Lilly Neville and “Jackson” make their television debut on Horse Master with Julie Goodnight January 14, 2009 on RFD-TV. The young rider and her trusted American Quarter Horse gelding steal the show when the eastern girl learns western maneuvers.

Story by Heidi Nyland

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During the taping of Horse Master television show, Lilly had the opportunity to work one-on-one with a well-known trainer and clinician, Julie Goodnight of Poncha Springs, Colorado. The show usually features Julie working with a rider and mount that have a horse training or behavior issue to overcome. For Lilly’s show, the format changed just a bit. Jackson is a perfect gentleman and trusts his young rider to lead him anywhere in any tack. However, Julie knew Jackson had skills that Lilly didn’t know how to ask for. Julie first trained Jackson at her Colorado ranch and remembers his amazing stops and spins. Since moving to an island where American Quarter Horses are a rare breed and few saddles have horns, the reining-trained American Quarter Horse morphed into a classy looking jumper and a hunter. Julie’s television show with Lilly showcases the horse’s versatility and trusting mentality. With help from Julie, Jackson quickly remembered his western roots and patiently taught Lilly how to cue for his performance maneuvers.

Jackson’s on-air demeanor wasn’t a fluke. Lilly’s mom, Rachel Neville, and grandmother, Barbara Paciello, sought a well trained, “solid” horse for Lilly when it was time for her to move up from the pony she started riding at age 6. The family members’ interest in American Quarter Horses and their dedication to continuous learning helped them find Julie then later, Jackson. Read on to find out how one family’s quest for trustable American Quarter Horses led them out West and helped them start a small herd in the East. And through their American Quarter Horse pursuits, the family laid the groundwork for the television shoot on Martha’s Vineyard.

Island Horses

The Neville and Paciello families have been interested in American Quarter Horses for years. Barbara purchased her first one 25 years ago and has been dedicated to stock horses ever since—even though she lives in an area more densely populated with Thoroughbreds and sport horses. “As a breed goes, the American Quarter Horse is steady and quiet—that’s what I want for my family to ride,” Barbara says.

Within Martha’s Vineyard equestrian community, Barbara, Rachel and Lilly are anomalies. The island is home to only 12 American Quarter Horses, according to Barbara.

Rachel says that there’s a big horse community on the island, but points out that nearly everyone rides English. “There aren’t a lot of options for western riding,” she says. “All the teachers teach English riding or dressage. When I started riding as a child, I only rode English. But my mom was the western maverick on the island. I soon started riding like my mom did and found that Western riding suited me best.”

The Nevilles and Paciellos have to travel—by car and ferry—to the mainland to reach many horse events or to find their western tack and riding supplies. The family is dedicated to education and makes an annual 200-mile pilgrimage to Equine Affaire in Springfield, Mass to shop and learn more about their mounts. The three-generation-group first met Julie at the 2005 Equine Affaire.

“Barbara asked me what it would take to have me come to the island to do a clinic,” Julie remembers. “I said it wouldn’t take much—just some beach time. Anytime there’s a beach involved, I’m ready. Barbara was persistent and the next summer, I did a clinic on Martha’s Vineyard. The people there were eager to learn and were appreciative that I would travel to the island. I was happy to go!”

All three Neville-Paciello generations participated during Julie’s 2006 horsemanship clinic. But at the time, Lilly was riding her pony, “Summer,” who squealed and turned her hindquarters toward other horses during the clinic; Rachel was already shopping for a new Quarter Horse. After meeting Julie, the women knew they were ready to step up their horse shopping and looked to Julie for advice.

Rachel was the first to “order” an American Quarter Horse from Julie’s ranch in Colorado. “Julie promised that she’d have horses for sale listed on her web site,” Rachel remembers. “Mom and I checked the site almost every day. Mom printed out information about Sparky and handed it to me with directions to call Julie. We trusted Julie and sent for Sparky,” Rachel says. “I was thrilled to have a great horse and I loved his stand-out buckskin color. It’s fun to have something a little different and to break free from the typical island-horse style.”

Julie says she usually likes to match horses and people in person, but she felt comfortable sending Sparky to the island because she already knew Rachel. “I knew I had the perfect horse for her,” Julie says. “Spark N Good was a 10 year old at the time. He is such a pretty buckskin with a heart of gold.”

With Sparky on the family’s adjoining horse property, Barbara and Rachel were ready to hit the trails together. “It was a dream come true to go riding with my daughter,” Barbara says. “The only thing missing was Lilly—so we had to get a third American Quarter Horse.”

Back at the Ranch

To find the perfect American Quarter Horse for Lilly, the family headed west to visit Julie’s ranch in the summer of 2007. Julie had five well-trained geldings tacked up and waiting for Lilly to ride—but she had a good idea which one she’d pick.

