My Story
A little History
Hello and thank you for visiting TheGaitedFanatic.com. I’d like to take a moment to introduce myself. While I grew up around horses, thanks to my sister’s passion (which started around age 7) I never really caught the bug when I was young.
As a child, I attended many horse shows with my sister. I even participated in a few…in Leadline; which is as far as my equestrian career progressed back then. As I grew, I started trail riding on occasion and working at some horse shows in the area, but again, riding was not a passion or priority.
Then, in the spring of 2008, my sister called and asked if I would like to start showing with her on her Tennessee Walking Horses. Naive as I was, I said “sure!”, having no idea what I was getting myself into. She gave me 2 lessons on how to identify whether I was walking or doing a flatwalk and then we went off to our first show.
The show was a disaster. Neither of the horses we brought behaved very well. In my 2nd class, my mare got her tongue over the bit and reared on me. Fortunately, neither myself nor the horse was seriously injured. However, my pride and my confidence got rocked. My pride is still a bit bruised whenever I think back to that day, and I still face confidence issues on occasion, but we have come a long way since then and I am a full-blown horse fanatic.
Fast Foward
Fast forward 9+ years and I have since bought my own horse; a beautiful double registered Tennessee Walking Horse, Spotted Saddle Horse gelding named Avengers Band-a-Gold (aka Rio). Rio and I have taken lots of lessons and participated in many clinics together. We’ve had the opportunity to exhibit at the Maryland and Pennsylvania Horseworld Expos for the last several years. The Expos are a great venue to meet professionals, learn so much, and promote the wonderful flatshot, natural Tennessee Walking Horse.
We recently started competing in Gaited Dressage and currently attend local schooling shows. Rio and I continue to take lessons on a regular basis and take advantage of every opportunity to learn as much as we can together.
As my trainer likes to say…Training is a journey, not a destination!
My Goal for TheGaitedFanatic
Through my learning process and newly acquired passion, I have had the opportunity to meet many amazing equestrians and make some wonderful friends, not to mention, have completely fallen in love with Gaited Horses. My goal is to provide a community space where gaited and non-gaited horse owners can share our mutual affection for these amazing creatures, learn more about the different gaited breeds, gain some general horse-related knowledge, and make connections. Some day, I would love to see the gaited horse breeds gain popularity and have a following similar to some other mainstream trotting breeds.
If you ever need a hand or have any questions, feel free to comment below or email me at michelle@thegaitedfanatic.com and I will be more than happy to help you out.
All the best,
Michelle Guinn
For questions, comments, or to contribute content, please email me at michelle@thegaitedfanatic.com.
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