EVANSVILLE — Dispelling the faux cowboy culture people learn from watching too many B movie Westerns boils down to a couple of sentences.
Evansville’s C Bracket Horse Barn owner Christy Martinez has the years in the saddle to dispel them.
“It’s not all just giddy-up and go,” she said. “Being a cowboy is a lot more slow work than fast work. Cowboys spend a lot of time at a trot. It’s not just hop on and ‘yee-haw’ and gallop off into the sunset.”
Martinez should know. She and husband, Scott, along with their three sons, run a horse riding and boarding operation on 200 acres. This is their 10th year in business. The horse barn offers horsemanship lessons to all levels of riders as well as specialty clinics on various equine activities.
“We started out as mainly a boarding facility, but it’s really turned into teaching kids about horses,” Christy Martinez said. “We (also) have quite a few adults that come, retired couples who come, as well as people who had horses when they were younger and got out of them and are looking to get back in. We have quite a few of that crowd now as well.”
Horsemanship Paradise
The horse barn offers weekly group horsemanship classes for beginner, intermediate, and adult levels. It also offers cattle classes. A herd of cattle just outside the barn allows participants to practice roping, sorting, and herding. There are private lessons available, too.
And there are weekend clinics. Martinez said one scheduled for the end of June will bring a trainer who can help horse owners solve issues with their animals and teach them how to diagnose a behavior in the horse and solve it. In July, an expert on mountain packing, who has worked for the U.S. Forest Service, will do a weekend of teaching about mountain riding and packing.
Martinez estimates more than 500 people annually take advantage of their offerings.
“We get a lot of people in here who were born and raised in Wyoming, and they’ve never been on a horse," she said. "They will end up out here at the barn and we will be able to give them that experience. Sometimes they just want to check it off their bucket list and sometimes they really want to learn all the things and end up riding with us for years. So, we kind of get the range of people.”
This summer the C Bracket, which boasts an indoor riding arena, has launched another series of summer day camps for kids. Martinez said it consists of eight weekly camps that teach the basics of horsemanship.
Campers learn about tack, equipment, and how to be safe, in addition to the skills associated with horsemanship.
“There is so much to it. It’s one of those things that the more you learn, the more you don’t know. That’s true for me as well as these kids,” she said. “When we start diving a little deeper, besides just how to hang on, they start learning some of that next level stuff. Partnering with the horse, being kind to the horse, and learning how to talk to your horse without being rough on him and everything that goes along with that.”
Junior Wranglers
To put on the camp, C Bracket Horse Barn brings in junior wranglers to assist with rider safety, horse care, and other activities. Martinez said the wrangers are junior high-age to high-school age riders who have gone through the barn’s program and been given an opportunity to put their knowledge to work.
“So they are my extra hands and we can put on these day camps, safely, because we have enough of these knowledgeable helpers to go around,” she said. “The junior wranglers have the opportunity to stay overnight all week if they want to. They help me and I give them all the horse time they can stand.”
One of the wranglers, Victor Randoph, 15, said he enjoys his wrangler role. He said he likes how the horses are so big, yet “docile and every little thing they are fascinated by.”
“I get to hang out with horses and I enjoy it,” he said. “I still learn quite a bit while I do it with Christy.”
Hannah Corkery, 14, said she enjoys helping riders progress and overcome struggles or fears.
“I just love being able to see somebody that might not be as confident as they want to be and be able to work with them and find what the sole source of that being scared is and being able to turn it into them being able to have that freeing feeling of just being with the horse,” she said.
Junior wrangler Hannah Corkery brushes down one of the 50 horses at the C Bracket Horse Barn. (Dale Killingbeck, Cowboy State Daily) 
Saddles and blankets are stowed away waiting for the next group of riders and use. (Dale Killingbeck, Cowboy State Daily) 
Rows of tack in the horse barn are labeled for all the horses who are part of the riding operation. (Dale Killingbeck, Cowboy State Daily) 
Inside the horse barn are several stalls for horses as well as rooms for tack and equipment. (Dale Killingbeck, Cowboy State Daily)
Arriving With Horse
Martinez arrived in Wyoming after growing up in Iowa on a farm. When she moved here after college, she brought her horse. She was trying to meet other horse people and find places to ride.
