Preparing for a horse show and competing can be a lot of work.
Especially when you're taking 27 horses.
Kevin and Karen Stallings, who own and operate Stallings Performance Horses, rely on their team of apprentices to help keep it all together and ensure that a showing of that size goes smoothly.
Apprentices at their company usually work for two to three years. Most of their time is spent riding and caring for clients' horses, but apprentices also do anything the Stallings need done.
"I tell them when they're hired that they'll work 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and I'll give them as much time off as I can," Kevin Stallings says. "When we're in town on the weekends, we try to take them off. Otherwise it's usually 10-12-hour days."
Beyond covering living expenses, payment is the experience they get.
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"In the beginning, we have to spend a lot of time with them to teach them what we do," he says. "Later on, we make it a little richer for them."
The experience has its payoffs. At the Southern Arizona Quarter Horse Association's Shamrock Quarter Horse Show last week, three riders tied for the title of best assistant trainer. All three work for Stallings. In the end, names were picked out of a hat, with the win going to Dayna Wright. Laura DeCesari and Tucker Clark were also in the mix.
For Stallings, the satisfaction is seeing his people succeed. Eventually, they may move on to a higher-paying job as a full-fledged trainer, or start their own company based on what they learn with him, but he won't rush it.
"I'd love for them to stay forever," he says.
See HORSE, page 7
HORSE
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