7 minute read
Professional Patriots
PROFESSION AL PATRIOTS
By Larri Jo Starkey
PROFESSION AL PATRIOTS
Two NRCHA Non Pro competitors schedule their riding time around their military commitments.
Every reined cow horse Non Pro competitor with a full-time job knows the challenge of scheduling riding time around families, work and occasional sleep. Texan Carisa Kimbro and Californian Corie Brock are two Non Pros who incorporate service to their country into their schedules as members of the National Guard.
Despite their individual passion for the same reined cow horse sport, horses often come third in their lives after their full-time jobs and military careers.
CHOOSINGTHEMILITARY
Kimbro was a longtime 4-H and FFA member with good grades but not a lot of scholarships. She saw the military as an opportunity to go to Texas A&M University.
“I enlisted in the Texas Army National Guard in 1996 to help with college tuition and commissioned as an Army Aviation Officer through the ROTC program at Texas A&M through the Corps of Cadets,” she said.
Kimbro earned a bachelor’s degree in animal science and a master’s in agricultural business.
“I finished grad school and two months later went to Army flight school,” Kimbro said. “I was at flight school for a year and came back and started applying for jobs.”
She discovered her studies in business, plus her time in flight school, made her a fit at Bell Helicopter in Hurst, Texas, where she has worked for 15 years. As a lieutenant colonel, she’s the Battalion Commander for the 2-149th General Support Aviation Battalion, which when not deployed in support of combat operations, provides the state of Texas with UH-60 Blackhawk and CH-47 Chinook assets, maintenance, ground support and air traffic control.
“It’s been a busy year, we’ve supported COVID testing teams, continued border security operations, a tropical storm, a winter storm and continued to train,” said Kimbro, who lives in Burleson, Texas. “It’s like nothing I’ve seen before. At the end of the day, the domestic mission is what keeps me in. The wildfires, the floods—it’s Texans serving Texans. That’s the part that I love.”
Like Kimbro, Brock initially saw military service as a means to an end.
“When I came into the military back in 2000, the idea of going medical was
Whether it’s deployment to help fight fires at home or to assist on an overseas mission, training time takes on a new meaning for Non Pro riders like Corrie Brock and Carisa Kimbro, seen here piloting a Chinook assisting with 2015 Austin, Texas, fire-fighting efforts.
COURTESY OF CORRIE BROCK COURTESY OF CORRIE BROCK
Her deployments have taken her around the world, but what centers Corrie Brock is her horse and her family, Kristopher Moore.
readiness.”—Corrie Brock
PRIMO MORALES
Deployed to Afghanistan in 2015 to 2016, Brock took some time to get back into the cow horse groove. However, she and Shined Wright were clicking when the duo picked up the Non Pro Limited Spectacular win at the 2020 NRCHA Stallion Stakes in Las Vegas, Nevada.
appealing because it would transfer to the civilian side,” she said. “Then as it grew, and I’ve been in for so long, it’s more [about] serving my country. There’s a different level of what I wanted to do 21 years ago versus. why I do it now.”
Brock is a member of the California Army National Guard stationed in Sacramento, working for the military police brigade as a medical liaison.
“We basically are the conduit for the deployment and activation of soldiers getting medically ready to go overseas,” she said. “We’re the gatekeepers for their medical readiness.”
FINDING COW HORSE
Brock didn’t grow up in a cow horse family, but that didn’t stop her desire to ride, compete and enjoy horses.
“Back in 2000, I was stationed in Louisiana, and I drove around looking for a horse to buy,” she said. “I found a little horse and he kept me company all through my time in Louisiana. I decided from watching others doing cow horse that it was something I wanted to try.”
So, she took him to a trainer.
“I thought he was trained, but now that I’m learning more about cow horse, he definitely wasn’t trained,” she said with a laugh. “Every cow— I’d lose it. I couldn’t keep it contained and the challenge got me addicted.”
With “Buddy” as her gateway horse, Brock soon acquired a mare named Jerrys SmartLilScoot (Pauli Uno x Rock A Bye Rum x Rum Squall) from California NRCHA Hall of Fame member Benny Guitron. The mare knew her business, and Brock started learning what cow horse is supposed to be about.
“I’ve had a lot of fun with her, and she has a baby right now by Brother Jackson,” Brock said. “We’re excited about that. She’s just been a good, nice, kind mare. She has a little bit of NRCHA earnings and AQHA titles, so we’ve had a lot of fun with her. She’s 17, coming 18, so being a mother is all she does [now].”
Kimbro found reined cow horse through her involvement in Stock Horse of Texas.
“It’s a gateway for many people to get into reined cow horse, and it certainly was that way for me,” she said.
DIFFERENT GOALS
For Brock and Kimbro, cow horse can’t be about their personal goals. An unexpected deployment can mean their horses are no longer in training—or that a trainer is now riding the horse while the Non Pro is away. When the rider returns home, there’s an adjustment period.
“It is definitely not like riding a bike, no, no, no,” Brock said. “It takes a while to get your skill set back. I lose feel; I lose it all. Then it takes me a good while to come back and get that feel again and push myself and get my body where it needs to be. I want to say when I got back from my last deployment, it took a good year to get back into the swing of things.”
When Brock was deployed to Afghanistan for nine months, she watched “Scooter” foal out her first foal via a livestream. When she returned to the United States, it took her at least nine months to get back in the groove on her current show horse, Shined Wright (Lenas Wright On x Shiney And Dressy x Shining Spark). Taking lessons at least once a month were a big part of the relearning process.
Brock is a self-described “lifetime boxer” who’s waiting to see what happens in California this year before she makes plans to compete herself. To date, she’s won nearly $20,000 in NRCHA earnings.
“I have my 3-year-old and he is paid up for [the Snaffle Bit Futurity in] Fort Worth,” Brock said. “He’s by Hickory Holly Time and out of Dual Rey Mi, who is by Olena Oak. He’s kinda an in-yourpocket kind of horse, super kind, and we’ll see what happens with him, but so far, so good.”
Both Brock and Kimbro have goals that fit their ambitions and abilities, all the while recognizing that their time might not be their own.
In February of 2020, Kimbro bought her new show horse, Red Hotz (Sweet Lil Pepto x Doc NA Box x Bob Acre Doc), trained and shown by NRCHA professional Jordan Williams with the goal of becoming more competitive in her transition from box-drive-box classes to Non Pro. After winning the AQHA Level 1 Amateur Cowhorse at the AQHA World Championship Show in 2020, her goal for the Eastern Derby is to be in the Top 5 of the Non Pro Two Rein.
Brock recognizes that wins are special and shouldn’t be taken for granted.
“[Shined Wright] has won a lot of
COURTESY OF CARISA KIMBRO
PRIMO MORALES
