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Dena and Willy Nick Bar at the 1997 Elite Futurity.
BECOMING A TRAINER
Along with her dad and her husband, Dena credits her sister Teri George of Dripping Springs, Texas, with inspiring her training philosophy. “She’s also a horse trainer, breeder and a horse lover like myself. She’s a great kid teacher and also rode for the public. We talk sometimes two to three times a day,” Dena says.
Another of Dena’s mentors was her dear friend and fellow competitor, the late Celie Whitcomb Ray, daughter of Milo Whitcomb, who raised the 1960 All American Futurity winner Tonto Bars Hank.
Kenneth Springer
didn’t look like she was doing very much. My father-in-law bought me a mare she had started, and we ended up becoming best friends and traveled together a lot.”
Dena calls that friendship a “God thing” because of the relationship that developed with Celie’s daughter, Mary Cecilia Tharp, after Celie lost her battle with cancer. Mary Cecilia and Milo Whitcomb both presented Dena with the Celie Whitcomb Ray Memorial tray award after she won the 1997 World Barrel Racing Futurity Championship on Willy Nick Bar.
CAREER-BOOSTING EVENTS
As far as career-building experiences
go, one of Dena’s first was when her friend
and mentor, Celie, sent her a set of futurity trainees. “When she was diagnosed with cancer, she sent me her client horses,” Dena says. “For her to do that and for her clients to allow it was a pretty big step in my career. I had started winning but for her to have that confidence in me was special. We partnered on a filly and a stallion, Fols Classy Snazzy, that made it to the NFR down the road.”
A pivotal moment in Dena’s career was when she and Willy Nick Bar won all three go- rounds at the 1997 BFA World Championship Futurity, a record that he holds to this day. “Great horses make great trainers,” she says, “and I have been blessed over the years to have had several.”
Dena’s friend Jeye Johnson, also director of marketing for Equibrand, which sponsors Dena, says Dena also boosted her career by nurturing an unbelievable skill for a horse, getting them to perform like nobody else. “There’s a look that her horses have when they turn a barrel that you don’t see with anybody else,” Jeye says. “Her ability to get a horse
to turn a barrel as fast and efficiently as she does is unmatched, and she has an equally unbelievable way of communicating it and
helping other people achieve the same thing. I think she’s just one of those people who, when you talk to her, gives you energy. She’s very enthusiastic, uplifting and talkative.”
SOUGHT-AFTER CLINICIAN
Along with the people and horses who boosted her career, Dena attributes her success to being compassionate and discerning. “What matters most to me is my ability to understand the horse and where he is in his mental and physical state. This is a key factor in my training program,” she says.
To that end, she shares her knowledge with others via clinics, which she has held in the U.S., “She was top of the food chain back then and I Champion Sherry Cervi, as her best friend Australia, Brazil and Canada. She also developed
“Celie was a super hand with a horse,” Dena says. “I was super in awe of her abilities.
These days, Dena considers her close friend, four-time NFR Barrel Racing
learned so much from her.”
“I became obsessed with watching Celie
because her horses were fat and happy, and she
and inspiration. “Along with my sister, she’s the best at caring about her horse first,” Dena says.
the One Smooth Motion barrel horse training DVD series, demonstrating her methods with nine horses at different stages in life.
“Her ability to get a horse to turn a barrel as fast and efficiently as she does is unmatched, and she has an equally unbelievable way of communicating it and helping other people achieve the same thing.” – Jeye Johnson
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