From Lincolnville to Trainer of the Year: Shauna Brown returns to her roots at fair

Aug. 26—WEST MEAD TOWNSHIP — There was no camera crew swarming Crawford County native Shauna Brown earlier this month when she was announced as winner of the Horse&Rider Trainer of the Year award.

But if a microphone had been pointed toward her as a reporter asked, "You've just won the horse reining equivalent of the Super Bowl — what are you going to do next?" it's easy to imagine Brown responding by saying that she was going to the Crawford County Fair.

Fairgoers at the horse and pony ring Wednesday didn't have to imagine what Brown might say: Brown, microphone in hand, was at center ring, leading a demonstration on the intricate patterns that make up reining competitions — and how to persuade a horse to perform such maneuvers.

"I've been coming here my entire life — since even before I was born," Brown said after a long day in the ring that included both the reining demonstration and participating with her niece in the "generation class" showmanship and horsemanship competition. "I love this place."

Brown and her father, Rick Brown, operate Maple Grove Performance Horses and Training Stables in the Lincolnville area just south of Canadohta Lake. Since the 1970s, Rick has trained his own Quarter Horses and competed in National Reining Horse Association events, even achieving a world top-10 ranking in two reining divisions in 2010.

Shauna has followed in her father's footsteps and has even ridden beyond. While Rick, as a nonprofessional, trained and competed exclusively with his own horses, Shauna trains other horse and riders, typically conducting 75 lessons each week with riders from around the region. Like her father, she has achieved world top-10 rankings in reining and as of Aug. 1, she is the first-ever Horse&Rider Trainer of the Year, beating out competitors from around the country. Horse&Rider is a monthly magazine and online resource devoted to western-style riding, horse care and training, and western horse life in general.

The demonstration at the fairgrounds Wednesday, like many of Shauna's lessons, focused on the two styles of reining and ranch riding. As Shauna described the fundamental elements that make up the discipline's 16 patterns, her father and several of her students led their steeds through a series of spins and circles, changing lead on the fly, bringing them to a quick canter and a sudden stop, then backing them up as easily as if they were putting a car in reverse.

Reining, Shauna told the crowd, is familiar to anyone who has watched the popular western-themed Kevin Costner TV show "Yellowstone." The signature move is the sudden stop, but the patterns often look like a dance with the rider leading the horse below through moves that sometimes seem designed to induce dizziness — in audience members, if not horse and rider.

"Slow and pretty is always better than fast and messy," Shauna reminded her riders over the public address system.

Inside the ring, Rick was a picture of steady, stoic control. But outside the ring, talking about his daughter's accomplishments, his eyes go wide momentarily when asked to describe his daughter's horsemanship.

"Oh, she's — she's very skillful," he said. Smiling, he added with a laugh, "Not to brag or anything, but I taught her everything she knows."

Jane Brown, Rick's wife and Shauna's mother, described her daughter as passionate and driven in her work with riders and horses.

"She operates on integrity," Jane said. "She wants to see her students do the very best they can."

Shauna wasn't sure exactly what set her apart from the other nine finalists up for the Trainer of the Year award, but contest officials told her that she "was doing something for the industry that needed to be done."

In a sport that is always costly and often extremely so, Shauna explained, she has made a point of working with young people who might not otherwise be able to pursue reining, finding a way for them to continue in the sport if they really want it. Usually, that way involves long hours and lots of hard work.

Describing her younger self as not especially tall, not especially skinny and not especially talented, she said it's the only way she knows to succeed.

"I was always taught that if you want something bad enough, you figure out a way to make it happen," Shauna said. "That's what I try to teach them."

Mike Crowley can be reached at (814) 724-6370 or by email at .