On those afternoons when you’re jailed in the office, it’s easy to daydream about earning your living with horses and being near them every day. Some 700,000 people in the U.S. do just that, according to the American Horse Council.

But how hard is it to make that change? This month, Equine Journal talks with three women who came to horses, or returned to horses, later in life.

 

Shawna Karrasch.

 

Success, a Click Away

To humans, a water obstacle is an interesting addition to a show jumping course. To the gelding who breaks into a sweat when he sees it from the other side of the ring, though, it’s a chasm to the center of the earth, with fire-breathing dragons lining up to snap at him as he plunges to his death.

Shawna Karrasch, of San Marcos, CA, has seen this scenario before, and she has a secret weapon. It’s smaller than a pocketknife, but it has a big impact.

She starts working with him on the ground. As he takes a shaky step toward the water, she clicks. His fear fades. Within days, he’s sailing over water obstacles as if they were cross-rails.

It’s hard to imagine life without “clicker training,” or more correctly, On Target Training™. The horse world has Shawna Karrasch to thank for that.

On Target Training is not new. It was common in marine mammal training, as early as the 1960s. It focuses on positive reinforcement that links to animals’ basic needs. For marine mammals, those needs include food, air, water and procreation.

“Horses are the same,” Karrasch says. “When [foals] are born, it’s air first, and then they’re nursing within an hour.”

The equine temperament, too, is similar to marine mammals – especially sea lions, which Karrasch says “tend to be skittish. They don’t think we’re a good thing right off the bat. They think, ‘I’m fearful. I don’t want to go there.’”

Added to that fear, a male sea lion is comparable in size to a pony, about 600 to 700 pounds. Anyone who has tried to convince a suspicious pony to do something can appreciate the dilemma sea lion trainers face. But, pony handlers have an advantage sea lion trainers don’t – containment. Imagine persuading a suspicious pony to do something without a halter, lead rope or enclosure.

Both horses and marine mammals value freedom, and both are too big for humans to “force” them to do something. “They feel safer when they have a chance to process information. When I’m working with horses, they have a choice.”

Karrasch knew how to use On Target Training with marine mammals, but she didn’t make the connection to horse training until 1992. She was working at SeaWorld® when she was given tickets to a Grand Prix show jumping event.

The horses’ performances there intrigued her, but their training puzzled her. “It was nothing I knew. I wondered, ‘Why do they do anything for you?’”

Karrasch convinced a couple people to test her On Target Training method on horses. John and Beezie Madden, she says, were some of the first; her website includes testimonials from them and from other industry leaders like John Lyons and Jane Savoie. As those first few “testers” saw the results of On Target Training, word spread. Karrasch’s first clinic was the United States Equestrian Foundation (USEF) Festival of Champions.

A book, video and set of equipment followed. Using On Target Training as part of an overall training program, Karrasch says, has started a gradual paradigm shift as horse people recognize the merits of her approach.

That process has included some caution – the first being that handlers must use On Target Training correctly. Feeding for incorrect behavior, or allowing the horse to invade the handler’s space (becoming a “mugger”), are common mistakes.

“Helping horse people understand how to use On Target Training correctly has been a slow process,” Karrasch says. “I still feel like there are a lot of places to go.”

But she remains upbeat about her organization’s progress. She says, “It’s building momentum. It’s getting there, and it’s a very exciting time for me.”

Karrasch says she didn’t expect, some 18 years ago, that those Grand Prix tickets would lead her to a new business venture. “I didn’t come in thinking, ‘How can I fix the horse industry?’ I thought, ‘How can I incorporate what I already know, to help?’”

Karrasch’s perspective is not unusual in the horse industry, but more assistance is available now than at any other time. Both Texas A&M and Ohio’s Lake Erie College now offer programs to help entrepreneurs get started with equine careers.

 

Liliane Stransky and her daughter Daniela.

 

Two Continents, Two Worlds

Sometimes, a person’s non-horse business venture comes before the horses do, when successful business leaders rekindle a long-smoldering flame. That’s what Liliane Stransky, of Wellington, FL, discovered.

Liliane Stransky grew up in Venezuela. As a young person, she rode up to the Grand Prix level; leaving her horse interests behind along the way was never part of her plan.

When her family moved to the U.S. in 2000, though, balancing her love of horses with the responsibilities of parenthood became a greater challenge than she expected. “My older kids had no passion for horses,” she says, “and I could not drive an hour to a stable.”

The differences between the two cultures added another challenge. In Latin America, horse owners go to private stables and pay a flat fee for equine services and activities. “Here you need to have your own horses, and everything is ‘extra’ … things are more expensive,” Stransky says.

In Venezuela, Stransky had set up an orphanage to help children in need. Once in the U.S., she directed her energies into a nonprofit organization, Step by Step Foundation. Through that organization’s efforts, “we try to help as many kids around the world as we can,” says Stransky. The foundation focuses on health, nutrition, water, education and other programs that substantially impact the human rights and development of children.

It was Stransky’s daughter, Daniela – now 14 years old – who brought Liliane back to horses. Daniela, who started riding at age six, has remained steadfast in her equine enthusiasm, and she is rising quickly through the ranks of the hunter/jumper sport.

“I’m living through her,” Stransky says. “We are very similar.”

Today, Stransky’s Mission Farm, based in Wellington, FL, owns about 20 competition horses. Liliane Stransky says she appreciates both hunters and jumpers – the control and dedication of the hunters, and the speed and objective judging of the jumpers.

