Have you ever wondered where certain horse show couples met? It’s always inspirational to learn and watch from life partners who seem to love and respect each other. We decided to ask some of them their story – many of them touching and funny.
In the first part of this series, we talked to couples who met through horses. In part two, we talk to people who met their spouse at a non-horse related venue. Some may have become involved with horses after they met their horse-crazy spouse, but they probably had no idea what they were getting themselves into until it was too late.
Everyone was excited to share their marriage journey, so sit back and enjoy these fun and fabulous stories of love in our industry.
Lauren Stanley – When Micah and I first met, I was volunteering at a fundraising event for our local Farm Bureau. I was the bartender for the evening and Micah and his friends happened to need some beverages. Micah was in charge of getting the drinks but I later found out it was because he was hoping to talk to me. Somewhere in our conversation (I assumed we were talking about horses because that’s all I think about ha!) I told him that I had a “three year old named Petey.”
To all of us horse gals, that’s totally normal, but to a non-horse guy, that was a major red flag. He thought I had an actual child. The whole night he kept asking about kids and I had no idea why. At the end of the night, he asked me if my parents were good baby sitters. I looked at him as if he were crazy. He then said, “Well who is watching Petey?” I started laughing uncontrollably and then had to explain that Petey was my three-year-old futurity horse and that no, I did not have a child. He was relieved to learn that and we exchanged numbers.
Unfortunately, Micah had a silly “three day rule” where he wouldn’t text a girl after a date until three days later. I assumed he wasn’t interested and moved on with my life. We saw each other a few times over the course of two years before I finally said enough was enough. I asked him out on a date and no I didn’t wait three days before calling him again. We got married less than a year later.
Cathy Corrigan Frank – We met in an AOL chatroom around Christmas of 1996. He was in Ohio visiting family for Christmas, and we met in person April 19, 1997. He lived not far from me which was actually quite scary because my son, Kevin was nine at the time, and I’d heard horror stories about creepers/stalkers meeting their victims under false pretenses. We married Dec. 18, 1999. I knew a lot about him before we actually met…except what he looked like. We had never exchanged pictures so we were both flying blind on our first date. He is also eleven years younger. Not a big deal now, but at the time, I was 38 and he was 27. It was weird to say the least. But my mom loved him and that was good enough for me. He only got to spend about eight months with her before she died so her opinion of him was important to me.
Brad Jewett – Monica and I attended our last two years of high school together and graduated 1989. Looking back, we realize that we had a mutual ‘crush’ on one another during our senior year and even went on a few dates to some school functions before we graduated. After graduation, we went our separate ways to seek our paths in life. After 23 years of creating our businesses and a series of major life changes (both good and challenging), we were reconnected through a horse that Monica invested in and started getting to know one another again. As we became friends and spent time together, both with the horses and separately, we discovered there was still a spark and interest in one another that was deeper than just friends. Being in our early 40’s, having the same faith, values and both having an understanding of what we wanted for our futures, it wasn’t long before I decided I had to ask Monica to marry me and she said ‘Yes’! Since neither of us have been blessed with children, one of our most celebrated blessings together has been the privilege to help raise and provide a young lady (who is now 15 years old) with a better education and unique opportunities that our lifestyles offer; such as travel and fun experiences she wouldn’t have otherwise. Most recently, we purchased our first home together and just celebrated our sixth year of marriage.
Sarah Elder Chabot – Andy and I worked together for a few years. I always had a motto “never meet your honey where you make your money” as it just seems to complicate life. But after a huge event, some really expensive wine and a touch of moonshine, I dropped my motto. We started dating under the radar for several months. Eleven years later, we still work together, support each other and love each other. He took riding lessons so he could understand and is the best horse show husband. He can fix anything on the trailer, takes down braids, makes sure I have the right beverage and videos. He will stay up all night with me for schooling or with the vet and is overall my best support person.
Meg DePalma-Whelan – I picked my husband, Glenn up in a bar in 2008. Haha. I was out with friends and so was he. It wasn’t until closer to the end of the night when one of my girl friends asked if I had spotted any “hot guys.” I pointed my head in the direction of the tall guy, with the light eyes wearing a backwards NY Yankee hat. She then blew up my spot…she walked over to Glenn and told him I thought he was hot. Next thing you know, he and I left the bar for late night breakfast at the diner and the rest is history.
Beth Case – Haha well, I was 18 and I met him at a bar in California. I was out with two of my friends and they were staying at my place. They had met guys and asked me if it was okay if they brought them back to my place, I said sure. But then I was like, if y’all are bringing guys back to my place, then I am too, so I looked around the bar and found Kevin. We had danced a couple times earlier that night. I asked him if he wanted to come over and he said sure. We hung out all weekend and were married about seven months later. He had to ask me a few times because I kept telling him we were too young, but I gave in and now we’ve been married almost 18 years.
Caroline Rogers – Brian and I had always been a part of the same group of friends from college, but had never really hung out together. By coincidence, we ended up at the Dixie Chicken (legendary hangout at Texas A&M) at the same table and spent most of the evening chatting. The next day, I get a call from one of our mutual friends. Several of them were getting together for dinner to celebrate Brian getting a position at Stephen F. Austin as an Animal Science professor. We ended up sitting together (possibly intentional by our friends) and before dinner was over, I decided that I needed to buy his meal since it was his celebration. You can say that was the official beginning of it all.
Brian knew pretty quickly that he wanted to be more serious. I was a little slower to the party. He chose to live in College Station, while teaching in Nacogdoches, 304 miles round trip, for a year so he could be closer to me. Finally, about six months in, I realized that we might be serious.
