“I grew up on a dairy farm outside Norwood, Mo., but since I was 6 years old, I’ve known this is what I wanted to do,” Dalene Schober, a petite blonde with a bachelor’s degree in elementary education, said as she began explaining the horse training business she operates from her home in rural Douglas County, outside of Mountain Grove, Mo.
“I train horses for barrel racing, transport them and in some cases, ride them in competition for the owners.”
As a trainer, she has found some success.
In August 2015, one of the Quarter horses that Dalene trained qualified for RFDTV’s THE AMERICAN Semi-Finals at a competition in Springfield, Ohio. THE AMERICAN, according to the competition’s website, invites the top 10 athletes from the Professional Rodeo Cowboy Association, the Women’s Professional Rodeo Association and the Professional Bull Riders and pits them against underdogs who advance from THE AMERICAN Semi-Finals.
Little Honory Streak, an 8-year-old roan gelding owned by Wayne Davis of Warrenton, Mo., was in the top 10 horses of all the entries, which averaged 100 to 120 horses in each event. A second of her trainees, one of Dalene’s own horses, Shawnee Romance, 16-year-old mare, qualified a few months later in November for the THE AMERICAN Semi-Finals at Fletcher, NC.
To qualify, the horse and rider combination must place in the top 10 of all the entries in the event in which they compete.
Only a certain number of horses qualify each year and they go on to the semi-finals in Fort Worth, (Texas), which were held in February.
“There were about 130 of us riders from across the country and we just missed the cut off to be in the RFD-TV Finals. Those contestants then went on to compete for one million dollars,” Dalene said.
Barrel racing horses need more than just speed to be competitive.
“The abilities of these horses to be great barrel horses depends on so many things, like a very solid confirmation and of course, their heart, desire and grit,” Dalene said. “While a barrel horse has got to have great speed and be quick to make those snappy turns, they need to have a good mind, be sensible and want to learn. Breeding can make a big difference, but I’ve seen horses come from a great barrel horse background and not be that good and others that were bred for something altogether different and then they turn out to be the great surprise. It is such an individual sport, just like with any other athlete, I suppose. You see some barrel horses that continue to do well all the way up into their 20s and others are done way before that. I guess in that way, they are just like people. Truly, the hardest part of this business, is having to tell someone that their horse is probably not going to be a champion barrel horse due to a combination of things.”
Dalene typically has about 10 to 15 horses boarded at her farm for training, giving her little time for her own horses, but she enjoys training for others.
“We go to several shows each year in surrounding states and we often have as many as six to eight horses to handle at a single show,” she said. “One thing I have to say is how much I appreciate all the people who have helped me over the years and continue to help. I can’t name names because I know if I do, I’ll forget somebody but there are so many people who have helped in lots of ways, even like getting and keeping us organized at the shows.”
Dalene and her husband, Jim, and their daughter, Milly, who is 5, live on their more than 900-acre farm, where they also raise commercial beef cattle. The couple also raises all of their own hay.
Miley also has her own pony, Little Miss Polly, and she has already been in several competitions where she is proud to say, she has won ribbons and her own belt buckle.
In April, Dalene had two horses in the finals of the Better Barrel Racing (BBR) competitions, landing in the top 30 of 1,800 entries.
“I am blessed to have several horses that have done so well. More than a few of the horses I’ve trained have helped their owners and me to win saddles, belt buckles and other prizes over the years,” Dalene said. “But what means the most, is the incredible level of trust people place in you when they send their horses to you for training and then allow you to take them to compete at the shows. It’s almost like when you send your child off to school.
I am just so thankful to God that clients believe in us. I absolutely love this. Horses are my passion and it is such a blessing to be able to do what I absolutely love,” she concluded.