“I started making friends with people who had places to go ride and that’s how I met my husband, Scott," she said. "He was living on a ranch and I started going off and riding with him. And then when we moved out here in 2014, we started collecting these good lesson-type horses. Most of them are either retired ranch horses or retired dude ranch horses, like guest-ranch horses. They come to us to be in their semi-retirement. They are ready to slow down a little bit, but they are not done yet. “
The facility has about 50 horses, for different levels of students and perfect for teaching riders the finer points of relating to a horse. Martinez said each horse has its own personality and she has gotten to know them all.
“You know who they are, what they do best, what they don’t like to do, their favorite things, what some of their special needs are,” she said. “One of the best parts about this job is matching students with horses and figuring out what a student needs and what horse will help them build their skills, safely.”
For example, Martinez said after a beginner student has been at the barn for a few weeks and is starting to build riding skills with a horse walking and trotting, she will take them to the next level called “loping.”
“I will the pick the horse that is going to be really solid to introduce them to the lope,” she said. “Or, I have some horses that are not super cooperative. So, for some of my more advanced students, I like to put them on something that will challenge them so that if they ever encounter a horse in the future that isn’t as well trained, they will have the tools to fix it.”
Cattle at the C Bracket Horse Barn are available for training wannabe cowboys and cowgirls on roping, sorting, and herding. (Dale Killingbeck, Cowboy State Daily) 
Rules for C Bracket Horse Barn conduct are posted outside the barn and indoor arena. (Dale Killingbeck, Cowboy State Daily) 
The entrance to the C Bracket Horse Barn located northeast of Evansville, Wyoming. The barn offers all levels of riders horsemanship education. (Dale Killingbeck, Cowboy State Daily) 
The C Bracket Horse Barn installed an indoor arena two years ago to allow riders to enjoy time with their horses in all seasons of weather. (Dale Killingbeck, Cowboy State Daily)
A Lot Of Hay
The ranch does not grow its own hay. It needs about eight semitrailer loads of quality hay to feed the horses and cows over the winter. Professionals and suppliers from the area are an important component of the operation, including hay growers, farrier, veterinarian, and a grain elevator in Torrington that mixes special feeds.
In the age of AI, electric cars, and social media, Martinez says horses still hold their own in the hearts and fascination of residents and visitors to the state.
“I think especially in Wyoming, it’s kind of the romantic notion of the West,” she said. “I’m finding we are getting so many people moving in from out of state that whenever a family moves in from elsewhere, they want to put their kids in riding lessons. They think, ‘Oh, we’re in Wyoming, we need to learn how to ride horses now.’”
Martinez also believes horses are a draw because “of the mystery of the bond and communication that you can have with a horse.”
“It’s really pretty fascinating, pretty bottomless, too. Even now, I go to every clinic and learn everything I can,” she said. “You can learn something from everybody. So, I just try to hit a bunch of different trainers and if I see an opportunity to do something new, I go and try and check it out to pick up something new. Then, I can pick it up, turn it around and share it with my students as well.”
A Favorite Horse
Martinez shared that her favorite horse is a 7-year-old named “Rubble” from a character in “Paw Patrol” that the family watched when her children were younger.
“We got him when he was a weanling, so everything he knows, good or bad, is my fault,” she said. “But he’s really nice, now. I do everything with him, we did skijoring this last winter, we run flags at the rodeos in town, we gather cows, we rope, we lead trail rides. He is just my everything horse. He has been in parades. He is the one I go get if I need a good one.”
Dale Killingbeck can be reached at dale@cowboystatedaily.com.
