2026 Invitational Colt Starting Competition

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 Mike Price is owner of Diamond P Mules in Whitehall, Montana.
I’ve been around horses and mules since the day I was born, and for the past 20+ years I’ve had the privilege of training mules for the public. Along with training, I raise and sell a few mules of my own, and we use our stock for just about everything—hunting, camping, roping, showing, or simply enjoying a good ride.

What I love most about training horses and mules is how much they teach us about ourselves. Starting colts is like a drug to me—it’s something I just can’t get enough of. 

I’m grateful for the chance to be part of this event, and I look forward to seeing you all down the trail.
Let’s ride!

 Ryan was born and raised in Rocky Mountain House Alberta and continues to call this community home. He has spent the last 30 years focusing on his career as a professional colt starter, with his first pay cheque being earned at the age of 12. Ryan believes that as horsemen, we never stop learning, and can often be heard saying “when I know better, I do better.” After 30 years in the colt starting business, Ryan has developed a program that is proven to provide horses the foundation that is required to produce confident and willing equine partners, regardless of discipline. Though Ryan’s passion is young horses, he will often have horses in training for “problem solving” and fine tuning.   Ryan’s program focuses on teaching young horses trust, respect and work ethic, that follows them throughout their careers.

 He accomplishes this by building confidence and avoiding situations that cause fear and trauma. “If you don’t get one scared, you’ll never have a fear response to overcome.” A confident foundation results in a versatile and usable horse. Ryan believes that confidence and versatility is extremely important for the health, wellbeing, mind and future of all horses, but especially performance horses “even our performance horses are all around horses, we use them for everything.” When not working with client horses, giving lessons or offering clinics, Ryan spends his time on the back of one of the families’ personal horses, either ranch rodeoing, riding in the foothills of Alberta, or fine tuning his wife and kids rodeo horses. If you can’t find him in the arena, mountains or pasture, he is likely hauling someone somewhere for lessons, clinics or rodeos. Ryan is a huge supporter of his wife and kids and spends a great deal of time making sure their horses are in top performance condition year-round.     “If you miss the beginning, the basics, then you are destined to go back and visit the beginning” – Buck Brannaman 

 Lucia Lhotak is professional horsewoman, training for 15years in Washington and recently moved to South Dakota. She has been riding and showing horses for over 25years in eventing, dressage, reined cowhorse, and ranch riding. She specializes in colt starting, ranch riding and reining, emphasizing body mechanics of how a horse balances and travels, while promoting mental soundness of natural horsemanship combined with the lateral work and centered balance learned from classical riding. Her goal with each horse is to bring them to their highest level without losing integrity in her horsemanship. She strives for longevity in a horses career. Her skills in teaching fundamental groundwork become perquisites to support her first rides on colts leading her success in her young horse development. Her program represents all classes of horses and disciplines in performance horses and your everyday family recreational horse.    Lucia's has competed in 13 Colt Starting Challenge USA competitions, being the first woman to compete in National Finals in Las Vegas during the NFR. Today Lucia trains and competes in reining and ranch versatility. 

 In 2020, Andrea started a full time training business mostly starting young horses. She is now directing her focus on developing performance horses and has recently begun showing in Reined Cowhorse. Andrea  strives to give each horse she trains a fair and honest education to mentally and physically prepare them for their future careers. As somebody who has competed in a few colt starting competitions, her goal is to set an example and help other people in this industry find success.