February, 2026 RICHARD WINTERS


science? Hybrid vigor. You have a good sire and a good dam, and the offspring are beter than either one. But those that are in the breeding business, we talk a lot about sires. But they rarely talk about that mare power. And I tell you what, I have a lovely wife (Cheryl). My kids have a lovely mother who has stuck with me the last 33 years, and anything that we’ve done suc- cessful is a large part on account of her.


HT: What inspires you to get up, put on the boots, go outside, get on these horses—day aſter day aſter day? Then, to share your information with the audiences at expos and clinics?


RICHARD: You know, I’m almost wondering if it’s some gene or something inside of us, because I have a sister that doesn’t care anything about horses. My


daughter has a brother, Joseph, who doesn’t care anything about horses. But there’s some of us that, for some reason, we’re hooked on these horses—and it does inspire me to want to go out. Horses are the great equalizer.


They don’t care where you are from, or who you are, or how much money your family has. But they are constantly teaching us, and since we can never get it all figured out, every day is a new chapter. It seems like the farther I go in my horsemanship, the farther there is to go. It’s like climbing a mountain—if I just get to the top of this mountain, will I be there? Well, I get to the top of that mountain and what do I see? Five other mountains ahead of me that I couldnt even see until I got there. And that’s the way my horsemanship is. I think I am beter now than I was five years ago, I see some things now that I never could have seen


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before. But am I reaching out toward some even higher things that other individuals are able to do? Are they really that much smarter than me? Are they really that much more talented? Can I work a litle bit harder and get there? So, it motivates me to go out, and I do. I just enjoy them. What animal in the world will do for us what horses will do for us?


HT: You have that bond. I was taught that you first establish the fact that they have respect for you, and you can’t have trust without respect.


RICHARD: We talk about that balance of trust and respect. I frame it something like this: If I get my horse to only trust me and not respect me, that can be an arrogant horse that’s going to hurt me. If I get a horse to only respect me and not trust me, that’s a horse that’s fearful and


afraid of me. But whether it’s my horse or my kids or my employ- ees or my wife or my mother in law—those healthy relationships are built on a balance of trust and respect. And that’s what we’re trying to help people with every weekend at these clinics.


HT: The trust and the respect that we get from horses. What about faith? How does that play into your family and your hors- es?


RICHARD: We’ve been talking the last few minutes how much I love horses. How much passion I have for them. But in all reality, this might sound a litle bit of a dichotomy, they are just horses. And one day, they are all going to be gone. What’s going to be leſt? Can you imagine—I’m at the end of my life, I’m lying on my death bed— am I going to say, “bring me those saddles that I won?


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