story by Michele Toberer
Faith, family, friends and rodeo, are at the heart of Megan and Jason Young’s life. The couple shares a love of horses and they’re happy to spend their days working with prospects and client horses, as Young Performance Horses LLC., preparing them for careers in calf roping, team roping, barrel racing and dressage. The couple found their farm in Grass Lake, Michigan 9 years ago, and they spend many hours in their arena, as their one-year-old son Wyatt excitedly watches on from his play area. “Wyatt loves being at the arena, he’s communicated as much with horses as he has people, he laughs and talks with them. He has truly been a blessing from God and made our whole life fuller,” said Megan. Jason is a full-time carpenter along with training horses.
Megan and Jason grew up in Manchester, Michigan; Megan the youngest of four girls, and Jason grew up as the youngest of 7 children. Starting out as high school sweethearts, Jason didn’t ride horses when they met, but it was evident to him that he’d need to learn, to win Megan’s heart. Megan would sneak out at night, quickly grabbing two horses from the barn, and pony a horse down the road to meet Jason. He passed the test as they spent many nights running horses bareback through the fields. Megan grew up doing everything she could with horses. Megan’s mom had a passion for horses that was behind her daughters’ love for them. Megan took riding lessons and showed horses in many disciplines, ranging from starting cow horses and English horses, to jogging Standardbreds. Megan credits Dressage rider Anne Schmidt Howard with teaching her a lot about horsemanship and riding, and she believes dressage ties in with performance horses. Megan worked for Professor Richard and Lorraine Alexander, who are like family, at their Woodlane Farm where they bred performance horses.
In 2007, Megan and Jason attended friends, Mike Shegan and Garrett Madry’s roping clinic, and were hooked, soon joining the Michigan Roper’s Association. Jason developed a strong interest in calf horses and Megan was running barrels at open shows and MBRA jackpots, so they were ready to join the Mid States Rodeo Association in 2013. In 2014, Jason made it to the MSRA finals, in calf roping, on Freckles Elegance, Freckles Hustler x Ceebar Palo, a bay mare that was bred by Professor Alexander, and trained by Megan and Jason. Megan is now running the same mare in barrels, hoping to make it to the MSRA finals this year. “We really like to make our horses into all-around performers and believe a good broke horse can do several jobs.” Their goal is to get their IPRA cards and make it to the finals on horses they’ve trained.
When looking for calf horses, they look for sensitive, smart horses with some intensity, Megan says “I always feel like it’s a pressure game, and you must be the one to know how much pressure they can handle, they have to have sensitivity but not over-react.” Megan and Jason have sold horses across the United States as well as in Canada, and Megan says they love to see people doing well on them. “It’s nice to see kids winning on horses we’ve started or trained, it makes it all worth it.”
The couple spends as much time as possible with their family and friends, and are very involved in their church, Saint Mary’s, in Manchester. The lessons they learn there, and the faith they have, Megan believes ties perfectly into their rodeo world. “A lot of times when you’re seasoning a new horse or riding a young horse, you never know what you’re going to get, it brings us closer in our walk with God, because we have to have faith that everything is going to go right. Father John Ricardo says, ‘Faith is what you have in the absence of knowledge,’ and It’s so true.” Megan and Jason revel in the beauty of rodeo being such a challenge and believe horses are a true testimony to humility, always teaching something new, another lesson in trusting the work they have put in, and the faith that they live by.
