University of Findlay Western Equestrian Program

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University of Findlay Western Equestrian Program In the two- and four-year program, students begin as freshmen learning the basics of horse body position, showmanship and horsemanship.
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The University of Findlay offers a western training program that offers students the chance to try all different aspects of the western horse, such as cutting, reining, western riding, western pleasure, showmanship, and trail, riding 5 days a week The University of Findlay offers a western training program that can be completed as a four-year bachelor of science degree, a two-year associate degrees or a minor. During their time spent at Findlay, students in the program learn all different aspects of the western horse, such as cutting, reining, western riding, western pleasure, showmanship, and trail. Sophomore year is colt breaking, where a student takes an unbroke horse from the beginning of the semester to the end. Junior and Senior year include a variety of disciplines, from lead changing to Hunter Under Saddle to more colt breaking to Cutting… you name it! Students are at the barn five days a week, and ride every day. Each semester culminates in a week-long finals that is run like a horse show: UF brings in outside alumni judges; classes are placed, and students wear proper show attire, all while being graded! During their time at Findlay, students have classroom classes that explore all areas of the equine world. These classes include Judging, Nutrition, Reproduction, Marketing, Software Applications, Preventative Medicine, Equine Law, and many more. They use these classes to supplement their learning at the farm, where outside instructors, demonstrations, and alumni come to present other aspects of the equine industry. The Western Farm holds an annual Spring Horse Sale at the end of April! This year the sale is held Saturday, April 30, 2022. Horses sold include senior class projects: Futurity Colts. These two- year- old prospects have been broken out by the senior class, ending in a Pleasure Futurity class the day before the sale. Other sale horses include trail horses, show horses, cow/ranch horses, and well broke lesson horses. For questions about admissions, contact Bryant Fox or Leah Ely:
Undergraduate Admissions Counselor
Equestrian Studies Programs
The University of Findlay
1000 North Main Street
Findlay OH 45840
419-434-4644
[email protected]
[email protected]

Fifty years of growth leaves a trail — sometimes in the form of new barns, new disciplines, and new dreams that rise fro...
10/22/2026

Fifty years of growth leaves a trail — sometimes in the form of new barns, new disciplines, and new dreams that rise from the ones that came before. The English program didn’t begin with its own space. It began inside the Western barn, sharing aisles, arenas, and a belief that horsemanship, at its core, is one legacy with many branches.

From that shared foundation, the English barn emerged — not as a separate story, but as the next chapter. A new home, a new discipline, a new opportunity for students to grow… all rooted in the vision that started in the Western barn decades ago..

🌟 Sponsor Highlight: Visit Findlay 🌟If you've ever grabbed a recommendation for where to eat downtown, found an event on...
10/21/2026

🌟 Sponsor Highlight: Visit Findlay 🌟
If you've ever grabbed a recommendation for where to eat downtown, found an event on the community calendar, or helped a visiting family figure out what to do in town — chances are Visit Findlay had something to do with it.
As Findlay's convention and visitors bureau, Visit Findlay works year-round to bring people to our community and make sure they fall in love with it once they're here — from local dining and shopping to festivals, fairs, and everything in between.
This year, that mission brought them to our barn. Visit Findlay has stepped up as a proud sponsor of the University of Findlay Equestrian Program's 50th anniversary celebration — because they know this program isn't just something the university is proud of. It's something that puts Findlay on the map.
For 50 years, our equestrian program has drawn families, alumni, and visitors from across the country to this town. That's exactly the kind of story Visit Findlay exists to tell.
Thank you, Visit Findlay, for showing up for our community and for this milestone. Here's to the partnerships that make Findlay a place worth visiting — and a place worth calling home. 🐴🎉

Picture 1976: a brand-new Equestrian Studies Program, a handful of students, and not much else.Dr. C. Richard Beckett wa...
10/14/2026

Picture 1976: a brand-new Equestrian Studies Program, a handful of students, and not much else.
Dr. C. Richard Beckett wasn't an equestrian instructor. He was a local veterinarian — one who believed in what this fledgling program could become badly enough to show up and serve as its very first vet.
That's who he was. Not someone who watched from a distance, but someone who rolled up his sleeves and got involved from day one.
He didn't stop there. In 1982, he launched what would become Findlay's largest undergraduate program: Pre-Veterinary Medicine. In 1997, he built University Equine Veterinary Services from scratch — giving students the kind of hands-on experience most universities could only dream of offering.
Those who worked alongside him say the same thing, in different ways: he lit up talking about this place. Not because of what he built, but because of who it was built for — the students.
Today, the Dr. C. Richard Beckett Animal Science Building carries his name. But his real legacy isn't a building.
It's every student who's learned by doing.
It's every program that grew from that first barn.
It's every future he helped make possible before anyone knew it was even possible.
That's what one person, showing up, can start.

