When Tammy Conroy returned to showing horses after a long hiatus to finish college and start a family, she could not get over the changes in the industry.

“When I left we showed to one judge and all the classes were held the same day,” she said. “In Showmanship, competitors had to stand in the pen the whole class and there were way fewer divisions.  When I returned, I had no idea what Novice was let alone Split-Combined shows.”

It was her husband, Mike, who encouraged Tammy to rekindle her love for horses.

Tammy met Mike in 2005 and they were married in 2007. It didn’t take him long to realize Tammy really missed horses.

“Mike was a city boy and knew nothing about country life, which has resulted in many funny stories,” Tammy said. “He moved to the country and became the best step-dad to my two daughters, Coley and Carley. When we met and first got together, Mike only heard of horses and knew absolutely nothing about them – he sure has learned a lot since then.”

After a lot of encouragement from Mike, Tammy finally responded to a few sale ads she spotted on Facebook. Since she had no horse pictures on the Facebook page she set up to keep an eye on her daughters, a few thought she was a tire kicker and brushed her off with either a short or no response back.

“I got one response back and scheduled an appointment to try a horse,” Tammy recalled. “I called Mike, told him I was going to look at a horse and asked if he wanted to come along.”

He did and that’s when Tammy purchased Sweet Ones Only (Barbie), a 2010 bay mare, by Hot Ones Only and out of Sweet Detail, to ride in Novice Amateur and 3-Year-Old Non-Pro Hunter Under Saddle classes.

Later that year Carley caught the horse bug and started riding and showing alongside her mother. Since then, they both have owned and shown several horses, primarily in Hunter Under Saddle, Western Pleasure and Horsemanship.

For the next few years Tammy enjoyed showing with Carley and she turned her attention toward Western Pleasure with Hot Jamaican Cowboy, a flashy chestnut gelding by A Good Machine and out of Jamaica Me So Hot. In 2016 Carley was headed off to college. Tammy was losing her barn buddy and feeling frustrated. That’s when Mike encouraged her to seek the help of Ohio trainer Brian Cox. Under his guidance, she started showing KM Best N Slow, a bay gelding by RL Best Of Sudden out of Slow N Sweet; Metamorphic, a 2016 red roan gelding by The Rock and out of Vitals are Good, in what is her favorite class – the 3-Year-Old Non-Pro Western Pleasure; and then Lope With The Motion, a 2016 bay mare by Lazy Loper out of Motion To Continue.

In 2021 Tammy was looking forward to returning to competition in the 3-Year-Old Non-Pro Western Pleasure with her new prospect HP Only A Dream (Ella), a 2018 bay mare by A Dream Remembered and out of HP Only The Best. That’s when tragedy struck.

“We noticed differences in her movement and demeanor while at The Sudden Impulse Futurity,” Conroy explained.

“After a quick assessment from our vet at the show, she recommended we take Ella to Rood and Riddle for further evaluation.”

Ella was diagnosed with a severe case of wobbles and it was recommended she be humanely euthanized. Conroy was crushed.

“I still haven’t recovered from that decision,” she said. “Ella was such a sweet kind soul that it just did not make any sense.”

Luckily she still had Lopin With The Motion to show the rest of the year. Later that fall, Conroy told Cox that he probably should start looking for Ella’s replacement and he found that in Doubting Im Good, a 2019 sorrel gelding by No Doubt Im Lazy out of Get Down Version.

Doubting Im Good made his show debut by placing fourth with Cox in the Virginia Maiden 3-Year-Old & Over Western Pleasure this past March. A day later Conroy got her turn, winning the 3-Year-Old Non-Pro Western Pleasure at the Virginia Spring Breakout under all three judges. She’s looking forward to showing in 3-Year-Old Non-Pro classes throughout the year.

Conroy earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Pharmacy from University of Pittsburgh School of Pharmacy and she is a Consultant Pharmacist for Diamond Drug, the largest correctional closed door pharmacy in the country.

“It is my job to start up, manage, and maintain correctional contracts,” she explained. “This includes traveling to conduct facility inspections to help maintain compliance with state Boards of Pharmacy, DEA regulations, and correctional accreditations.”

In the fall of 2018 Tammy and Mike bought 30 acres of land in Butler, Pennsylvania and moved to the land in March 2019, living in their fifth wheel toy hauler with their three dogs while they built a house.

“We built a version of a barndominium – a metal structure with a big garage attached to a house. An Amish crew erected the structure and put the metal on the exterior,” she explained. “After that, we were completely hands on with the remainder of the build from excavating, plumbing, installing in-floor heating, framing, all the way to the finishes.”

The interior of the house resembles the vendor village at the World Equestrian Center in Wilmington with little houses being the bedrooms and bathrooms.

“My husband has past experience in construction and is an electrical contractor so we were not completely in the dark,” Tammy said. “He said sketch your idea out on a piece of paper and that is what he used as a blueprint.”

Mike and Tammy are also part owners of Right Electric in Butler, Pennsylvania, where Mike is a very involved estimator and project manager.

Amateur Profiles are part of InStride Edition’s editorial content. If you know someone who would make a good subject for an amateur  profile email Corrine Borton, Editor, at: CorrineBorton@InStrideEdition.com.