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This Fireman Has A Flame He Can’t Put Out

Tending Horses Led
Winston’s Jeremy Glenn 
to Become a Horse Trainer

By Don Linker

Jeremy Glenn grew up in Winston County near the town of Double Springs and spent most of his free time exploring the woods in the area on a 4-wheeler. Although his family owned a couple of ponies, horses were never much on his mind. He loved animals but never dreamed of being a horse trainer. Instead he became a volunteer firefighter at the age of eighteen.

In 1997, he became a paramedic and worked for ambulance services in three different counties. The year 2002 brought a career change when Glenn became a fireman for the city of Russellville, but the best thing that happened that year was his marriage to Harmony, the love of his life.

Harmony is an emergency room nurse at a local hospital and has applied to get into veterinarian school at Auburn University. Their dream is for Harmony to become a veterinarian, to practice in Winston County and to raise quality Quarter Horses together.

Harmony’s grandfather had a couple of gaited horses and a pony, which Jeremy helped to feed, but that was all he did with them. In 2003, Harmony’s grandfather died and the horses became Jeremy’s responsibility. One evening as he went to feed them, the stories Harmony’s grandfather had told him about all the wonderful experiences he had with horses came back to him and he wondered what it would be like to ride again. He was hooked and started reading every article he could find about horses, even though he is not an avid reader.

The first horse the couple bought was a Saddlebred which wasn’t trained very well, so they enlisted the help of Walker County’s Huck McCullar to train their horse. Thirty days later, the horse was a willing, well-mannered trail horse and Jeremy’s flame to learn more about this beautiful creature was fanned.

He wanted to know how the training process worked and Huck was kind enough to let him hang around and teach him some things, but he wanted more. The discovery of "Natural Horsemanship" led to attending clinics by Pat Parelli, Clinton Anderson and Van Hargis among others all over the Southeast including the "Road to the Horse" which is a competition between trainers.

"In 2005, 4-Given Farms was established by our first purchase of 36 acres. Still something was missing. I wanted to learn more; to see if it was possible for me to train a horse. After many long hours of trying to figure out how I would go about it, I found a website of a man who was named ‘America’s most trusted horseman.’ John Lyons turned out to be the man whose training I wanted to emulate, but didn’t know how was I going to accomplish this with him in Colorado and me in Alabama. Then I found a John Lyons certified trainer in Alabama, Jason Wildes, who turned out to be a great teacher and a good friend.

I had a horse that needed to be fine tuned, so I called Jason and he came to my farm to work with her. We talked about his training and it was everything I wanted, but couldn’t afford. He mentioned he was starting an apprenticeship program and asked if I was interested; and I thought, here is my chance. I was Jason’s only apprentice and in September 2006, I graduated from Jason’s 5-month program as a Wildes Horsemanship Certified Trainer."

"After graduation, I completed my barn and began training for the public. Thanks to God, my wife, Jason, Huck and others who have made my dream a reality. Now we have 83 acres with a barn and a pasture full of horses. My breed of choice is the Quarter Horse. I am currently starting a breeding program of performance horses with an emphasis in Mr. Gunsmoke, Doc’s Hickory, Doc Bar and Skipper W breeding and hope to add Hancock and Valentine breeding in the near future. The services currently offered are clinics, basic trail training, advanced trail training, trailer loading, colt starting, foal handling and riding lessons. Even though I haven’t been a trainer as long as some of my peers, my methods are proven, tried and tested. I hope that I never quit learning and always keep an open mind and open ears."

Jeremy is a fine young man and a credit to both of his chosen professions. Jeremy is available to do horse fairs, clinics and other equine events and can be reached at 205-272-0033. He is a loyal customer at Winston Farmers Co-op and counts on them to answer any questions he may have pertaining to his operation and to keep plenty of Horizon Champion’s Choice horse feeds available. Employees at Winston Farmers Co-op are proud to have him on their team and to sponsor him in his training efforts and at clinics around Alabama.

Always remember your local Quality Co-ops support the equine industry on a local and state level and are ready and willing to help you with all your equine needs.

Don Linker is an outside salesman for AFC.

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