The WRANGLER Horse and Rodeo News is an equine and rodeo publication with circulation in Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota, Utah and Idaho.
Issue link: http://thewrangler.uberflip.com/i/1525241
she recalled. Both her mother and father were instrumental in Molly's love for horses, making sure that she had the opportunity to compete in playday rodeos, and attend clinics to hone her horsemanship skills. When her high school career came to an end, Molly knew that she wanted to pursue a future with horses. So, she focused her sights on Equine studies in college. She received a scholarship to play basketball for William Woods University in Fulton, Missouri; where they offered Equine Science as a degree program. While there, she got heavily involved with riding English and Jumper horses. This passion led to some great encounters with AQHA professional trainers that helped her along the way. While working back on the family boat in Alaska one summer, she was invited to ride a friend's horse at a clinic. After the clinic was over, her family had invited the clinician out to fish on her grandfather's boat. The connection that was made while on the boat allowed Molly the chance to go and ride with him for a couple of weeks prior to returning to school. "My parents were advised that if I wanted to be a horse trainer, and since I had very little experience that it would be best for me to get a horse that I could show," she stated. "So with the help of my parents and my aunt and uncle, they invested in a gelding for me." After completing college, Molly spent her summers fishing, and the winters in Texas where she focused on riding and training. Eventually her horse training slowed down as her main mount began to have some soundness trouble. She soon started working as a Vet Tech, gaining a wealth of knowledge and plenty of travel experience. It was while working for a traveling Veterinarian in Texas, that her "Man from Snowy River" walked into her life, as Molly playfully puts it. After the couple's two year stint in Europe helping Stefan's family with their business, they decided to return to the States again, this time doing commercial fishing. They fished summers in Alaska, and in the winters they worked as extra help for Jordan and Taylor Larson in Whitesboro, Texas. For six seasons they would go back and forth between Alaska and Texas. "Commercial fishing was an amazing job!" says Molly. "I really enjoyed being out on the water and since I did it all while growing up, it never felt like a job." It was Molly who encouraged Stefan to consider getting into training reined cow horses. So, Stefan called up his friend Chris Dawson to see if they could winter at their place. A week before they were to pack up and head south to help out the Dawson team, Stefan received a call from Chris making sure that they were still coming. Dawson's two year old trainer had left and he really needed Stefan's help. "As we got closer to spring and preparing for our trip back to Alaska, they offered me a full time position as an assistant trainer. It was not an easy decision, it would mean giving up commercial fishing. I decided to head back into horse training full time knowing that we could always go back to fishing at any time." Now, the pair work for the DPH crew. Molly helps out with running the therapeutic Cold Creek Spa, owned by Dawson's, and filling in where needed at home and on the road. "Training and working for the Dawson's is great! There's so much learning you can do from both of them," Stefan shared. The humility and genuineness that's observed from the Heim's is nothing short of inspirational. They are just enjoying the space that they are in at the moment. "Personally and professionally we just want to continue to work as hard as we can in the season that we are in and let our relationship with the Lord and our faith in Jesus Christ guide us. Of course everyone hopes to, and dreams to make it to the top in this industry. To win at the major events and to have that one special horse that takes you up to the top," shared Stefan. But they both declared that it "is all in God's timing." Left: Stefan Heim showing Np Show Jonez. Photo Credit: Lindsey Musacci Right: Molly Heim at the Quarter Horse Congress. Photo Credit: Jeff Kirkbride Photography