CANTON, Miss. (WLBT) – Trainers at Mississippi Horses are preparing for the Heart of the Horse Trainers Challenge happening at the Kirk Fordice Equine Center in Jackson from May 14-16.

Mississippi Horses, also known as Mississippi Horse Rescue, takes in horses from cruelty cases and owner surrenders, including feral and untrained horses. The organization trains and rehabilitates them for a second chance at life.

“A lot of these horses were on their way to slaughter, which a lot of people aren’t even aware of, but if a horse is not trained that sometimes is their fate and so we try to change that for these horses,” said Stephanie Billingsley, director at Mississippi Horse Rescue.

Allie and Ava Schuetzle are two trainers competing at the event. They have had 120 days to train their horses to prepare them to be adopted after the competition.

Allie is in her second year in the competition. She is training a 2-year-old pony named Ray Charles, one of 97 wild ponies Mississippi Horses took in in 2024.

“He’s vision impaired, it’s mostly in his peripheral vision and at night he can’t see and he needs to have a buddy to stay with him,” Allie said.

Allie has helped Ray Charles with basic training and will showcase his skills at the challenge.

She shared an important reason she continues training horses.

“Really just knowing that I’m helping them find their forever home and the person who’s going to love them,” she said.

Her sister Ava, barn manager at Mississippi Horse Rescue, is training a 4-year-old owner surrender named Everleigh.

“When she came, she was very fearful of people, she was hard to catch, very reactive,” Ava said.

Ava will showcase her training of Everleigh in the amateur division of the competition.

Billingsley said Everleigh has grown tremendously, and you would never know she was once a wild horse.

She said the competition trains horses and gives them a second chance at life, while teaching trainers and owners.

“The biggest thing it’s not just training horses, but it’s teaching the people how to communicate with the horse and how to understand the horse, so that it doesn’t end up in a bad place again,” Billingsley said.

Billingsley says horses need to be more than just trained to succeed, but they need to be understood by their trainers and owners, and this competition gives them that chance to succeed.

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