Hi! I'm Emily. I am the creator, videographer, and some could say the "slave" to the other half of my company - Connect the Chex AKA Whiskey! Whiskey is a 2009 AQHA Sorrel gelding that I fell in love with back in 2016. 

I have 12 years experience in sales and sales management. I love coaching and teaching others, both in my career and for fun.

I coach 5 year old soccer, teach kids to ride, work with therapeutic horse organizations to give children with special needs the opportunity for therapy through horsemanship, and also post free training videos on Tiktok to share with the general equestrian community.

I'm a mom of two beautiful, kind little boys (soon to be three!) that would rather play in the dirt than ride their horse. And I am a proud police wife.

I love making funny videos and marketing campaigns in my spare time, which is how @Connect The Chex was born!

I have always loved horses but never took lessons or owned my own. When I was 26 and doing well enough at work to afford it, I started taking horse lessons on the weekends at a horse trader's barn.

Two months later, I lost my job. They gave me a sweet 6 month severance package so I spent that time riding for hours, every SINGLE day.

The trader I learned from got a trailer full of horses every 2-3 weeks so I got a lot of experience, quick. He was very generous and didn’t charge me for lessons in exchange for me riding horses and giving them time in saddle. We started with the lesson horses and then moved to the new for sale horses. And not all of it was on the safest of horses! Once I hit a certain experience level, I was on just about every horse that came in the door - including rank horses that spooked at nothing, bolted for no reason, or ended up being aggressive and ended right back on that trailer.

One day a sorrel horse came off that trailer. He was skinny, mean, had overgrown hooves, and honestly was downright ugly. But from the moment I scratched his chin and started talking to him, I sensed there was something special underneath his tough exterior.

Not wanting any of the rougher kids that rode for the trader to get a chance on him, I immediately signed  a lease contract and focused on fattening him up with supplements and good hay. We did groundwork every day while he was too thin to ride and I slowly built up his trust.

After I bought him and was finally able to ride, I realized I had bought a horse WAY out of my experience level. Whiskey was so damn smart, he knew exactly what to do to scare me or challenge me every step of the way. He was an honest horse with a great temperament and had never bucked a person off in his life, but that was unknown to me at that point.

I spent hours every night watching Youtube videos and reading books about ground work, training, riding, and then going back to the barn and implementing the next day.

Whiskey made me grow so much as a rider & utilize my creativity to "win". He is the type of horse that would rather die or break his leg then let you use force to make him do something. But he is the BEST partner and has the most TRY in any horse I have met, if you help him learn as a teammate and give him some time to think.

7.5 years later & I will never win a barrel race (or any kind of speed race, for that matter!) but if you have a stubborn, confused, or horse with low confidence that you are trying to teach the basics or get past its fears, I have tons of tips for you!

Wow, this is a hard one to put into a couple of paragraphs. I will try my best!

I believe that 90% of problems are due to humans not understanding how horses learn, horse body language, and not having someone with experience to coach them through hard times.

Horses are like 2 year old children - patience, repetition, and understanding are the best way to teach them. They also have the same 'negatives' as a 2 year old - if you are not consistent and/or let them 'get away' with bad behavior...they will take FULL advantage of you.

I believe that ground work is the most important aspect of training. Moving a horse's feet on the ground, making sure they are respectful of your space, and quick , instant reprimands make the best horses.

Horse training is simple. Pressure & release. That is how they learn best because that is what they do instinctively.

Timing is key. Timing is essential. Bad timing = no lesson learned and confusion created.

My goal is to help others ENJOY their horses.