Karen Franklin
'>This is one of our horses we raised (Lakota) and myself at our first show, April 2011.
I learned that God gave me the gift of communicating with horses at a very early age. I trained my first horse in the 3rd grade. Flame was a pony that bucked everyone off but me. My love for training horses grew from there. We have been raising horses since 1997. Our first year with maiden mares produced a set of twins from our first mare due to foal. Both fillies lived through delivery and all without my help. We were out the door with our hands on them after they were an hour old. My son and daughter were just 3 and 4 years old at that time. They turned into great horses.
Our first stallion was an AQHA foundation bred horse. We acquired several foundation bred mares and had a nice lot of foals. Later on we purchased a foundation bred Black and White Tobiano stud and raised some real nice foundation bred paints as well. We couldn't part with all the colts so we kept several. I have been training all the horses that we have raised, plus some outside ones.
When its time to work cattle, it turns into a family affair. Our kids help round up the cattle and sort cows from calves for vaccinations. We all ride the horses we have raised. I coached my daughter for several years successfully showing her horse. When we want to relax we load up and head out for a trail ride.
I have spent time in 2007 thru 2009 starting 2 year olds in reining for one client. I would put 60 days on them and take the best of the lot to Ohio, to see if they were prospects for Shawn Flarida. I have made 5 trips there. In those trips I met and rode with all kinds of trainers from different parts of the country. Like Italy, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Germany, and each trainer had their own unique way of training and were incorporating Shawn's methods into it. That has been the best learning experience I could ever ask for. Three of those horses stayed with him. Riding with Shawn and his hired hands was great!
Also during that time I was fortunate to ride with another national known trainer in the Western Pleasure world, Randy Short. Randy was training here in Missouri at Markways barn during summer months. I did learn tips from him I could incorporate into my training program as well!
My credentials come from all of this time spent with professionals at the top of their specific discipline in the horse world.