For Williams, it's not just a dream. The teenager is putting her plans in motion. Soon, she will be taking a break from college to travel to Meredith Manor in West Virginia to spend 18 months to become a certified horse trainer.
"I just started getting into it and I went to a safety certification seminar with Robert Liner and then I have been taking lessons and stuff to work on training horses," Williams said. "Basically, what I had wanted to do was just rehab, and it has been like that for a while, and that is kind of what I want to stick to is rehabilitation.
"A lot of horses just need that second chance and a lot of horses don't get it because the owners don't think that it is possible -- and it is."
Williams has already built a clientele in the Plano area, caring for and rehabilitating horses on several properties. She is currently in a duel credit program through her home school and at 17, she is a senior in high school, She will complete her sophomore year of college by May 2011.
Though Williams may sound like a young woman dreaming big, her feet and head are well-grounded, and she admits the road to her goals might have a few potholes along the way.
"I know it is not going to be done quickly," she said. "I would like for it to be done within a few years. Right now, it is just kind of cool for me to dream big and then once the time comes, it is like, 'okay now I can start thinking more realistic.' Right now, I am just focusing on school and just trying to take it a day at a time. Just keep working towards it and making good grades."
Once Williams earns both her high school diploma and her associates degree, she will depart for Meredith Manor.
"I am going to go to Meredith Manner next fall, that's up in West Virginia right by Marietta, Ohio," she said. "I will be getting my training certification and my massage therapy certification, so I will be a certified trainer. Right now, I am safety certified -- I am equine and rider safety certified. But once I go to Meredith, I will be a certified trainer. I am bringing both my horses up there so both of us will be getting professional training."
Though currently in the U.S. an individual is not required to obtain certification to practice as a horse trainer, Williams knows that certification will give her the confidence and skills that she will need to become a successful equine businesswoman.
"They are an international riding school, so I can honestly say and have proof that I have been certified by Meredith Manor and that will give me more credit," she explained. "Around here, I've got my clients that I've been training some of their horses for the past two years. They can back me up with the stuff that I do. But, with me being certified I can go to Meredith Manor and use them as a recommendation. They give you classes on how to train horses and the right way to go about it, instead of just breaking a horse into things, because that is usually not the right way to go about it."
Williams has been rehabilitating horses from abused homes and race tracks that have had both mental and physical problems due to owner neglect or abuse, so she is very comfortable with how she trains horses. Because of this, when she completes her bachelor's degree and returns to the Plano area to open her business, she wants like-minded individuals around her.
"After I go to Meredith, I am going to go to Tarleton State University and get my bachelor's and right after that I am going to go ahead and open my rehab center and then hire some veterinarians to work there," Williams explained. "I don't really want to go into the whole vet field and I would prefer to just focus on the training. I am getting my bachelor's in pre-vet so I will have that background with the vet, and I will be able to communicate with them. I would like to work with Meredith Manor and probably A&M and try and get some of their kids to work at my rehab center so that we are all on the same page and they are all trained and certified. As far as my rehab center goes, I don't want anyone uncertified or untrained or anything like that, that way they are really good with the horses and just gentle and stuff."
Williams' dream is to own a successful equine rehabilitation center where she can implement her own training style, as well as the skills she will learn at Meredith Manor. To Williams, the gentle way is the best way.
"I do not like that term 'breaking a horse' so I always use gentling or saddle training," she explained. "You are not breaking them, you are just communicating with them in a way that they can understand it. This 2-year-old I got out here, she was falling asleep when I got on her. She had never had any tack or anything on her, she was going to sleep because we used a gentle method instead of just throwing a saddle and a bunch of heavy equipment on her.
"Using a gentle method works so much better because you don't scare a horse into things and they are much more trusting and much more willing to do things," she continued. "That is so important about rehab -- you really want to be careful about how you introduce or reintroduce things to the horses, because most of the rehab horses have been through so much and so they are so scared of a lot of things. Especially with the mentally unstable horses, they have a lot of trust issues."
Until Williams leaves for Meredith Manor, she will continue to train and rehabilitate horses in the Plano area. To find out more about Williams and her business, Shelby's Equine TLC, visit www.equinefriend.net.
