a strict schedule. They have a half an hour to an hour of work, and otherwise they’re in a clean stall with hay in front of them. We have a saltwater machine on our place, so horses get treatments once or twice a week, whether they have an injury to rehab or just to offer them some TLC.”
Being a multi-discipline rider also allows McBurney to critically think about if a horse is a good fit for reining, which shows the regard she has for her horses’ happiness and showing stock most suitable to her profession. She’s currently barrel racing with a mare by Whizkey N Diamonds.
“We were going to do reining,” McBurney explained, noting that it wasn’t a perfect fit. “I didn’t want to force her to fit [into reining], so I patterned her and use her as a hobby. I hadn’t barrel raced in five years. She was a talented reining horse, but in the end, barrels fit her better. She’s won probably $5,000 to $10,000 with limited running.
Read the rest of this article at the links above.