Lilly remembers her first ride on Jackson, “He had a great personality. I rode him in an English and western saddle and he was great to ride in both. I had already ridden English so that was a little more familiar. I rode around in the arena then we went to the pond and I rode him through the pond. We went down a steep hill and opened a gate and a mailbox. I did my first flying lead change on him. I took a break for lunch and to think, but I already knew I wanted Jackson.”

Jackson traveled over 2,000 miles on the 18-wheel horse-transport truck to reach Lilly and Martha’s Vineyard. As soon as he was at home—with white wooden fencing lining his pastures and a beautiful stall in a New England style barn—Lilly tacked him up with her English tack. “We didn’t have a western saddle that would fit Lilly,” Barbara says. With an English rider and new tack, Jackson was suddenly an English horse—and at 15.3 hands, he looked the part. Lilly immediately started taking dressage and hunter lessons at a barn down the road. When her instructor asked if Jackson could jump, Lilly tried a small jump and found that her new horse went over easily.

Julie says Jackson never jumped before, but she isn’t surprised by his willingness to take on a new task. “He trusts that his rider will always take care of him and he’s so eager to please that he’ll do whatever you ask,” she says. “These are the best kind of horses to have but you have to be careful not to betray that trust and ask him to do something he’s not ready for.”

Lilly gained Jackson’s trust by jumping small heights and making sure she did lots of other riding tasks, too. Now, Lilly and Jackson have a mutual trust and the pair is willing to learn any new skill. Barbara and Rachel trust that Lilly is safe on Jackson’s “bomb-proof” back. And Jackson, officially known as AQHA’s Quick Foxie Doc, has the bloodlines to back his stellar willingness and athleticism. He’s a 2001 bay gelding by Sugar Bar Buckaroo and out of Doc Foxie Doc. On his topside, Jackson traces to Hollywood Jac 86 and Easter King—and ultimately to Little Joe 1. On his dam’s side, Doc is the keyword—Doc Egger and Doc’s Lynx link him to Doc Bar and Three Bars.

Show Prep

With her herd of three American Quarter Horses on Martha’s Vineyard, Barbara was eager to invite Julie back for more education. When she heard that Julie was starting a show on RFD-TV, she casually mentioned that Martha’s Vineyard would be a great shoot location and offered her hostess and planning help. Barbara contacted her horse-owning friends on the island and soon found more than enough horses and riders to apply for the show’s six episodes. She also made sure that Lilly filled out an application.

“We thought the television shoot was a great chance for Lilly to ride with Julie—you can’t pass that up,” Rachel says. “We joked though, because Jackson really doesn’t have issues. We talked with Julie about a creative way to let Lilly ride with her and be on the show—even if it broke the show’s usual formula. It was a collaborative idea to have Julie teach Lilly how to ride Jackson in a western saddle and to learn to do the reining maneuvers he was trained to do.”

Lilly and Jackson already had a great bond, but were ready to learn more. What they didn’t know was how much they’d learn about a television production.

Television Time

Each Horse Master shoot lasts three days and is filmed at one scenic horse property with an indoor and multiple outdoor shoot locations. For the Martha’s Vineyard shoot, a permanent crew of five arrived at Kenney Farms to work and play hard. At every shoot, the show’s star (Julie) travels with the producer (Heidi Nyland), the videographer and editor (Steve Schott), the “wardrobe wrangler” (Cheryl Lee) and one of three horse training apprentices who help horses and owners practice when they’re not on camera with Julie. The crew doubles in number on location—with “grips” who volunteer to tack up and groom horses, help gather paperwork, arrange for craft services, and make sure there are always fresh batteries and good lighting. With people swarming and shouting to help the production stay on schedule, the atmosphere can be a little intimidating.

When it was time for Lilly and Jackson’s episode, Julie made sure that Lilly was comfortable with all that was going on. She decided to teach Lilly how to spin with Jackson—a task that many viewers want to know how to do and something that Jackson was good at.

Barbara and Rachel were on hand during the whole shoot—they volunteered to be grips so that they could help and watch every show as it was taped. Barbara was in charge of greeting each rider and horse as soon as they arrived on the property. Rachel was in charge of the horses—making sure all noses were clean and coats were freshly brushed just before camera time.

Rachel also had to prepare her daughter for the shoot. “The camera is a little intimidating,” Rachel says. “I was confident that Lilly would be comfortable riding with Julie and she was comfortable as soon as she was with Jackson. We watched and re-watched the episodes where Julie worked with kids—the episode with Kelsey riding the little palomino American Quarter Horse from the Colorado shoot and the episode with Kenny riding his Compton Junior Posse horse from the California shoot. We save and watch all the episodes so we could watch and think about what the riders were being asked to do.”

Lilly says the whole process was easier than she imagined. “I thought the show would be a lot more stressful, but it was fun and pretty easy,” she says. “I was afraid I’d mess up and say the wrong thing. The riding part was a lot easier than the interview part. The crew told me they could hit delete if I didn’t like what I said or if I messed up, so that took the pressure off.”