Fast forward seven years later and he has learned about horses, I have learned A LOT about cows, and we have built our business, BCR Ventures, raising and selling purebred Red Angus and Angus cattle and genetics all over the world.
Brian Isbell Garcia – Kevin and I met almost 26 years ago on a Friday night. He was actually on a date with a friend of mine. We chatted all night long, met the next morning and went and stood in line for six hours to purchase tickets to a Garth Brooks concert. We learned a lot about each other during that time. We went to dinner on Monday, and he spent the night. We’ve been together ever since, so I guess you could say we were immediately smitten. This world is full of uncertainties, but one thing I know for sure is he’s my one and only, and there’s no doubt we’ll grow old together.
Beckie Peskin – Well, my hubby is 0.0 horsey. He never even owned a pet before we lived together. We met at a veterinary convention in Ohio when I was a rep and he was working for the ad agency that my company used. I was very anti-dating at the time, but felt bad because I didn’t think he knew anyone there, so I invited him to dinner with one of my clients. Long story short – we ended up talking college basketball after dinner and just hit it off. Kind of boring…but he was just a nice guy. Up to that point, I had dated a string of real not so nice guys.
Anne Wilson – My husband John tells everyone that “he picked me up in an airport bar.” Actually, we met in November of 1980 during my senior year in college when I traveled from Notre Dame to Dallas to interview with the then Big 8 accounting firms. He was the staff person assigned to pick me up at the airport – back when you could meet someone at the gate (not the bar). We did get together four times when I was in town for interviews. He later told me that the firm did not tell him to take me to dinner the fourth time, so I guess you could say we got along quite well. Sixteen months after I moved to Dallas, we were married.
Kari Craft – Mitch and I met in Orange Beach, Alabama. The weekend we met, I was in a deep-sea fishing tournament and caught a 196 pound yellowfin tuna that I had fought for five hours straight on a stand-up 50 wide. Mitch owned a scuba diving shop at the time and his boat was parked stern to stern with my Dad’s fishing boat at the marina. The captain of my dad’s boat called me to come to the marina that day we were heading out to sea for the fishing tournament for three days, so my sister and I drove our little boat over and there was Mitch. He was so cute and totally my type of guy. We talked in the back of the boat for a long time and at the weigh-in, three days later after we came back to shore, he came to see the tuna I had caught. I had won the tournament for that division, and he must have been impressed because the rest is history. We married a year later and then had our son. We’ve been married nine years in November and Orange Beach will be a special place in our hearts forever.
Brittany Morgan – I met my husband at a venue in our little hometown called the Stockmans club. He was in the bar at a birthday party, and I was at a baby shower outside on the patio. My dad was at the birthday party and my mom was at the shower with me. My dad and now husband, Wheeler, met in the men’s room and my husband turned on the sink for my dad. They maybe said a total of five words to each other. My dad found my mom and asked what she knew about Wheeler Morgan, she said “nothing really but I will find out, why?” My dad replied “Brittany and him need to meet.” So pretty much all night, my mom was stalking Wheeler and sending me into the bar to get drinks hoping we would run into each other. Well we finally did. It was love at first sight, but of course, I had to play hard to get. By the second date though, I caved. We got engaged nine months later.
Kelly Kay Elvrum Johnrud – Nolan and I were introduced on a blind date that neither one of us wanted to go on. A mutual friend of ours brought it up continuously over the course of about eight months. We both finally agreed to meet out of respect for her and really just to get it over with. We made our friend and her husband join us at the dinner so it wouldn’t be so awkward. The rest is history. We will celebrate our ten year wedding anniversary this June.
We both grew up in North Dakota. He grew up on a big cattle ranch and had roping and ranch horses. I grew up with show horses. Even though we both had horses, we still didn’t really expect to feel like we had much in common. He lived a few hours away from me at that time. We were pleasantly surprised when we finally met at how well we clicked. We dated a year and then were engaged for a year before getting married.
Kathy Tobin – We met at a party at the American Graduate School of International Management (aka Thunderbird) at a party for the Portuguese Ambassador to the US. My grandmother, who was on the Board of the school, picked Jerry out of the crowd, put him through the third degree, then pointed me out, and Jerry said he had noticed me and thought I was lovely. She said don’t tell me, go tell her and thank Heavens he did. We met on a Friday the 13th, got engaged five months later on the next Friday the 13th. Just a year later from our first date, we married on Saturday the 14th because my mom would not let us get married on Friday the 13th. Turns out that Saturday the 14th was Valentine’s Day that year. That was 42 years ago.
Brandy Baldwin Bunting – I prefer to tell people I met my husband, Ken, at church but in reality, we met at a bar. We were both out with friends having fun. Specifically, Ken went out that night to try new shoes that he planned to wear to his sister’s wedding the next weekend to make sure they would be comfortable. He came up to me while I was ordering a drink, introduced himself and the rest is history. I guess I have a silly pair of shoes and fate to thank for almost 13 years of marriage and two amazing kids.
Max Clason Kuzo – I met him as one of the sponsor of my brothers for dirt bikes and my brother told me he was too old for me. FIve years later, he messaged me on Snapchat and then he pursued me for months before I was even nice to him. Then, once we started dating, three months later we were engaged after he drove to meet my dad for the first time and ask him if he could ask me to marry him. He had the flu.
Amy Gumz – At the time that I met my husband, Kevin, I was an engineer at US Steel and one of my employees invited me to see his farm and the wildlife after work. Kevin owned and hunted the farm and claims that he just stumbled upon us. At dinner that night, I asked him if he had a barn and he replied how many do you need? We were married 13 months later.
