09/09/2024
Pony Club has resumed
This is a boarding, lessons, and training facility for horses and humans Suzellen Holt:
The Milagro Riding Club is more than a collection of stalls.
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It’s the embodiment of a family tradition and values. John and Suzellen Holt founded the Club in 2002. A Tucson native, John grew up with horses in the back yard of his family home. Suzellen moved from her family’s Illinois farm to work as a trainer in Arizona, showing Western Pleasure and dabbling in the rodeo circuit. John demonstrated his smart business sense in 1979 when he hired Suzellen to h
elp run his family’s cattle ranch north of the Tortolita Mountains. Working the ranch together, riding, training and providing practical veterinary care on the ranch didn’t just enhance John and Suzellen’s equine experience and love of horses. Their relationship also deepened, and they married in 1980 and continued raising not just horses but also their daughter Michele. After working successfully together for a decade, John traded ranch life for a new professional pursuit. The family moved closer to Tucson, where John turned to teaching at Mountain View High School. He later served as vice-principal at Emily Grey Junior High School and taught English and history at the Catalina Boys Correctional Facility. During this time, Suzellen kept her equine skills sharp. She ran the horse facility at Sierra Tucson until 1993, when she was recruited to develop and lead the riding program for guests at Miraval Resort. She and John knew that one day they would work together with horses again, and that dream came true when they created The Milagro Riding Club in Oro Valley in 2002. For the next six years, John and Suzellen put their hearts as well as their combined experience and knowledge into owning and operating what quickly became a top-of-the-line boarding and training facility. Their ability to understand and support the relationships between horses and riders allowed them to create a supportive, caring environment where club members set their own goals and progress at their own pace. Following John’s death in 2008, Suzellen used her unmatched expertise to run Milagro on her own until her daughter, Michele, moved with her family to Oro Valley in 2014. Shortly after, Suzellen asked Michele to come aboard as a partner, making Milagro a family-run riding club once again. An active partner, Suzellen hustles to the barn in the early hours to feed, train, and learn from her four-legged friends. She knows there is always more to learn and experience when you work around horses, and she relished the knowledge that her legacy lives on every day through The Milagro Riding Club. Michele Jaffe:
Michele’s return to the family business is proof of the old adage that says: you can take the girl out of the country, but you can’t take the country out of the girl. Growing up on the ranch she learned from John and Suzellen’s loving example a strong work ethic and an affinity for horses. Michele’s natural abilities developed daily as she helped her parents round up cattle and feed doggied calves. With 50 head of horses to choose from, Michele often would go to the pasture, choose a ranch horse and teach him to lope on the correct lead for Western Pleasure classes or jump fences for Hunter/Jumper. Michele left Arizona in 1989 to attend Blackhawk College in Illinois, studying agriculture with an emphasis on equine science. Returning after college to Arizona, she landed a job at El Conquistador, booking trail rides through the beautiful foothills of the Catalina Mountains. In two years at El Con, Michele became office manager, gave private lessons on her horse Bo and ran summer camps for kids. That experience led Michele to her lifelong passion, teaching children and beginners of all ages the joys of the horse world. In 1995 Michele met a New York stock trader. Once Bo gave his approval — the New Yorker was the only suitor that the savvy horse didn’t try to buck off — the couple married, and it was time for Michele to say goodbye to the desert and hello to a new life in New England. Michele found work at Salko Farm in Connecticut, riding horses and teaching children, until her own family began to grow. With Bo’s help, Michele taught her three children the same lessons of hard work and responsibility that Michele learned from her own parents in Arizona. With her husband’s retirement from Wall Street in 2014, the Jaffe family brought their young family to Tucson. Coming home has meant coming full circle for Michele, as she finds herself again working side by side with her mother — and her children: Jordan, JohnAlan, and Joshua — in the family business at Milagro Riding Club.
Pony Club has resumed
young people getting into horses really need to take this to heart......put in your time with good mentors,and learn some marketable skills. Too many think they should be riding not cleaning, and most don't even know how to longe a horse/pull a mane/apply a stable wrap/fit tack correctly/this list goes on and on........
Ruby is guarding the cone - it’s her favorite cone. My favorite cone is chocolate. To each their own.
