User:Kbastura

Chris Cox - Horseman & Clinician

Chris Cox' entire life has been influenced by his relationship with the horse. He moved with his ranching family from Florida when he wasn't yet two-years-old, to an island off the coast of northeast Australia to raise cattle. During his time on the 100-square-mile Prince of Wales Island, and while he worked as a hand on numerous ranches on the mainland in the years that followed, the horse served as work partner, transportation, entertainment and even companionship for Cox.

"Being around horses has been as natural to me as breathing," Chris says in his book, Ride the Journey.

While Australia shaped the young Cox, it was with an eye toward returning to the United States that he honed his horsemanship skills competing in Pony Club, camp drafting (similar to working cow horse), and working for large ranches. He started his first colt in his early teens and went on to excel in his horsemanship studies at Longreach Pastoral College. His dream was to find a way to make a living working with horses - preferably in the United States.

At eighteen, he took the first step to fulfilling that dream and headed back to America. Following some ranch work in Florida, Cox began training mustangs for the Bureau of Land Management. Throughout the '80s and '90s Cox took in horses to train and began to devise what has become his trademark program - a step-by-step progression of skills for all levels of horsemen to improve their horsemanship.

His program has proved to be immensely popular with people of all ages and skill levels. It requires no gimmicks or special equipment but rather commitments to understanding the horse, devoting time, self-examination and honesty about one's own limitations.

With his Chris Cox Horsemanship television show on RFD TV, the nationwide Come Ride the Journey Tour stops and appearances at equine expos and events, Cox has touched the lives of many a horse enthusiast and shown them there's a straight-forward, practical way to gain a better relationship with their horses. Those who saw him win back-to-back championships at the 2007 and 2008 Road to the Horse Colt Starting contests witnessed the effectiveness of his methods and his clear passion for horses.