Key No. 1: Building confidence in your horse
I like to take my time with my young horses and get then really broke and listening to me before I start one on the pattern. I don't believe in pushing a colt to do something out of its range, it only scares them for the next time. This is how I build confidence in my colts. I let my colts tell me what they want when they want it. A horse is always telling you what you're doing, so the key is to really watch for the signals. The horse usually tells on you. Every time I ride I'm either training, or un-training a colt. I ask my colts to carry themselves correctly even while trail riding, this keeps them learning all the time because they don't know when its time to stop.Key No. 2: Collection, collection, collection.
Even before Melanie could walk her mom had her on the back of a horse and shes been in love ever since. This progressed from galloping across the country side as a child on her pony to junior rodeo championships all the way to becoming a National Finals Rodeo Competitor. Melanie has experience in all forms of competitive disciplines including barrels, Reining, English, Dressage and Cutting which gives her a well rounded background. Unlike many others, she wasn't born with the luxury of a rich family to buy her way along. She got there with hard work and determination. Her passion is horses and she's spent the majority of her life living with them and learning them. Many competitors can just go out and buy a top quality horse and pay for everything else that goes along with it. You don’t learn anything about horses by buying and trading until you find the perfect one that can just carry you around the barrels. You learn about horses by spending time with them and learning how to make them a winner.
Melanie is always looking for perfection in everything she does. When it came to winning she turned to her knowledge, ability, and holistic alternatives when other competitors turned to enhancers. She believes if you study your horse, look at your ground, and size your arena, you can have multiple wins and arena records just like her.
Winning isn't always about having the fastest horse, its about knowing your horses ability, ground, arena, and your timing with the horse to get the very fastest run possible. Melanie has many wins from the rodeo's and 4D's to the futurities. She is a well rounded competitor. It is hard to find a rider that can win in every avenue of competition.
Rodeoing is hard, but you have an advantage if you enter just right, to ground conditions, and if you shy away from your competition leading you down an easier route. The 4D's and futurities are a lot harder because the playing field is more equal, which in turn makes it harder to win. Melanie has shown her ability to win in any condition given. She has also shown that mental toughness is key in barrelracing. Melanie would like to pass along her talent and success to many barrelracers who strive for excellence.
This unique aspect of her upbringing is why she became so in tuned with horses. Her ability to turn a 5000 dollar horse into a 100k horse is the way she continues to be successful today.