Being a late-comer to the equine world, Jeff Thomas did not have the typical beginning of a horse trainer. Not getting his first horse until he was thirteen years old, Jeff’s goals were to have a backyard pet and trail riding horse. However, it wasn’t long before he became active in competing at local speed shows and learning team roping. It was during his experiences training his own horses for these events that he came to realize he enjoyed teaching horses and wanted to continue to work with them.
Jeff’s training career began when a friend asked him to work with their horse. It was that first horse that really got him pursuing opportunities to keep training horses. Over the next couple summers, Jeff took a few training jobs from people around the local area as well as taking a couple horses that were given to him, putting time on them, and then finding them new homes. Yet he realized that in order to expand his new business venture he needed a formal education. In the summer of 2009, Jeff enrolled in the Apprenticeship Program of trainer/clinician Ken McNabb.
After 3 weeks of intense training and instruction on the Powderhorn Ranch in Douglas, Wyoming, Jeff came back home having completed the Apprentice Level, or first level, of Ken’s Apprenticeship Program. Jeff has taken what he learned from his own experiences, and from his time learning from McNabb, and built a small horse training business.
In 2012 jeff’s teaching career took him to north dakota where he lived on a local ranch and helped his landlord with cowboy work around his school schedule. on returning to michigan jeff returned to competing as a team roper. in 2018 he was able to move back home to the alpena, michigan area where he met his wife lauren. herself an accomplished endurance racer and distance trail rider, lauren has completed the michigan shore to shore ride three times. together they combined their experiences to grow jeff’s horse training business into north shore horsemanship.
Horsemanship for Every Day, Excellence for a Lifetime. 