Rick Schmitt started training horses at the age of fourteen. He had read the cowboy ways of training, watched westerns and couldn't believe a cowboy would allow himself to get shot because he wouldn't be able to ride his horse anymore! Rick had gone along with Suzette to quite a few shows but never understood what the trainers were doing with their horses. When Suzette started to learn "natural horsemanship" with her horse Safarr, Rick finally found a training method that made sense to him. Rick has a gift fo understanding how horses learn. The methods he's developed over the past few years have evolved from "natural horsemanship" to Smart Horsemanship (see explanation on "Training Philosphies" page).

Rick specializes in starting horses under saddle, fixing problem horses and, along with Suzette, helping the show horses be the best they can be. He only round pens horses starting under saddle and extremely difficult horses, otherwise it's ground work and riding. His goal is to have a thinking, responsive, soft horse - the goal for all the Smart Start horses in training. He has developed training exercises to help horses learn to think from the moment he is connected to them, whether in the round pen, at the end of a lead or under saddle. Horses started by Rick have the thinking and reasoning mentality of upper level dressage horses by the end of the first week. The rest is just developing the brain even more to override the natural flight instinct, practicing the movements and life skills the horse needs to keep humans and horses safe and strenghtening the muscles to carry through the movements we want from the horse.