More Than Just a Mare:

I never wanted a mare initially. When I was hunting for my most recent reining horse I told my trainer that I was a gelding girl. His wife laughed at me and warned that a statement like that meant that I would fall in love with a mare, and sure enough as soon as I stepped on the spicy red headed daughter of Shiners Voodoo Dr it was love at first ride. I was a mare person now and soon couldn’t imagine life without my girl. She carried me to my career best score of a 219.5, won me pay checks and prizes, and quickly became my heart horse. But as the years in high school dwindled and college fast approached I knew that life wouldn’t stay the same forever.
It’s never easy to let go of what you cherish, especially when it feels like a part of who you are. But to truly succeed, sometimes you have no choice but to pivot during life changes. That’s a lesson I learned firsthand. No one ever wants to leave their heart-horse behind, but sometimes college students don't have another option. For me, that meant a profound shift when I moved from high school to college. It started with leaving the reining pen for the cow horse/ ranch to compete on a collegiate team to earn a scholarship. This meant a new horse, a change in discipline, and having to plan for how to make keeping my reining mare a possibility while I went to college. So I set down my reining saddle and chased cows for a couple years to help pay for junior college, and then when it was time to transfer to my next university I pivoted again, selling the cow horse and setting off to Lubbock. Leaving the reining pen was hard, but having to walk away from showing for awhile after junior college was even harder.

When Life Gives You Lemons, Make Lemonade (and Foals!)

The last thing I wanted to do was uproot my heart horse from a facility and training program where she was thriving, all while I was focused on trying to survive at a university, and I couldn’t even entertain the thought of having to sell her. I knew that I needed a plan that would keep her at her barn while making it financially feasible for me to keep her while I went away to school.
After discussing the idea with my parents, horse trainer, and his wife, we decided that the best plan for while I was away at college was to start my breeding program. I had a well bred mare who had been successful in the show pen and my trainer was confident she would be a good producer with marketable foals. They were all ready to step in and help get my mare bred. The goal was to kickstart my breeding program and sell her first few foals to help pay for her upkeep while she happily hung out at the barn until I graduated. This gave me a financially viable route to keeping my mare through college.
So now started the hunt for the perfect stallion. I had an extensive background in horse judging and lots of show experience so I knew what my goals were in producing a foal, and with my trainer I was able to objectively evaluate my mare to determine which stallions would be a good cross to compliment her. I had countless conversations and spent hours watching horse show live streams. A list of 10 became a list of two, and then finally the decision was made: we'd breed to the junior stallion Jerseys Baby Driver. We were confident in the cross and the marketability of the foal, and for my budget a junior stallion was my best option. And so Maddies Mares was officially started.

Xtra What A Voodoo with her 2025 foal. Image courtesy of VisEq Media

The Journey of Becoming a Breeder

While it was weird at first not seeing my horse or any horses in general when I went to Lubbock – and it left me feeling a bit out of the loop – I was surrounded by amazing people. They kept me in the loop, let me drag them to horse shows when I was back home, or simply let me talk their ears off about horses. And I had a great group of industry professionals taking care of the breeding and care of my mare. Having a good support system always makes stepping into the reproduction side of the industry a lot smoother, as did the copious amount of photos and updates about my girl. Receiving a photo of a little black dot on a screen (the ultrasound from her pregnancy) has never been more exciting, or more expensive!
It felt very strange coming home and not being able to ride my horse after she was bred but it was all worth the wait when my first foal hit the ground. Some tears were shed when I got the call that not only did she have a healthy foal, but it was a buckskin filly. As a breeder, you know that’s like hitting the jackpot for a mare’s first foal! Time has never moved so agonizingly slow as when I was waiting to get to the barn in person to see her, but a home run of a healthy, gorgeous, colorful foal had made all of the months and the investment worth it, and that first time walking into the barn and seeing my girl with her baby was a surreal moment.
When it came time to market and sell her first foal it was so hard to let go of something I have been dreaming of forever. I was lucky to be surrounded by professionals. Gorgeous photos and quality video helped to find the perfect buyer a lot smoother, and put my fledgling breeding program in the best light possible. Closing the deal on the sale of that filly was exhilarating, and brought the whole plan full circle. Everything had worked out just as we’d hoped and I couldn’t have been happier.

More Than Just a Degree: Life Lessons from the Barn

Now that I'm nearing graduation, and getting back into the show pen with my girl, I've learned so many life lessons, not just from college but from being a breeder.
First- surround yourself with good people. I’ve been so incredibly blessed that My little mom-and-pop breeding program has been off to a good start. Having found a show home for my 2024 filly, and my 2025 filly, and now with a 2026 foal on the way that I may just have to keep for myself, I couldn’t be prouder or more excited for the future! I was incredibly lucky to have a smooth breeding experience and healthy foals, and even luckier that all of the finances worked out in my favor. That luck was probably swayed in my favor though as I had a great team of professionals and friends surrounding me and helping to make sure that everything went to plan.
Second- listen to the good advice that you’re given. I know not everyone is as lucky as I was, but I truly feel that making the pivot that I did from the show pen to the breeding pen while I was away at college gave me the opportunity to keep my heart mare, learn more about the breeding industry and jump start me into my non pro career where I plan to both compete and breed.
This experience has shown me that you don't exactly have to be in the saddle to be making an impact on an industry.
Third- be willing to do the scary thing. Taking a big leap of faith in my mare and my "crazy ideas" has been worth every penny, and I hope to continue the legacy of my heart horse. This mare is my family, and she's the reason why I've grown and matured so much as a person. Now as I look to re-enter the show pen with her next year I hope her foals will make as much of an impact in their owners' lives as their dam has made in mine, and I look forward to returning to the show pen with my favorite girl, and then hopefully showing and selling more of her foals in the future. Who would have known that a fateful decision to step up onto a big red mare would have changed my life so profoundly all of these years later.
Pivots in life may not always be your first plan, but sometimes they turn into the best plan, and the best life lessons.