The next person in our highly popular, 10 Things You Probably Don’t Know about Me series, is Brenda Gower of Lloydminster, Alberta, Canada. She is largely known as the horse show mom of Cole and Kade Gower, who are currently showing She Made It Happen and Hot Dashin Miss in the Amateur and Youth Trail.
For the past few years, Gower has started getting into the breeding part of the horse industry. She currently has a few prospects with Justin and Julie Voge of Voge Quarter Horses and has several outstanding prospects arriving next year.
Gower also has a foal due this year out of She Made it Happen and by Lazy Loper that she is excited to see born soon at Highpoint Performance Horses.
“Highpoint Performance Horses has also given my family and me the opportunity to own a new, upcoming stallion named VS GoodRide (Boss), taking my involvement with breeding to a whole new level,” Gower states. “I am truly blessed to work with such amazing trainers and breeders to help guide me with this process.”
10 Things You Probably Don’t Know about Brenda
1) My immediate family consists of my husband Tracy of 26 years and three sons; Cole 23 and his wife Samantha, Dane, 20, and his girlfriend, Haley, Kade, 17, and his girlfriend, Julie and my grandson, Beau, who just turned one.
2) I live ten minutes away from my parents in our hometown of Lloydminster, Alberta, Canada where I was born and raised.
3) Tracy and I own an oilfield maintenance company that we started from inception in 2003 and have been building it into a family business the past 15 years. Cole and Dane help manage it today with Kade adding to the mix upon his graduation in 2019.
4) I am an animal lover through and through. I have several horses, a standard donkey, miniature donkey, miniature horse, goats, four rescue cats, three rescue dogs and a purebred German Shepherd. I am no longer allowed to go to our local animal shelter or our rare and exotic sale as I have made one too many calls home to hook up the horse trailer and come pick me up along with several animals.
5) My first job (besides babysitting on the side) was doing janitorial work for a local cattle feedlot. My mom, sister and I worked together cleaning the office twice per week. It definitely wasn’t the easiest job around nor did it smell the best. My mom and dad are very humble people who always taught us that hard work shows the character of a person and it will always pay off in the end.
6) After completing high school, I worked at a local flower shop for five years then pursued a career in advertising. I sold advertising in our local newspaper for over 15 years before retiring from that career to help Tracy run our own company.
7) My first horse was a quarter horse named “Blaze”. My family did not have much money, especially to purchase a horse. I always wanted a horse so badly when I was growing up. My dad did odd jobs on the side of his regular job and one day, my uncle needed help completing some renovations on his house. I always went along to help, mainly because my uncle had horses. I would be outside playing with them all day. When my dad and uncle completed the job at hand, my uncle offered to pay my dad. Of course my dad did not take anything. You always help family…that’s the way it was.
The next Saturday we were all outside doing chores and we heard someone drive in the yard. Here was my uncle with a cattle trailer. We went to go see what he was up to. He was unloading a two year old sorrel colt with a cute blaze (thus where his name came from) and he handed him to my dad. My dad said we couldn’t accept him because my uncle could get a fair dollar if he was sold. My uncle said he wasn’t for my dad, he was a gift for me and that Blaze could not be returned. I was the happiest girl on the planet!
8) Most people who truly know me, know that I would rather spend a day surrounded by my animals at home than doing most anything else. I lead a very quiet life but love being surrounded by my children and grandson. Those are the most important things In the world to me.
9) One of my biggest passions is going to the horse shows. I love watching the horses compete and all the extraordinary riders. It truly is a pleasure to watch. I love seeing my boys compete. We are all truly blessed to be able to compete at the level they do.
10) The most unexpected horse purchase I have ever made was at the end of last year. I was watching a video of a young up and coming stallion. I watched that video at least 100 times. Every time I was watching it, my husband would say, “Are you watching that video again?” I would reply “Yes.” After a few days Tracy said to me, “I have never seen you watch a video that many times, ever.” I said there is just something about him that I can’t leave alone. I think he’s special. Tracy looked at me and all he said was, make the call. I can’t thank Jason Martin and Charlie Cole enough for allowing my family and me to purchase VS GoodRide.
