Along my path many people have influenced me. Some more than others, but, sometimes just a small influence can make a huge impact. It could be the cornerstone which all else is built on. So always be willing to help others no matter how insignificant it may seem at the time.

I would like to thank several of my mentors, but this is by no means a complete list.

First, I would like to thank Wayne Booker for leasing me some wonderful ponies and helping me set up a breeding program to continue his work on keeping the Ramble Ridge Rocket bloodline and the Georgetown’s Music Man bloodline pumping through the veins of the Shetland pony.
Mr. Wayne is a wealth of knowledge. He has been breeding very sought after ponies for over 20 years. Many notable people have bought ponies from Wayne to use as foundations in their breeding programs.
Wayne was very influential in bringing the Shetland and Miniature horse together by double registering the Shetlands as Miniatures (when they fit the height restrictions). In the boom of the Miniature horse, many breeders got their small Shetlands measured and when they met the restrictions, they discarded the Shetland papers. Wayne saw the value in having both and kept his. He had one of the only Golden Melody Boy son’s with both Shetland and Miniature papers. So when the owner of Boones Little Buckaroo came to him for broodmares his were so good they bought 5.

My earliest mentors were Bob Moss, Vickie Coyman, and Jean Creech. Later I had Gene Gage, who taught me that hard work would pay off eventually. Then I had Kevin Cool and his beautiful wife Lynn who taught me about fine tuning and finesse. There was Sandy Johnson – by example she taught me that almost any horse no matter how old could learn almost anything. She took an older stallion that was never handled only pasture bred and trained him to be a multiple world champion. And she was always generous and friendly to everyone whether you were one of her students or not.
Then there is Laren Harmon-Dubin. If anyone learns anything from Laren it’s “no matter what always have fun, and be yourself”.
Michele Tucker – no matter what keep on keeping on. Her wonderful horse Smuch had a fatal injury and she picked up and kept training and showing.

There are also those that I do not personally know but have influenced me from a far. People like Les Vogt, John Lyons, Ray Hunt, Noel Skinner, Pedro Torres(Working Equitation Champion), Bill Dorrance, Jean-Philipee Giacomini (Father of Working Equitation), Andy Marcoux, Chester Weber,