Lilly also felt a little more at ease when she found out that even Julie sometimes said the wrong thing. At the end of one take, Julie meant to say “I’ll be glad to see your name in the headlines saying you’ve won at reining shows.” Instead she said she’d see Lilly in the “headlights.” Everyone on the set broke into laughter and Lilly relaxed.

Star of the Show

When it was time for Julie to teach Lilly and Jackson how to spin, Jackson quickly remembered his cues. “I rode him for a few minutes in western tack and in short order he was responding well,” Julie says. “I had to school him a little to let him know that he was going to have to put out a little effort for me, but that didn’t take long. Lilly had been riding him on-contact in a snaffle and I put him back in a curb bit and rode him on a loose rein. Since Lilly had not been asking him to spin, that cue was still intact and all I had to do was encourage him to use his body a little better and move a little faster.”

For the show sequence, Julie rode Jackson and showed Lilly what to do, then had her mount up and taught her to do the same maneuver. “In all my teaching I try to make things as simple as possible and focus on the 2-3 most important things, not 10-15 things you need to do,” Julie says.

Lilly agrees that Julie’s instructions were clear. She learned the maneuver in just a few minutes—and all of it was on camera. “It was easy to understand her teaching,” Lilly says. “She got on and showed me how to do it, then walked me through what to do. I had to keep remembering to put my hands down and let him do what I had already asked.”

Barb saw quick progress in Lilly’s riding. “I saw a big change in her confidence as she asked him to spin—especially by the second shoot day. I thought she learned a lot and got a lot more confident. She trusted Jackson to do the move perfectly.”

Julie sums up Lilly and Jackson’s episode, “Jackson is a star at every thing he does. He was patient and tolerant of all the people working around him. He gave Lilly the confidence she needed to talk on camera. He’s her rock and they have such a special relationship.”

Horse Master with Julie Goodnight

Read on for a behind-the-scenes interview with Julie Goodnight as she talks about Lilly Neville and American Quarter Horse, Jackson, on their debut Horse Master episode.

What don’t most people understand about training horses for TV?

The short time frame we have to work with the horse/rider. That most of the training that is done is seen in the episode. We try to deal with issues that are common to a lot of horse owners, so we are keeping the interest of and helping as many people as we can. Also, it’s important that we only model safe behavior and training techniques because people are definitely going to try it at home on their own and we don’t want them to get into trouble.

How do you prepare people for what it will be like to be on camera?

We try to encourage them to forget about being on TV and just interact with me normally. The hardest part for them is always the interview because that is one on one with the camera. But we always have happy faces behind the camera—nodding and smiling—so they think they are talking to use not the camera. One of the hardest things for some people is to remember that they can talk to me during the taping—they tend to be too quiet and let me do all the talking. We also try to help people have stage awareness and try to face the camera, not stand behind their horse or turn their back. This doesn’t come naturally to most people but by the end of the taping, they’ve usually got it!

What misconceptions do people have about horses and horse people on Martha’s Vineyard?

I think most people wouldn’t think of Martha’s Vineyard as a horsey area. Being an island and a beach-oriented place, you just don’t think of horses right off the bat. Owning horses on Martha’s Vineyard isn’t easy because of the added expense and the travel logistics of getting a horse on and off the island by ferry. But one thing I have found in my career is that horses and horse people are pretty much the same every where I go. Most of the horses and riders on Martha’s Vineyard are English and a lot of Thoroughbreds and Warm bloods. The Paciellos represent the Western riders there and have accumulated a fine selection of Quarter Horses to represent that side of the sport.

What did you think when you saw that Lilly was jumping with Jackson?

My first thought was that he looked like the perfect hunter. My second thought was concern for Jackson. When you have a super willing horse like that, he’ll do whatever you ask of him. Often people start jumping horses without giving them the solid foundation they need to start over fences—teaching them how to control their bodies over small jumps before adding height. Willing horses will jump gladly but if they eventually take a bad jump or hit the fence, it scares them. Without having a good foundation of training, you can totally blow the horse’s confidence. I had a serious discussion about this with Lilly and her mother and we all agreed to slow down on him and give him the time her needs to build a foundation.

Tell us about the Horse Master crew—how many people does it take to make the TV show work?

There are a lot of people behind the scenes without whom the show would be impossible. We have our regular crew at every shoot: Heidi, our Producer who organizes the shoot, plans the shows and keeps us on-task; Steve, our videographer and editor; Cheryl, my wardrobe person whose job it is to make sure I am dressed right and check things like whether or not my zipper is down; then we have a horse person, Lucy, Twyla or Tanya, who help the rider with the practice sessions. We also find several volunteers from the local area, known as ‘grips’, to help with all the little odds and ends that we need with lighting, microphones, horse boogers and the like. It takes a lot of people to make a successful shoot, but all you ever see is me and the rider.

—Julie Goodnight