A Da inL
the ife…
with Zach & Rachel Williams
Trainers at Rockin W Miniatures
1) W
here are you from and how did Miniature horses enter your life?
I am from Grants Pass Oregon, and my first experience with Miniature horses was when my
parents adopted 5 special needs children and they wanted to do therapeutic riding. We found a
breeder in our town which was Sheryl Peterson of Oak Bay Acres and by that weekend, I was at
my first horse show helping her and learning all about the Miniature horse world.
2) W
hat led you to begin
training Miniatures?
Once we acquired a few minis from Sheryl
we decided that we should put them with a
trainer and we were recommended to Casey
Campbell of Wingate Training Center. For
quite a few years Casey trained our horses
and I would go to shows and help him and
from there I found that I had a passion for
showing Miniature horses.
3) T ake us through a typical
day at the farm.
4) P lease tell us the best parts of
your job. The toughest parts?
A typical day at the farm starts at sunrise
when we feed everyone. Once they are
through eating I start working them one by
one. I like to let my driving horses out in
the arena for a couple minutes to run and
get their bucks out. While they are burning
off their excess energy, I clean their stalls and
fill their water. Lessons start by either bitting
them up in the round pen and long line them
or I hook them to the cart and drive in the
arena. We also have an outdoor track that I
like to use so they can be outside exposing
them to distractions further teaching them
to focus on me and my hands rather than depend on the arena walls. The halter horses
are round penned with sweats on and after
their workout they are usually tied for about
twenty minutes before they are rinsed off.
Once each horse is worked I go through and
re wrap everyone and and F