TICKET INFORMATION: If you want to buy your tickets in advance, please click over to our "2019 Colt Starting Challenge" page to get to the PayPal link. A ticket will get you in for the whole weekend. This includes both days of the competition and Saturday night entertainment. 

Our winners for the ticket drawing for our 2019 Colt Starting Competition are David Lavoie and Betty Griffin. Please contact David Tuggle at sefha1@gmail.com so he can give you the details. Congratulations!

We would like to welcome Colt Rainville as an alternate for our 2019 Colt Starting Challenge. Colt Rainville is a trainer located in Huddleston, Va. He developed a passion for horses at a very young age. His first experience with horses was the karting discipline. At the age of four, Colt was already team driving and taking others for wagon rides around the family farm. At the age of 12, he started working at a local equine rescue where he was exposed to different cases with horses both mentally and physically being abused. This gave him the opportunity to practice multiple approaches of natural horsemanship with more of a softer approach alongside having help from the owner of the rescue. After the rescue days had ended, he found a Hunter Jumper trainer and went into an apprenticeship with her for 2 1/2 years learning to start horses for both the English and Western disciplines. This gave him a jumpstart to both pursue training as a career and lifelong goal to always adapt his training. Colt Rainville's main methods and training techniques stem from Buck Brannaman, Clinton Anderson, Warwick Schiller and the Classical Dressage form of riding. He believes no one horse is the same. The time needed to finish a horse is never ending, much like the need for us to forever grow our horsemanship through non-stop learning. A softer approach and the true reading of a horse's behavior is where all the key elements of training lie; therefore, it's in our best interest and our horses, to always take training one step at a time and never lose sight of the end goal for our horses.

Lodging for the 2019 SEFHA Colt Starting Challenge will be at the Sleep Inn. When you call to make reservations, please let them know that you are there for the Colt Starting Competition! They have reserved a block of rooms for us. Their number is 434-793-6090.

Need to buy tickets for the 2019 SEFHA Colt Starting Challenge? Click over to our page "2019 Colt Starting Challenge". You can see the link to buy the tickets! Tickets are $12 for the entire weekend. Tickets at the gate are $15. Hurry and buy your tickets!

Our third and final competitor is Robbie Potter. 

Robbie started riding and working with horses before he started school. While on the playground at school when he was in kindergarten he heard a team of horses in full harness coming down the road. They were being led behind a pickup truck. That's how farmers moved their draft animals from one field to another. In those days no one around had horse trailers. He got in serious trouble for climbing the fence and chasing after the horses! His desire to get with the horse has never let up and has given him the opportunity to ride with and learn from Tom Curtin, Bryan Neubert, Ray Hunt, and Peter Campbell. He now shares what he has learned with others. 

"I learned at a very early age how to get along with the horse. Not to be a war-maker or a peace-keeper but a peace-maker. This is what I want to teach others."

Our second competitor is Mark Noel. Mark was an alternate last year for the 2018 Colt Starting Competition.

Mark is the owner and trainer of Mark Noel Horsemanship, located in Rural Retreat, VA. Mark specializes in colt starting, working with problem horses, and tuning up broke horses as well as providing public demonstrations and clinics. He has over 20 years of experience of working with horses for the public, but was raised around and rode horses most of his life. He was born in the small coal mining town of Pocahontas, VA where horses and horsemen were scarce. After realizing he had a passion for horses, and wasn't bad at working with them, he decided to pursue his dream.
It has taken him years to start this business of his own and build it to where he can support a wife and 2 children off of it. It has taken years of working on horse farms, learning behavior and "ways" of a horse, and years of trial and error. Practicing natural horsemanship has always came easy to him because it seems God gave him the proper understanding of these creatures and how to work with them in a natural way. 
After giving his heart to the Lord in July of 2014, Mark has realized that God works with us the same way Mark works with the horses which has greatly blessed his walk with the Lord and blessed his skills with a horse. Just when it feels like God is putting too much pressure on us, and we don't understand why or how to get out of the situation, God releases all pressure, and provides rest for us; in which is when we usually start understanding and learning from the trial. Does this technique sound familiar to fellow horsemen?

Taylor McIntosh is returning to defend his title after winning the 2018 SEFHA Colt Starting Competition.
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Taylor McIntosh is an AQHA Professional Horseman. He has dedicated his life to helping others become confident in their horsemanship. He has spent time learning from the best of the best, Al Dunning, JD Yates, Craig Cameron, and Bill Black, to name a few. Taylor is a Clinician, Trainer, Competitor, and lifelong student of the horse. He specializes in Colt Starting, Competitive Trail Horses, and Rope Horses. In 2014, Taylor put his training program to the ultimate test by applying it to a young, untouched, American Mustang, that he named Owen. Taylor and Owen built a true partnership and when the dust settled they were crowned Champion of the Extreme Mustang Makeover. Owen travels with Taylor, giving clinics, demonstrations, and private lessons. Taylor's dedication to horsemanship is evident in his use of the Hackamore He has coined the phrase, "Get out of their mouth and into their mind".

Colt Starting Challenge Update: We will have a food vendor at our challenge. If you are interested in selling items, please contact sefha1@gmail.com

A schedule is posted on our website Colt Starting Challenge page.

You can also buy tickets in advance. Tickets in advance are $12 per person. Tickets at the gate are $15. A ticket will get you in for the whole weekend!

Many thanks to White Oak Film for creating this video about our 2018 Colt Starting Challenge. We really do appreciate it!
Click here for the link to the video.

In the Taylor McIntosh Horsemanship Clinic, we participated in several games. In this game, we put several new skills together. Here is one of the games. Click here to watch the video.