Page 38 - August 2016

As a young mother in the 1990s, Jill Mixer did all she could to balance her home life and her work life. “If we weren’t at school, we were at the track,” says racehorse trainer Ryan Shults, one of Jill’s 28-year-old twin sons. “She’d work Remington Park in the spring and then, when we were about 10 to 15 years old, we’d move an RV up to Tulsa during the summer when she’d work the meet at Fair Meadows. She’d buy us a season pass to the water park next door and we’d go there every day. In the winter, she’d work Lone Star Park near Dallas; we’d fly down after school on Fridays and she’d pick us up at the airport. Then, she’d drive us back to Edmond (Oklahoma) on Sundays and turn around and drive back to Lone Star on Tuesdays.”
“We had a lot of fun at the water park in summer. That’s where all our friends from the racetrack were,” adds Ryan’s twin, Duke, of Maramec, Oklahoma, who’s also a trainer.
“Since about 1995, I’ve only worked the Quarter Horse meet at Remington Park because of family,” Jill says. “Initially, the Quarter Horse meet was in summer when the kids were out of school. So, I quit the Thoroughbred meets to be able to take the kids to school and pick them up, and just work at training centers and farms in the area. That changed as the kids got older, but it still worked out. For my family, being a mom and practicing veterinary medicine was a perfect mixture.”
Jill’s friend and associate of 22 years, retired
race trainer Janet VanBebber who’s now the chief racing officer at AQHA, admired Jill’s ability to balance work and family. “When I first met Jill, I wasn’t yet a mom,” Janet says. “Her boys were young and she didn’t yet have Sara. But as a female in the industry, I admired that she was able to balance working hard with care and concern for her family and also still be feminine. Those are attributes that I aspire to, and I admired them in her.”
FROM FIELD TO TRACK
Like most young girls, Jill’s love of horses came early. She walked hots during matches for her dad, who played polo in the ’60s. “We lived in Bixby, Oklahoma, at that time and had maybe 20 polo ponies,” she says.
She grew up showing 4-H and, like many girls, changed her mind a few times while deciding on a career. “First I wanted to be a stewardess,” she says. “Then in junior high, I was good at math and numbers so I thought I’d be an accountant. But then I decided I wanted to be a veterinarian. Everyone told me I needed to work for a vet to decide if that’s what I really wanted to be, so when I was 15, I started working at a small animal hospital for $1.10 an hour.”
Jill worked there through high school and through her undergraduate years at Oklahoma State University. “I didn’t plan on being an equine practitioner,” she says. “Back in the ’80s, there were
very few female equine practitioners. But I decided to do an equine internship and, during that time,
I met another veterinarian from Oklahoma who had a racetrack practice in Salem, New Hampshire, at Rockingham Park. I worked for him for three years, then spent the winter of ’87 in Miami at Gulfstream Park. Then, I moved back to Edmond right before Remington Park opened in 1988.” She worked there until just recently.
THE MIXER MARRIAGE
In 2003, Jill married Robert Mixer, son of the late legendary western artist Orren Mixer, and The Mixer Ranch was born.
Surprisingly, it was the remodeling of a bathroom rather than horses that brought Robert and Jill together. “The Jetta Tub place
(a luxury bath system) gave me a few builders’ names and, of course, being into horses, I was intrigued with the Mixer name,” she says about being given Robert’s name. “We dated for about six months and then got married, so I ended up with a husband and a remodel!”
By that time, the boys were 15 and Jill’s daughter, Sara Morgan, was 7. Now age 20, Sara manages the breeding and ownership duties at the ranch. She’s learned her lessons well. In 2015, Sara ended the year 25th by earnings on Equibase with $398,813 and more than $1.1 million lifetime earnings. And as of July 12, 2016, according to Stallionesearch.com, she held this
by Diane Rice
After 30 years conquering the balance between life as a mom and a (mainly) racetrack veterinarian, Jill Mixer eases into a life closer to home
36 SPEEDHORSE, August 2016