Black Hills Horse Expo - Trainers Challenge

March 8-9, 2008

2008 TRAINER'S CHALLENGE
Three great horsemen...
Three unbroke horses...
Two hours in a round pen...

ONLY ONE WILL BE NAMED CHAMPION

The event consists of three of the area’s horse trainers, who will have two hours to work with an untrained young horse. The competitors will not have the opportunity to view the horses in advance, and the horse assignments will be randomly drawn the morning of the competition. The two hours will be spent inside the round pen, with a one-hour break to allow the horses time to rest. The trainers will not be allowed to interact with their assigned horse during the break.

After the second round pen training session, the horses and trainers will complete a simple timed obstacle course in a five-minute time frame. Judges will score 10 categories on a scale of 1-10. After the last competitor has completed the course, an official will tally the scores and announce the winner.

	Rob Fox I am 32 years old. I have been married for the past 11 years. My wife, Kelly, is the love of my life, my best friend and an incredible mother to our two children. Our son, Rhett, 10 years old, is my right hand man and is becoming quite the ‘pony trainer’. He’s not a bad team roping partner to either! Then there is Abby, 5 years old. My princess in pink tights and a tutu one minute, boots, spurs and chinks the next. Her catmanship is unmatched by anyone else. I was raised on a ranch and I’ve been fooling around with horses for as long as I can remember . I was exposed to the ‘tie em up and ear em down’ method. The results of this method proved to be poor, generally dangerous and painful for both horse and trainer. I have scars to prove this statement. After high school I decided to enter the Equine Course at Western Dakota Tech in Rapid City.
I took the colt starting class taught by Paul Tierney. Paul introduced me to a whole new world of training techniques. After that I started many colts for myself, friends, neighbors and the general public. I gained much knowledge but more importantly I gained experience, some good , some bad, but I learned from it all. During the winter of 1995 I worked for John Crump in Gillette, Wy at his cutting horse facility. Here I experienced a higher caliber of horses. I learned what a finished horse should feel like. After that I returned to ranching. It wasn’t until a year ago that I started training outside horses full time. I feel I can honestly say I love what I do. I have helped out at our area’s youth rodeo series for the past several years. My family and I enjoy friendly team ropings at the neighbors. And I rope and drag several hundred calves to the branding fire through out every spring. We do most of our ranch work from the back of a horse, gathering, sorting, calving, lambing, etc. I also have an interest in the rough stock end of rodeo having rode bareback and saddle bronc in high school and college. I have started to raise a few bucking horses as a hobby for the past 5 to 6 years. We live on my family’s ranch 50 miles north of Belle Fourche. My son is the fifth generation to live on this place. It was established around 1912.
	Stoyan Lucey I have been married almost six years to my wife, Chelsea. We have had the privilege of raising our daughter, Tairyn since April 2, 2007. We work together as a family to accomplish whatever needs done! I began starting colts at the age of 12. I've gained my knowledge of training from clinics, listening to good friends and from the good, the bad and the ugly horses! It takes discipline to adjust to the ever growing knowledtge of horse training. I compete mostly in rein cowhorse shows and ranch horse competitions. I have enjoyed training and showing 3 year olds for the shows/competitions and am tickled with how well they have worked. Through the years I have been able to compete in a handful of ranch rodeos, barrel races and am a yearly participant in at least one hog wrestling at the fair! We have been raising horses for a number of years. The stallion we currently ownis Haidas Cooke County, who won the majority of his LTE of $17,500 in the working cowhorse. We stive to raise performance horses that are athletic, honest and cowy. We send out a big thanks to our customers that have kept us in the training business.
	NAU Champion - E. J. Karp I was raised on a ranch 40 miles east of Rapid City. My parents always kept a few broke horses around, so I have been riding ever since I can remember. It wasn’t until high school that I started my first colt, and after that, I was hooked. In the fall of 2005, I decided to attend NAU’s Equine Management program. Since then, I have started numerous colts for both myself and outside clients. I have spent the last two summers taking in outside horses at my parent’s ranch. I have learned a lot since that first colt, both from the many training classes I have taken at NAU and from working with so many different horses over the years. I am also a member of the NAU Rodeo Team. I ride bareback horses and am currently sitting second in the Great Plains Region. I compete in the SDRA and NRCA as well, and was named Bareback Riding Rookie of the Year for the SDRA in 2005. I will be finishing up with my last classes at NAU in the fall, and then plan to intern with a reputable trainer. I am interested in getting into reining and cutting horses.