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Member Spotlight

ACHA CONGRATULATES:  CASSIE BEHRENDS

Cassie Behrends started riding at a young age. Her parents knew she had the horse bug when she cleaned stalls in exchange for lessons at a barn full of pleasure horses at the age of 11. For her 13th birthday she received her first horse, a 16 hand Thoroughbred gelding that she competed with in Dressage and Jumping. At the age of 14 her first job was taking care of 25 horses. If she wasn't in school she was at the barn on a horse.

Cassie moved out on her own at the age of 18, started a full time job and attended college. She worked as a security officer for Bass Enterprises in Ft Worth where she met her husband Brett. They dated for several years, married and had two beautiful children, McKenzie and Alex. She has been very fortunate to be able to be a stay at home mom, while Brett is a Police Officer. They have been married for 17 years.

Cassie stayed in touch with her passion for horses since her Mom always had several horses in the barn close by. She knew it was time to start looking for a new horse several years after her first gelding passed. That's when her family met James and Liz Prater.

Cassie and the Praters quickly became like family. Her brother, (Ry Mosser) broke horses for the Praters and Cassie was always intrigued by the cutting horses. Ry also had a little mare he had ridden for Dr. Hendricks, and that is where Cassie's first cutting horse came from, Playgirl Trixie. Trixie hadn't been under saddle long but Cassie thought buying and training a cutting horse looked like a fun project. After a few ranch cuttings she was hooked.

Cassie recalls going to her first ACHA Championship show in 2015 and sitting in the grandstands thinking, this is amazing! Then in 2016 when the ACHA did a ranch class at the finals, she entered. She will never forget walking out of that herd on her little mare she trained and Cletus Hulling saying "cool pony." Right then she knew she had found a special group to be a part of. That next year she ran and made top 10 in the 1000 on the same little mare. 

2018 started out as a year in which Cassie was determined to learn a lot and have fun. She started out the year on Playgirl Trixie then James let her ride Bearcat Feathers and she really fell in love with cutting. She rode Bearcat until July when she bought Wild Mustang Molly. Molly carried her the rest of the way to the title of World Champion in the 2500 Novice Rider and the 1000 Novice Rider. Molly also carried her to the title of Rookie of the Year for 2018.

With her family rooting for her, James mentoring her, and her trainers Mike Combs and John L. Dublin in her corners, how could she fail!?!  Never in a million years did Cassie think she could achieve anything like that, it was a dream come true.

2019 is all about having fun, learning, and enjoying the new family she has found.

ACHA congratulates Cassie on her well-deserved titles and can't wait to see what the future holds!