Looney Quarter Horses, located in Jackson, Tennessee, has announced the appointment of Amanda Jackson and Mark Katafiaz as the operation’s in-house trainers.

Lee and Dr. Brenda Looney, long-time breeders of top AQHA, APHA and NSBA performance horses, have been in the process of building a brand new, 150-by-250-foot state of the art facility, complete with 18 stalls, and a 150-by-150-foot indoor riding arena under one roof on their 100-acre property 70 miles east of Memphis, which also includes a seven-stall barn and over 15,000 feet of Wind River four-rail HDPE fence. Now they want to have trainers available to oversee the care and training of the 36 head of horses, housed at the farm.

Over the past decade, Looney Quarter Horses owns or has owned such highly-decorated show horses as:

• Faith Is Certain, 2014 chestnut AQHA/APHA gelding by Pleasure For Certain out of Always Good Faith. He is a two-time APHA World Champion, NSBA World Champion and he won all four of the Limited Horse Limited Rider Series of the Premier Quarter Sires and Premier Paint Sires classes in 2017.
• Cool Breeze, 2015 sorrel stallion by No Doubt Im Lazy and out of Zippin The Breeze, sixth, 2018 Quarter Horse Congress 3-Year-Old Open Western Pleasure; 2018 Premier Quarter Sires 3-Year-Old Open Western Pleasure Champion at the Big A Circuit,
• Geeze What A Breeze, 2015 bay mare by Lazy Loper and out of Zippin The Breeze, fifth place, 2018 Quarter Horse Congress 3-Year-Old & Over $2,500 Novice Horse Open Western Pleasure.
• Lazyboy, 2014 bay gelding by Lazy Loper and out of Mckay’s Elegant Chip. Reserve Champion in the 2-Year-Old Breeders Championship Futurity 2-Year-Old Limited Non-Pro Western Pleasure at the National Snaffle Bit Association’s World Show. He has gone on to be a force to be reckoned with in the Trail pen with Jennifer Paul, winning the Madness 4 & Over Trail Slot and claimed a NSBA BCF Championship in 4 & 5-Year-Old Open Trail.
• Life Is A Breeze, 2012 mare by Invitation Only and out of Zippin The Breeze.
• Iron Mead, 2016 bay gelding by Iron Enterprise and out of Natural Mead.
• Its Always Sumthin, 2015 sorrel mare by Allocate Your Assets and out of Lukes Orchid.

“We have more than 10 horses just this year that will start their initial training and when we started talking to friends they started telling us that we needed to start looking seriously at bringing in our own trainer,” said Lee Looney.

Jackson is originally from Florida has worked for John Dean, Scot and Stephanie Kyle, Wayne Davis, Cole Baker and Stanley and Susan Scott. In 2009 she was the NSBA Intermediate Rider of the Year. She has won 2-year-old, 3-year-old and maturity Western Pleasure classes at major futurities like the Tom Powers, Southern Belle, and Reichert. Katafiaz grew up in Florida and has worked for Shorty Parks, Doug Rath, Tom Robertson and Christa Baldwin. He has won and received top 10s at most of the major futurities and has coached numerous youth competitors to wins and high points at the Paint Congress and at all the major futurities. Recently, they have been training professionally in Ocala, Florida.

The Looneys said were especially impressed with Amanda’s work ethic as well as her ability to get a horse prepared and shown.

“Brenda knew that she showed Western Pleasure and Hunter Under Saddle and that is the root of our program,” Lee Looney explained. “Mark brings a brand, new aspect to our program with his expertise in Trail and Western Riding.”

After conversations with Katafiasz and Jackson…the Looneys knew it would be a perfect fit.

“They have the same goals and values that we hold dear to us.,” Lee Looney said. “We are very excited to have them here and looking forward to see what the future hold for our program.

With broodmares like Only A Summer Breeze, Life Is A Breeze and Natural Mead, along with several other Congress and World Champion producing broodmares the Looneys are raising performance horses that will have long careers ahead of them for years to come.

“With the horse that we have bred and raised, such as Lazyboy and Faith Is Certain excelling in Trail and Western Pleasure, this was a no brainer for us,” Lee Looney said, “especially with the horses we have coming up such as Lazyboy and Faith is Certain full siblings next year.”

Amanda Jackson said she and Mark are very excited about the new venture.

“We decided to move there because both Brenda and Lee are very passionate about their horses and business,” she explained. “They have a great set of mares that they are breeding which has resulted in some very nice horses. We like to do everything from breaking the 2-year-olds to teaching the Trail and Western Riding so it just seemed like a good fit.

She also said the new facility was a big draw.

“Lee is building a beautiful barn and indoor so how can you not be excited to work out of a brand, new place,” she said.

Mark and Amanda will make the move to Tennessee Dec. 15 and after the first of the year all of Lee and Brenda’s show horses will return to the facility.