Gary Mittleider

Gary Mittleider is an ICP Level 3 Certified instructor with over 30 years of eventing, training and coaching experience. He has won numerous year-end awards at the regional and national level as a rider and has coached riders through the Advanced level of eventing.

Throughout the years, Gary Mittleider has had quite an extensive history with horses. Originally, he was a cowboy at the Mackay Bar ranch in central Idaho along the rustic Salmon River. This ranch provided guides for hunting, trail riding and fly-fishing. In the late 1970’s, Gary started to recognize there was quite a growing market for training and selling young race horses. He left his dude ranch life behind and began training young thoroughbreds at the track in 1977.

Eventually, Gary and his wife Brenda decided to start their own business by purchasing a ten-acre property in Kuna, Idaho in the fall of 1980. It’s hard to believe now, but when they first bought the property it was nothing but 10 acres of tumbleweeds and badger holes. All of the current barns, fencing, and infrastructures have been built throughout the last 40 years, including an additional 10 acres that were purchased and added to the farm. The first thing Gary built was was a small red bard, with 12 X 12 box stalls for the horses and of course a small racetrack. Then, they began to build their house, and a small outdoor arena— which was about ½ size of the current arena. Eventually, Gary took a liking to jumping and eventing. During the early times of his eventing career, Gary also worked at a saddle shop making quality custom Western saddles.

As Gary began shifting his interest from the racetrack to jumping, he felt his strength was always galloping cross country. His early mentors Bob Mc Donald, Gene Louis and Ernest Herrmann all influenced his riding and teaching style. During the 1980’s and through the 1990’s Gary started not hundreds— but over a thousand horses! Yes, you could say he’s an expert in that area.