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Martin has been involved with horses for many years, and has owned several different breeds.  His grandfather had farmed with horses and broke mules for the Army.  Martin, his brothers and cousins sometimes rode the draft horses when visiting grandfather.  He also rode a little with boyhood friends, though he didn't have his own horse.

In high school, cars, girls, and sports were his main interests.  He worked with his dad repairing car engines and building engines for race cars.  Martin became an excellent mechanic, like his dad and his uncle (twin brothers), and worked at various local shops and car dealerships.  He had his own auto repair business for a few years, but returned to working for others.
 
 

Rusty can't remember a time when she didn't love horses.  This completely baffled her parents, since they lived in the city and had never had horses.  She would ride the little horses in the local pony ring as often as she could, which wasn't nearly as often as she would have liked.  When she was in high school she had an opportunity to buy a QH son of Three Bars, but a city backyard was hardly an appropriate place to keep him, and her parents couldn't afford to pay board for a horse.

About the same time, Rusty went to work on weekends at a local riding stable that rented horses by the hour.  After spending time catching, grooming and saddling horses for the "dudes", she was allowed to ride the younger, unproven horses and make sure none of the people renting horses were running them too hard or otherwise getting into trouble.  These were the happiest weekends of her life to that point.  She also helped with the Chuck Wagon Breakfast rides, assisting the owner in preparing a campfire-cooked feast for riders at the midpoint of a morning-long ride.  Sourdough biscuits baked in a cast iron dutch oven, pan-fried bacon, and scrambled eggs never tasted so good!

The summer after graduating from high school, Rusty worked at the local Girl Scout camp, and helped with the horseback riding program.  This was another highlight of her young life.  It would be the last time she would ride for almost a decade.

After college, marriage, getting a job teaching high school Biology, and a little travel, Rusty moved a little way out of town and could finally have a horse.  A History teacher at her school, Bud Adams, heard about her love for horses and invited her and her husband to his place to see his horses.  He and wife Louise had been raising horses for many years, and had some lovely Arabian show horses.  A close friendship developed between the two couples, and Bud helped Rusty find and purchase her first horse, the 9-month old filly named Coyote.

That filly was the foundation of the breeding program that was to become Caballos del Sol. 

After retiring from teaching in 2000, Rusty pursued a long-time dream, becoming a USEF Steward.  That goal was achieved in 2003.  Working at horse shows that were introducing Arabian Sport Horse classes, along with Hunter/Jumper and Dressage classes, Rusty found that Arabian and other breed shows often did not understand all the rules of Dressage.  So she began the long process to obtain a Dressage Technical Delegate license.  That goal was achieved in 2008.  Although her original motivation was to help breed shows run their Dressage divisions, she soon achieved acceptance in the open Dressage community.  A lot of work (and a little good luck) has been rewarded with jobs at some top shows.  To see her resume and a list of shows she has worked at, click here.