Rick Noffsinger, Horse Trainer

Although modesty prevents him from saying so, Rick Noffsinger is widely regarded as one of the very best horse trainers in the Rocky Mountain region. Rick spent many teenage summers on his grandparents Kentucky farm riding a pinto pony stallion bought from paper route savings. It wasn't until his late twenty's, however, that horses assumed a larger role in his life when he took it up as a vocation. At first the horse was a means to compensate for injured legs so he could travel back into the Colorado Mountains. Then the horse evolved into a "sport" to "master" and compete in. Gradually that competitive phase was replaced with an understanding that this magnificent animal was not there to be "mastered" or "trained" but to be learned from. To develop a relationship with horses of mutual understanding, trust and fun has become his life-long goal.

Based upon his conviction that, "Life is way to short to waste time on pursuits you're not passionate about," Rick has made a vocation and full-time, living of working with and learning from horses for the past twenty years. His work has involved horses on the track, the farm, in the show ring, and rescue horses from the killer market. It's involved horses of every size (from miniatures to draft) and many, many different breeds (from Welsh ponies to Lusitanos). His education has ranged from formal University riding classes to apprenticeships under four different trainers in hunters, jumpers, dressage and driving. Rick traveled to Europe as an assistant to a U.S.E.T. team competitor in the World Driving Championships and has competed on the east coast an in the Rockies in breed, dressage and driving shows.