Five star reining clinics

Profiles

Warren was born in the Atherton Tablelands and spent the first years of his life on his Grandad’s dairy and with his Uncle’s horses . His family then moved to Sydney were he would visit the man up the road every spare minute he had and help him break in horses. He was so intense he wouldn’t miss a trick. At the end of school he started work with Websters developing vaccines; tetanus ect. He worked there until his family moved to Caboolture were he started his farriers apprenticeship. He finished his time and in his spare time competed at rodeos; bull riding and saddle broncs. He also broke in a few horses and showed horses of his own. He then met and married his wife Carol and five beautiful children soon followed; four girls and one boy. He competed regularly in shoeing competitions and won the Nationals twice. All the children rode horses and time was spent on the road with them  competing at shows and gymkhanas , plus  shoeing and breaking in horses;  mainly thoroughbreds for the race track. As the children got older he got back into showing Western Pleasure and all Western events with Paints and Q horses.

In 2001  he was then asked to take a horse and go reining. Having spent a lot of time out at Ian Frances property shoeing and riding with him he had developed a passion for reining so away he went — winning his first Futurity and then Reserve Champion Open Futurity at the 2001 Nationals. It has been a very busy exciting journey since then with multiple wins in Futuritys ; Opens; and Derbys having had the honour to compete on a lot of brilliant horses;  great clients and the wonderful people you meet every were you go. Clinics have become another part of his life , traveling around and forwarding the knowledge he has gathered  onto others . 2006 has  been a great year were he received an Australia Day Sports Award; gained his $100,000 status in the NRHA and won his first National Futurity which has eluded him for so long; 3 times a bridesmaid and finally a bride!!!.          

Glenn Winsor

I started back into reining about 6 years ago — my previous interest were with  pleasure and trail as the reining we did 15 years ago was just another event you did for the show hi-point awards . I was an HSAA judge for quite a few years and also organised shows. At that time I was also involved in bring to Australia Mr Art Gayton a prominent western performance trainer from the USA who is quite well known to a lot of the old time showies from that era.  In those days we used to run these clinics over 5 days as a live in clinic and I was always amazed how, in just that short time of intense tuition, the riders improved.  It also gave everybody a fantastic network of people to start their adventure with.  A lot of these people I still see and talk with after all this time .

So this is were the idea for the five star reining clinics that we run now come from.  I took my idea to my good friend Mr Chris Bell and then we asked Wazza (Warren Backhouse) if he would be interested and of course he was excited about concept  — that was 4 years ago. 

For me there is no greater thing than to see one of our new friends start on the Monday on day one with hardly a clue about reining other than they know they would like to have a crack at it by the Friday . It is also very exciting to watch one of our past participants do well at a big show like Anita Ganzer who came equal 1st in the rookies at the NRHA nationals at Horsley park this year.  So to finish this off I would to say thank you to everybody that has attended our clinics since we started.  Once again this year we will donating all profits to the NRHA for the Intermediate futurity at the NRHA nat'l in 2007.

John Wicks

John began riding horses at an early age competing in timed events at  gymkhanas.  He began  reining as a non pro rider in early 1990's and was soon winning open non pro classes.  In 1995 he represented Australia in International Reining Council cup in Oklahoma USA and turned professional in 1998. John is proud to have been a member of the Olympic Demonstration team for the Sydney 2000 Olympics.  John’s achievements are too numerous to mention but include winning the NRHA Open Futurity in 2001 and again in 2005 and he is one of only three trainers to have won over $100,000 in Australia.  John and his family live in the beautiful Biddaddaba Valley situated Gold Coast Hinterlands where they runs a training facility and also raise reining horse prospects for sale.

Sue Franks

Sue Franks’ life is horses and throughout her life she has been on a constant quest to improve - to improve her connection with horses, her own riding and her ability to communicate what she has learned with her students. Sue is a firm believer in the power of positive thinking and she encourages her students to visualise their own success and the solutions to their riding problems. She uses psychology when teaching and encouraging her students, and whatever problems her students face, Sue was there first. She has worked her way through all the fears and challenges in her own riding life, the same fears and challenges very rider faces, using her own resources or with the help of other professionals, and this gives her an empathy with her students and allows her to clearly communicate solutions to their problems with them.

 

Unlike other reiners, Sue also rides and teaches dressage. This is not as off-the-wall as you might expect as reining is simply dressage on steroids. Every basic reining move is based on a classical and proven dressage principle and Sue’s dressage experience helps her enormously in her reining success. She moved to reining in 2001 following a lifetime’s success in other riding disciplines: pony club, hack, dressage, western performance and thirteen years rodeo. She has won every type of event she has competed in and won western performance classes at National and State level, on a variety of horses.

 

Sue’s reining career is equally successful, again on a variety of horses, all of which she trained herself. In her second year as a reining competitor riding Sweet Sophistication, a filly she bred herself, Sue was runner-up NRHA Rookie for 2002, and was QRHA Hi Point 3YO on Missterrific, another filly she bred by her own non reining-bred stallion. In 2004 Sue and Junior Jessie (better known as Banana) won the Limited Division Non Pro Futurity at the QRHA State Show and the NRHA Futurity show, they qualified for the finals in the NRHA Open Futurity and placed 10^th from a total of 36 contestants and placed 6^th in the Non Pro futurity. As a 3YO Banana and Sue placed in every futurity they entered. They won the Pacific Coast Non Pro Classic Reining Derby in 2005 and the Southern Cross Reining Series in 2006, the year Sue began teaching her skills to other riders. This year, mounted on Slick Chic Olena, Sue was Reserve Champion in the Fraser Coast Reining Spectacular Futurity and she says there is more to come. Watch this space.