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COURTESY OF THE HOME RANCH
Gusti Buerger practices a controlled stop on her horse, Magicality.
Riding High hen I’m picking out horses, I look at their eyes a lot. You can tell a lot about a horse from their eye. I look for one that’s soft. Intelligent,” says Gusti Buerger, head of the new performance horse training program at the Home Ranch in Clark. Buerger would know – she has spent her whole life working with horses, and is now one of the top cow horse competitors in the world. Buerger was born and raised on a ranch in Western Colorado, showing a variety of livestock in 4H and moving cattle on horseback. “I always loved horses,” she says. At an early age, horse trainer Sherri Gilkerson introduced Buerger to the reined cow horse world, mentoring her in the sport and inspiring her to pursue it at a professional level. Reined cow horse work is scored on three disciplines: herd work, reining and cow work. In herd work, the horse and rider are expected to prevent single cows from
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COURTESY OF THE HOME RANCH
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Gusti Buerger selected her horse, Magicality, based on a combination of athleticism and demeanor.