Way to go, Luke!
Congratulations to Luke Hermann from our Oro Valley campus, winner of the 2024 Tucson Junior Rodeo for Steer Riding! Luke, a 7th grade scholar, won on February 22nd with a score of 82. We’re so proud of him!
Finn was such a great boy at the Hunter/Jumper show. He has only been jumping for a year, and this was his fourth show, he was champion in the 90 and the 1 meter. Way to go!
May this new year bring you health and happiness
Memphis doesn’t care about the nice sunrise. He wants to know why breakfast is being delayed to take pictures of it
Milagro Swim Cub - signup today
The boss mare and one of her charges. Ruby must come out of her stall with hay hanging from her mouth - it’s in her contract
🎯
If you want to be a great horseman, work with and ride as many different horses as you possibly can. Each horse will improve your feel and timing and teach you something new.
𝐌𝐞𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐝 𝐀𝐦𝐛𝐚𝐬𝐬𝐚𝐝𝐨𝐫 𝗖𝗵𝗿𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗮 𝗖𝘂𝗿𝗿𝘆
𝘊𝘰𝘭𝘵 𝘚𝘵𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘊𝘦𝘳𝘵𝘪𝘧𝘪𝘦𝘥
Birmingham, Alabama
https://www.certifiedclinician.com/clinician/christa-curry/
Another beautiful sunrise at the barn!
Was greeted this morning by a rainbow and then a little bit of lovely, cool rain. It might still be hotter than we’d like, but fall is (hopefully) right around the corner!
Just an grandma and her granddaughter, doing what they do, at Milagro
Mom and Quinn - a showdown.
Mom won.
Mom posted this to her page, but I thought I would repost here. Ray was a good one, and mom was lucky to go to his clinics - they have the same mindset.
The photographer at the Four Reel Farm show two weekends ago got this great shot of Finn and Kat in the jumper ring!
When the 7 bottom tiles come off the buttah, thus the demo, but I now need a sledgehammer. Seriously!
Milagro, we don’t just teach horsemanship, but we teach scheduling and organization, too! From one of our moms -
9045 N Verch Way
Tucson, AZ
85704
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Here are a few video highlights from Finn and Kat at the hunter/jumper shows down at the fairgrounds!
Chance was so happy to see his big buddy come back from the fairgrounds today! Yesterday they both whinnied at each other, but naturally we weren't filming then!
Colt and Chance enjoyed their time in the arena today (though they saved their biggest bucks for when I wasn’t filming)! It finally dried up nicely!
Drew was so happy to get out after a week cooped up because of all the rain and mud! It was still too damp today in places, so not everyone got out. Hopefully tomorrow things will continue to get drier! The horses for sure need their turnout time after this past week!
Everyone is a bit feisty in the cold morning weather! (Sadly missed capturing Trudy’s biggest buck!)
(Post from Kat!) If you ever wanted to know about world of hunter/jumper junior (under 18) equitation finals, you can follow along as I tweet about the 3'6" USEF Hunter Seat Medal Finals happening today at the Pennsylvania National Horse Show (tweet thread is here: https://twitter.com/milagroriding/status/1581649267139088384?s=20&t=zHgvVrVHxSAVBi99tXS7pg). Medal finals are near and dear to my heart. I competed at Harrisburg 5 times from 1999-2003 (my older brother also competed there in the 1990s!). This video is from my last junior year, where I finished in the top 25. The year before I managed a 4th place finish, but I don't have that video digitized yet! The great thing about the internet is how much streaming content there is for big horse shows! Anyone who wants to watch this year's medal finals, or any number of other live-streamed events including dressage and three-day eventing, should check out the USEF network (https://www.usef.org/network). You can sign up for a free "fan" memberhip and watch lots of live events! (And the video quality is way better than it was 20 years ago!)
A four minute video on catching a skittish horse. “It’s what you want to have happen, before what happens, happens.” -Ray Hunt Unpack that😉 By the way, I learned this from my parents - John and Suzellen Holt, on the ranch. It’s not about haltering ... meaning, I am not trying to catch the horse, I am building a partnership with a “willing” partner. Get this step wrong, it can only go downhill. Mom, please add your input - extremely valuable.