James "Christian" Embry is 18, our oldest son and horse trainer. He has been handling and riding horses for fourteen years and training horses for eight years. Christian is a gifted young trainer with a strong intuition about how a horse should be ridden. We tease him that he "can ride anything with hair" and that he was "born with Velcro on his rear". He sticks like glue and is the natural choice to train horses that enjoy testing their riders. He uses his gift to help retrain rescue horses to give them a second chance at a better life.

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He began his training career by rescuing Tennessee Walking Horses to rehab and retrain for 4H. He believes in exhibiting the Tennessee Walking Horses natural gait. He competed successfully in 4H and WHOA shows the last five years on his walking horses, Gold Dust, Beams St. Patrick. He has high hopes for 2019 with his gelding "This is a Hold Up", aka "Kreiger".

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In the last eight years he began starting Paso Fino horses, quarter horses and paint horses under saddle. He has learned to start horses gently and only ask them questions they can answer in their own time. He has learned that horses are humbling, and that emotional responses tend to not get the results he expects. That has taught him discipline, and that patience and perseverance lead to success, especially with a difficult, reactive horse. Size and strength mean nothing without self discipline and control.

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He and his brother trained and exhibited "Nya", a rescued feral Appaloosa at the Appyfest Trainers Challenge 2018. Christian achieved the Youth Champion, Adult Reserve Champion and Overall Grand Champion of the 2 day event. He and his brother returned to Appyfest 2019 with four horses in training for the competition. They came home with a Grand Championship and a Reserve Grand Chamipionship.

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Christian is serious minded and competitive both in training and in competition. He is a self starter and has set his mind to become a professional horse trainer and equestrian.

DJ Embry is our youngest son and is a 17 year old youth horse trainer. He has been handling and riding horses for eleven years and training horses for ten years. If there is a "horse charmer" in our family, it is DJ. He can sweet talk a wild and frightened rescue horse into begging for his affection. The horses follow him around just wanting to be close to him.

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He began his training career by rescuing Tennessee Walking Horses to rehab and retrain for 4H. He competed successfully in 4H and WHOA shows the last four years on his rescue mares, Callidora and Cash's Debutante aka "Cutie". He believes in exhibiting the Tennessee Walking Horses natural gait. In the last three years he began starting young quarter horses and paint horses under saddle. He has learned to start horses gently and only ask them questions they can answer in their own time.

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Three years ago, he helped his brother train and exhibit "Nya", a rescued feral Appaloosa at the Appyfest Trainers Challenge 2018. He helped his brother achieve the Youth Champion, Adult Reserve Champion and Overall Grand Champion of the 2 day event. He and his brother returned to Appyfest 2019 with four horses in training for the competition. They came home with a Grand Championship and a Reserve Grand Chamipionship.

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A customer recently asked DJ what he wanted to do with his life. He was standing in the arena .... in a drizzling rain.... holding a horse he had been working. His answer was "This. This is what I want to do. Train Horses