Shattered Pine Ranch

Gary thought horses were wild and unsafe until Cindy bought Jack in 1997. Cindy taught Gary that they are not wild and
unsafe and he bought his first horse in 1998 - Casey a QH Mare. Casey came with a stud colt named Shadow. Gary learned
to ride Casey (his first trotting experience was "how can this be fun?") He went on to become a very good rider and
enjoyed Team Penning on Casey. He & Cindy actually took second place at the Price County Fair's Novice division their
first time competing. Gary & Casey also were part of a Mounted Search & Rescue Team in Tomahawk and worked at the
Hodag Country Music Festival providing security services, and rode in several local parades. Casey is now retired. Gary
purchased a 3 yr old Tennessee Walking Horse named Shadow and has trained her by himself. She is a wonderful young
mare with a lot of potential. Gary enjoys trail riding with Shadow and is interested in Cowboy Mounted Shooting. He
served as the Trail Development Coordinator for Northwoods Equestrian Trails Association. Although Gary is not as
passionate as Cindy in respect to the horses, without his support and hard work, Shattered Pine Ranch would not exist.

Cindy has had horses most of her life. At 12, she worked as a groom and hot walker in California at Will Rogers State Park.
She started with 2 horses in her care, providing daily exercising and preparing them for the weekly Polo Club games.
During the games, she walked the horses until they were cool enough to return to the game. She progressed to working with
a player that had 17 horses and shared that responsibility with 3 girls. Working at the park for different owners provided
opportunities in training, riding and traveling. At 14, she had her own horse, Sugar a AQHA mare and worked off her
board with a horse dealer by riding and training the horses he purchased at auction prior to being sold. She had horses on
and off, breeding and training Arabians.

In 1997, she purchased a Quarter Horse gelding at the Medford Rodeo - Jack. Jack's attitude and baggage prompted
Cindy to take a look at her skills and knowledge and she realized there had to be a better way to deal with Jack. She
attended Ken Mc Nabb Apprenticeships in Clark Wyoming for 3 weeks hauling Jack with her. There she learned the skills
to correct most of the issues with Jack, started a young Arabian colt named Honda and trained a 3 year old TB Mare just
off the Billings race track named Jill. She enjoyed Jill so much, she bought Jill and brought her back to Wisconsin. While
at the clinic, she learned about Pat Parelli and his at the time new Natural Horsemanship Program from another clinic
attendee, Jody Quilling.

Upon returning to Wisconsin, she started the home study program . Cindy attended a pre Level Parelli Clinic
and in 2000 was asked to attend a Mulemanship Clinic in Montana with friend Judy Chizek. Although she didn't have mules,
she thought the clinic would be beneficial. It was…..at the clinic, she started a untrained Mule named Thumper and found
that Mules are not stubborn, but highly intelligent animals that you cannot force to do things AND you have to be very
patient when teaching them. You also have to be careful not to make a mistake during their training because they don't
forgive and forget like a horse.

In 2005 Cindy became an ARIA Certified Riding Instructor, choosing to test out on Recreational Riding and Mounted
Patrol. She also attended a week long course for Riding Instructors in River Falls. In 2006 she got serious about the
Parelli home study program and finished her Level I while attending a 4 day clinic with Parelli 3 Star Instructor Sharon
Lindy in Green Bay. Furthering her education, Cindy attended another Parelli Advanced Level II clinic in the summer of
2007 in Platteville WI. In the fall of 2007, she had the opportunity to work with Ray Hunt at a horsemanship Clinic is St
Croix falls, bringing her newly trained 2 year old Tennessee Walking horse. Cindy had rode Angel a total of 5 times
before the clinic and Angel did great. In February 2008, Cindy took Angel to trick trainer Tommie Turvey for a 5 day
clinic in Sterling Illinois. Cindy learned new training metheods for performing liberty work, taught Angel to smile and
learned how to teach Tommies horses in training how to bow, sit, lay down and perform the Spanish walk. They chose not
to teach her horse Angel those tricks as she is still too young and her knee joints are not fully closed.

Cindy rode Jack in local Team Penning competitions, taking second place at the Price County Fair Novice Division and rode
another horse Bo as a member of a mounted security team in Tomahawk, providing security at the Hodag Country Music
Festival, along with riding in local parades. She also started Northwoods Mounted Search & Security Mounted Unit and
provided mounted security services at the Price County Fair. She is past Treasurer of Northwoods Equestrian Trails
Association and actively pursues new trail development in Price County. She trains all of her own horses as well. She is an
avid dog lover and has worked closely with long time friend Sue Meyer training her dogs. She has learned that training
horses and dogs are very similar and both her and Sue have learned from each other's training methods and applied those
to their animals.

A passion for horses and how they are trained prompted the creation of Exceptional Equines. A lot of people own horses
and ride them as well, but not exceptionally well. Training horses is the easy part, teaching people to understand their
responsibilities as riders is challenging because most horse owners already know everything they need to know. It is easy
to hop on a horse, kick her to go, pull her to stop and hope like heck you don't get bucked off, but to really ride your horse
and enjoy her full potential requires quality training, dedication, time and commitment.

Through the clinics offered at Shattered Pine Ranch, it is our goal to instill the desire in horse owners to better their
horsemanship skills and knowledge - so they can enjoy their horses to their fullest potential and their horses can go back to
being the free spirited happy individuals we all fell in love with when we bought them.

And…..in our spare time Gary owns Chase Cabinets making commercial log furniture and Cindy owns Elk River Appraisals
providing property assessment services to Wisconsin municipalities and recently partnered with friend Dawn Schroeder
starting the new company HORSES JUST WANNA HAVE FUN, LLC. We both enjoy our horses and dogs as well as
gardening, hunting, scuba diving, cooking, traveling, fishing, snow shoeing, hiking and spending time with our friends and
families.