Page 42 - November 2015

When Reid McLellan, Ph.D., graduated from and teaching trainer exam
Louisiana State University in 1967 with
a degree in animal science, he set his sights on a Ph.D. in equine breeding and genetics. But, no university in the United States offered a Ph.D. with an equine specialty. Reid’s advisor at LSU sug- gested he get the best animal breeding and genetics doctorate he could, become head of an animal science department, and start a horse program.
Thirteen years later as a professor and head of Louisiana Tech University’s Animal Industries Department, he created and launched an equine specialty degree in which entering students worked as grooms and hot walkers and select seniors could earn their trainer’s licenses from the Louisiana Racing Commission.
Students in the racing division (there were also breeding and cow horse divisions) learned about racetrack life and the science of training racehorses utilizing a half-mile training track the program established on one of Tech Farm’s former dairy pastures. In 1986–7, the program beat out 56 other colleges and universities to win the USDA and R.J. Reynolds Excellence in Agriculture Technology Instruction award.
Reid left Louisiana Tech in 1988 and trained a small public stable for eight years while teaching his youngest son, Brett.
In 1996, Reid accepted a position as racing education manager for Sam Houston Race Park, instructing race fans about horse racing
preparation classes in Texas, and one summer was invited to teach a three-day seminar for trainers and veterinarians in Manila, Philippines.
While at Sam Houston
Race Park, he was asked to
help develop a class for grooms at Texas racetracks. Texas breeder and racehorse owner Susan O’Hara (now O’Hara-Bates) was the driving force
behind the course’s creation. With input from equine professionals, funding from the Texas racing industry, and writing and compilation by retired Texas A&M extension specialist Doug Householder, Groom Elite 101 was created.
Incorporated in 2002 as The Elite Program, Inc., the program grew from one course for grooms into a complete equine education program that includes youth, owners, trainers, people wanting to work in the equine industry, and anyone interested in broadening their horse-industry skill sets. As national director of instruction since 2002, Reid has taught the bulk of Elite Program classes offered at racetracks, schools, and prison Second Chances vocational programs across the country. In August 2005, he moved to Lexington, Kentucky, and was appointed executive director.
He travels most every week of the year to teach and develop a network of instructors who can step in when he can’t be available to teach.
Reid McLellan with A.C.’s Painted Lace and her daughter Get The Picture
His Formative Years
Reid has a photo of himself at age six, sitting on his dad’s field trial horse, Star, at the farm in Louisiana where his 94-year-old mother still lives. “Star taught me about pressure and release,” he says, ”and made me the horseman I am today. From her, I really learned how to communicate with horses and give them the confidence in that what we were doing was going to be okay.”
Because he’d developed a lot of horse aptitude, his dad got him a half-Arabian filly. “She was a yearling when I got her,” Reid says, “and a friend down the road showed me how
to sack her out and break her without force
and without bucking. She was very smart and learned quickly, and helped me because of that.”
For his 16th birthday, Reid’s dad gave him a beautiful liver chestnut Quarter Horse colt
40 SPEEDHORSE, November 2015