The bull rider turned horse trainer turned mentor.

No matter what the Miami born Jason English is doing, you can be certain it involves animals. The only child of Audrey and Craig English, Jason was born Feb. 25, 1974 and was introduced to horses at an early age.

“He just had them as pets basically,” English says of his father. “And I don’t really know how we got into showing, but we did.”

English was 9 when he began his show career. He started riding with a trainer who went to small local open shows and eventually advanced into the Quarter Horse circuit. He continued to show Quarter Horses until college.

English, always the animal enthusiast, decided to study Animal Science at Abraham Baldwin Agriculture College in Tifton, Georgia. While in school, he began a six year professional bull riding career.

“You know, as a kid growing up we’d go to rodeos from time to time and I was just fascinated by the bull riding and always wanted to do it. When I got old enough, I went ahead and did it,” he says of his interest in the sport.

“It’s fun. I enjoyed it. I would do it again if I could, but I’m a little too fat and old now,” he laughs. English says he started to look at long term goals and knew he couldn’t pull off the lifestyle of a bull rider for too much longer. That’s when he shifted gears and entered a training career 15 years ago.

His first assistantship was with Vicki Wood in North Carolina for a year before moving on to Michael Colvin. English worked under his guidance for the next five years before setting out on his own in 2004.

He made a home in Covington, Georgia and never left. His facility spans over 36 acres and includes 22 stalls, a 200-by-200-foot outdoor arena, an 80-by-100-foot covered arena and six turn-out lots.

“One thing that we do and enjoy doing and we’ve gotten pretty good at it is; we try to buy young horses as 2-year-olds and 3-year-olds and we do the major futurities. As they get more mature and broke, we start doing more all-around stuff with them and eventually sell them,” English says of the program he’s developed. “A lot of people either do the maturities or they do the full all-around. I do both.”

Because of his heavy involvement in the Pleasure industry, English has seen the good and the bad when it comes to this class.

“I think that pleasure horses look better than they ever have and there is still so much negative talk,” he comments.

English’s achievement rolodex of horses includes the late Show Diva, a 2001 mare by Good Version and out of Chocolate Zipper by Zips Chocolate Chip.

“I had her as a young horse, as a 4-year-old and won a lot of maturities with her,” he recalls.

He and After Midnite, a 2008 gelding by RL Best Of Sudden and out of Sweet Talkin Jeanie, were the National Snaffle Bit Association World Champions in the Maturity Intermediate Open Western Pleasure in 2012. At the 2013 Quarter Horse Congress, they placed third in the $10,000 Limited Horse Maturity.

Dreamin Of A Zippo, a 2008 gelding by Hotroddin Zippo, and English entered and won the limited and open divisions of the Breeders 2-Year-Old class at the Tom Powers Futurity. He walked away with almost $19,000 in earnings.

In 2013, one of English’s clients, Sunni Chernega, was the Congress Champion in the Novice Amateur Horsemanship and Equitation on Nearly Chocolate by Huntin For Chocolate and full brother to another one of English’s successes, Mostly Chocolate, 2007 Amateur World Champion in Horsemanship. English also rode Mostly Chocolate to a Reserve Congress Championship in the Junior Trail.

English also takes pride in the accomplishments of his clients and his assistant trainer Alyssa Casa. With Casa in the irons, Cowboysainteasytoluv, (by Willy Be Invited) owned by Michael & Justine Tidwell, won the Junior Hunter Under Saddle at the 2013 Palomino World Show.

Casa first met English during the summer of 2010 when, as a student at Findlay University, she went to work for him. In August of 2012, the 23-year-old left school to work for English full time. “He gives me kind of a loose rein,” she explains. “I’ve learned a lot about every aspect (of the business) and how to train horses.”

When asked what English is like as a mentor, she laughs and says, “I don’t even know where to start, I’ve learned a lot. He’s always willing to help.”

English is a member of Team Wrangler, is an American Quarter Horse Association Professional Horseman and a NSBA judge. When he’s not showing or training, he’s hunting, fishing or spending time with his three labradors, Snapper, Tory and Brutus.

Through English’s 15 years of professional experience, he’s learned a lot, but says one of his most important life lessons is, “Always be 100 percent honest, even if it makes the customer mad.”

To contact English call (404) 431-2697 or visit www.jenglishshowhorses.com