Stransky has found a way to combine her philanthropic efforts with her daughter’s equestrian efforts. She says, “We won $150,000 in the Charity Challenge [in March, at the FTI Winter Equestrian Festival 2010].”

That event paired Olympic medalist Margie Engle of Wellington, FL, with amateur rider Jennifer Waxman of Chagrin Falls, Ohio, and junior rider Christina Kelly of Wellington, FL, and Lexington, KY. Together, they completed a relay race of 24 obstacles to cap their win.

With those funds, Step by Step Foundation plans to finish building a school and other structures in earthquake-ravaged Haiti. Stransky said Daniela will accompany her there. “I support her with her career and she supports me with mine,” says Stransky.

Although Stransky focuses on Daniela’s successes, the journey has helped her enjoy her own love of horses – Liliane, too, is riding again. She owns two horses now, though her time for them is limited.

She and Daniela will have a busy season, she says, between Kentucky competitions, Spruce Meadows, Argentina and possibly the World Equestrian Games (WEG) this fall.

“I love this country,” she says. “Americans should appreciate what they have.”

Stransky’s willingness to “give back” is common among women. Research from Indiana University’s Center of Philanthropy indicates women respond to global messages and contribute more to support poor or impoverished communities than to any other cause.

 

 

 

Photo: Justin Cruise

Katrina Weinig with a top show hunter, Listen, at Stone Bridge Farm in Virginia.

 

From Fast Lane to Country Lane

Less information is available about women who make the life change Katrina Weinig, of Natural Bridge, VA, made. She switched from a high-profile career to a lower-key life that included something she had loved but forgotten – horses.

Horses were never going to be a lifelong venture for Katrina Weinig. Although she competed on the national hunter/jumper circuit as a junior, “at that time, the late 70s, it was expected that you gave it up when you went to college. There was no IHSA [Intercollegiate Horse Show Association], no collegiate riding to speak of then.”

Weinig graduated from law school and worked 10 years for a Boston law firm. In 1990, she and her husband, John Glover, moved to Austria with their first daughter. There, Weinig represented several American firms eager to “plant the flag” in Eastern Europe after Deutsche Wiedervereinigung (German Reunification) and the growth of the European Union.

The Weinig-Glover family, which now included three children, returned to the U.S. in 1996. Weinig worked five years in the U.S. Department of Justice, under then-Attorney General, Janet Reno.

That’s when the children started taking riding lessons, something they thought was a new venture for the family. “They didn’t even know I had ridden,” Weinig laughs.

Then the family moved back to Europe (Croatia) in 2001, and their interest in riding continued. “I decided if I was going to be at the barn all the time, I may as well ride,” Katrina Weinig says. “It felt absolutely right.”

Adjusting to Europe’s equestrian culture, though, did take some effort. “Jumpers or dressage are your two choices,” she says, “and you jump 1.10 meters or nothing. They’re less risk-averse than we are.”

In 2004, they returned to the U.S. and started looking for horse properties. It’s a change Weinig says she does not regret. “Having lived in a second world country, it was not so big a deal to be away from the mall.” City life, she says, is now stressful for her. “I can only do that for a few days at a time.”

Initially, Weinig bought a smaller facility, but when a bigger property went on the market in 2007, she moved her business there and established Stone Bridge Farm.

Her legal background proved useful in that process. “I had no problem doing my own contracts for sales and employees … I’m able to see and avoid pitfalls along the way.”

The farm is located near the college town of Lexington in Southwest Virginia. Today, Stone Bridge Farm is a busy, full service hunter-jumper facility, offering boarding, lessons, training, sales and showing. The farm’s two trainers teach riders of all ages and levels, from short stirrup to Grand Prix, and coach a nationally ranked Interscholastic Equestrian Association (IEA) team, as well as Roanoke College’s IHSA team. Weinig and her trainers have developed innovative programs, including an international program that offers training and showing to riders from overseas during the summers and take clients to shows both locally and throughout the mid-Atlantic. “It’s so satisfying to help kids and adult riders set and work towards their goals, to watch them develop bonds with their horses, and simply to spend the day with these wonderful animals,” says Weinig.

 

Equestrian Lifestyles

Many people link the “equestrian lifestyle” with luxurious standards, but Shawna Karrasch, Liliane Stransky and Katrina Weinig talk more about the rewards of working hard, helping others, and building relationships along the way.

Weinig says those relationships are pivotal to any new venture. “Choose your people carefully and be sure you can work with people you trust, like and respect. You need to have complete confidence in them, and you need to be open with them at every level.”

She says she spends more time with her two trainers than with any single family member, but the success of her farm depends on it. “We rise and fall together.”

 

 

 

Sidebar

Tips from the Pros

Shawna Karrasch and Katrina Weinig offer some tips for anyone thinking about starting an equine business.

“Don’t lose track of what you love about horses as you get going in the business side of things,” Karrasch suggests. “Keep your passion because you feel it in your heart; that’s where you want to be.”

Weinig says it’s important to approach any horse venture with your eyes open. “Profit margins are slim even in the best of times, and they’re even slimmer now.” And, she adds, “Be sure your spouse or significant other and your family are supportive. It’s a lifestyle that is 24/7. If you love it, that’s great. If it’s fun for you, if you love it, that’s fine. But they need to support you.”