The atmosphere at Missy Binter’s Infinity Show Stables is evident even over the phone. In between answering questions, the young and energetic hunter/jumper trainer cheerfully answers kids’ inquiries and laughingly attempts to keep her equally energetic dogs under control.
With lots of mileage as a rider, particularly in the jumper division, Missy began teaching students a year and a half ago. This past summer, she moved her business to Hazy Meadow Ranch in San Diego County’s Lakeside. Missy and her growing roster of students have been racking up the ribbons on the county circuit and having a very good time along the way.
“Infinity Show Stables is not exactly your typical show barn with your typical relationship between trainer and clients,” Missy explains. “It’s more of a family environment. Everybody is friends. There are no hard feelings between clients and many of our girls are best friends at the ranch and in their home lives, too.”
Group trail rides and field trips to non-riding destinations are just a few of the extracurricular activities at Infinity Show Stables. The most fun of all, however, comes from making progress. Missy proudly reports the impressive progress of several students.
Young Emily Schroeder began working with Missy a year and a half ago. At the time, Emily had the walk and trot down, but didn’t know her diagonals and was not yet cantering. At presstime, Emily had a distant lead in the year-end competition for the Greater San Diego Hunter/Jumper Assn.’s Long Stirrup Hunter champion award.
Emily is not the only Infinity student sitting pretty in the year-end GSDHJA standings. Nicole Melhouse had a huge leading margin in the Green Rider division and Kylee Hembree, Melinda Nelson and Jewelea Dahl were stand-outs in various categories.
Missy’s clientele ranges in age and experience. A 9-year-old arrived just walk/trotting and terrified of jumping. Today, riding one of Missy’s school ponies, Dalton, the youngster recently scaled a 2’9” jump and is getting around smaller courses with ease and poise. An older student, an adult amateur with an Arabian, had been somewhat stuck in GSDHJA’s walk/trot division for a few years, but is now jumping small courses with confidence and pride.
Happy On Her Path
Throughout her years as a junior and young amateur jumper competitor, Missy had not planned to become a trainer. But now that she’s chosen this path, she couldn’t be more pleased. “It’s fun to work with students from the ground up and get them going,” she says. “So many of my students have come so far in a small amount of time.”
She attributes her success with students first to several mentors: The late Albert Pinella, his former assistant Rose Carver, now a trainer herself, and Kyle King, the Grand Prix competitor.
“I’m really patient and I am good at explaining things,” Missy adds. “I take my time with my students and want them to learn and progress. I never push them beyond their limits and I think that’s why I’m good at helping them build their confidence.”
Missy currently works with 10 to 12 students and looks forward to taking on more. She has three lesson mounts, two horses and a pony, and also a string of young Miniature horses. These are available for lease and Missy and her students have had much fun playing with and caring for them, and occasionally exhibiting them in breed competitions.
In addition to hunter/jumper training, Missy offers western lessons and instruction in all aspects of horsemanship. During an injury-induced phase of less intense competing, Missy took lessons from top reining and cutting trainer Al Dunning. His training techniques are a nice addition to the toolbox of techniques she’s accumulated over the years.
As a rider, Missy’s history on the hunter/jumper circuit is linked closely to a horse named Grafite, who passed away in October at 25. She’d been whizzing around 2’6” courses on her Arabian up until trainer Albert Pinella brought the European import, a talented gray jumper, into her life. Soon, still in her teens, Missy was jumping high at the big shows like Indio and making frequent forays to Spruce Meadows in Calgary, Canada.
For information on joining Missy Binter’s Infinity Show Stables, please call 619-840-7668 or visit www.infinityshowstables.com.
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