For the last three years Mike Kevil has had one of the best seats in the house as a Road to the Horse judge, but this year Kevil enters the ring as a competitor.

As a child Mike rode horses for leisure, and it wasn’t until his high school years that this pastime took a new direction. He headed to Colorado where he worked, and developed what he calls the “foundation of his training.” Riding and handling a variety of horses showed Mike that nothing compares to a hands-on experience. He began working with Gene LaCroix, an Arabian horse trainer, who refined his fundamentals further, teaching Mike about timing and feel, softness and pressure and giving a reason to everything you do.

For 35 years Mike has developed his own training practices that include patience, consistency and understanding the horse. Before the modern day term “Horse Whisperer” Mike was a master of this art. Today, he has numerous horses in his training program and a full waiting list. Although he admits that he does not get hung up on terms such as “Horse Whisperer,” he continually strives to become a “good hand.” “There is natural horsemanship in traditional training and traditional training in natural horsemanship,” Mike said.

As the noted author of “Starting Colts, a Western Horseman Book” and its DVD counterparts, “Starting Colts” volumes one and two, Mike is also the host of the new RFD-TV’s “Equine You Asked For It,” a show that combines viewers’ requests and suggestions with human interest stories.

Mike owns and operates his own facility in Cave Creek, Arizona. For more information visit www.startingcolts.com.