A handful of students. A barn that had seen better days. And a Western Equestrian Program that had more grit than gear.N...
10/07/2026

A handful of students. A barn that had seen better days. And a Western Equestrian Program that had more grit than gear.
No indoor arena. No big budget. Just a few people who believed horses could change lives — and were stubborn enough to try.
Nobody standing in that barn that year could have imagined what they were actually building.
They weren't just teaching students to ride. They were laying the roots of something that would grow far beyond that barn — into three nationally recognized programs: Western Equestrian, English Equestrian, and Animal Science.
Fifty years later, those roots have carried thousands of students into careers they never could have pictured for themselves back then — vets, trainers, breeders, researchers, teachers, and horsewomen and horsemen who now run their own barns, teach their own students, and pass down what was given to them.
One barn.
One vision.
Thousands of futures.
And it all started with a handful of students who showed up, ready to work.

Picture it: the Ohio Expo Center, thousands of exhibitors, the smell of shavings and coffee in the air, and somewhere in...
10/01/2026

Picture it: the Ohio Expo Center, thousands of exhibitors, the smell of shavings and coffee in the air, and somewhere in the crowd, a mic and a selfie stick weaving through the chaos.
That's us. Starting October 3, we're walking the floor at Congress — stopping exhibitors mid-setup, catching riders between classes, asking the questions you wish someone would ask. No script, no red carpet. Just real conversations with real people, right where the work happens.
Some of those conversations won't end when the mic clicks off. We're pulling a handful of the best ones for longer, sit-down interviews — the kind where there's time to really talk. Those will roll out one at a time over the weeks after Congress wraps, so the stories don't disappear the moment the show grounds empty out.
Fifty years ago, this program started with people who believed in this industry enough to build something around it. That hasn't changed. It's still the coaches, the alumni, the students showing up early and staying late — that's the story we actually want to tell.
So if you're at Congress starting October 3 and you see us coming — mic in hand, probably a little out of breath — don't dodge us. Say hi. Tell us why you're there. You might just be the next story we tell.
👀 Find the mic. Tell us your story. We'll be listening.

Tonight, history happens on network television — and Findlay has a front-row seat.For the first time ever, a major weste...
09/17/2026

Tonight, history happens on network television — and Findlay has a front-row seat.

For the first time ever, a major western-discipline horse show is airing in primetime on network TV. The Run For A Million, one of reining's most prestigious events, with a $1 million purse, airs tonight at 8 PM on your local CBS station.

Findlay's roots in this sport run deep. Dale Wilkinson, founder of our Western Equestrian Program in 1976, is also recognized as a founder of modern reining — which is why so many call Findlay a birthplace of the sport. Over the decades, our program has sent riders, trainers, and judges into the heart of this industry, including several current and former students competing at this year's TRFAM, and UF graduates who have served as judges at the event.

Tune in tonight and cheer on the sport Findlay helped shape! 🐴

HISTORY SPOTLIGHT: Clark BradleyBefore Findlay, Clark Bradley was a kid on a Ohio crop farm, tagging along to reining me...
09/17/2026

HISTORY SPOTLIGHT: Clark Bradley
Before Findlay, Clark Bradley was a kid on a Ohio crop farm, tagging along to reining meetings with his father — one of the first people in the state to own a registered quarter horse.
He learned the trade under Dale Wilkinson, the man who turned reining into the sport of finesse it is today. By his twenties, Bradley was winning it — taking the national NRHA Futurity title in both 1968 and 1974.
He joined Findlay's Western program in 1978, left in '85, and came back in 1995 — for good. Since then: 40 years as an NRHA judge, two terms as its president, and a hand in writing the rules reining is still judged by.
In 2015, at the sport's 50th anniversary Futurity, he was chosen to set the pattern for the finals — riding Smokey, the same horse who led American Pharoah to the Triple Crown.
That's who's been teaching Findlay students for decades.
Clark Bradley didn't just contribute to Findlay's Western legacy. He helped build the foundation it still stands on.

What a way to kick off the 50th anniversary of the University of Findlay Western Program!We were excited to welcome Bran...
09/11/2026

What a way to kick off the 50th anniversary of the University of Findlay Western Program!

We were excited to welcome Brandon Brant, a UF 2005 graduate and the most recent NRHA Million Dollar Rider, to “Fridays at Findlay” as the keynote speaker!

Completed the day at the western farm where our students had the opportunity to learn from Brandon, ride, and continue building their skills.

We’re proud to celebrate 50 years of the Western Program and grateful to have special guests like Brandon help us kick off this exciting year!

Here’s to 50 years of horses, horsemanship, and memories at Findlay!

09/08/2026

From all across the country to right here at the University of Findlay🖤🧡
During our Run for a Million Watch Night, we interviewed some of our students to find out where they call home! Their answers highlight the in incredible reach that our program has on the equine industry!

Before the banners. Before the trophies. Before the packed arenas.There was an empty barn.And a handful of people who wa...
09/04/2026

Before the banners. Before the trophies. Before the packed arenas.
There was an empty barn.
And a handful of people who walked into it anyway — the first rider willing to compete for a program with no track record. The first coach willing to build something from nothing. The first students who showed up early, stayed late, and had no roadmap to follow.
They didn't know they were making history.
They just knew someone had to go first.
That's the part we don't talk about enough — it wasn't banners or trophies that opened the door for everyone who came after. It was a few people willing to walk through an empty barn and believe in what it could become.
Today, we celebrate those trailblazers — and every generation since who's carried their legacy forward.

Address

14700 State Route 68
Findlay, OH
45840

Telephone

+14194344656

Website

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