Welcome to our outfit!

Patrick Hooks and his family are fortunate to live in the Panhandle of Oklahoma, where ranch horses are still a necessity in the American cattle industry.  Patrick's common sense approach to horse training comes through the legacy of the Dorrance's and Ed Connell.  Patrick gave his first public colt-breaking clinic in 1989. To date, he has given numerous clinics at national horse expositions, private ranches, colleges, universities and worked as an instructor at OPSU.  He is blessed to draw from his experiences working on mama cow operations in Texas ,  New Mexico , Colorado  and Oklahoma .  His experience includes riding pens, caring and doctoring for cattle in feed lots, sale barns, wheat pasture and, Lord bless, first time heifers.  In addition, Patrick has worked as a hunting guide, wrangler and is an accomplished farrier.

Patrick and his son Zach have started an astonishing number of young colts as well as helped hundreds of people with horsemanship and problem solving.  Patrick teaches students who have traveled from all over the world.  Patrick takes pride in knowing they have gone on to make an honorable living and/or compete at regional, national and world championships in various breeds and disciplines.  In addition to teaching about horses, the Hooks family raises, trains and sells their own Border Collies, Registered American Quarter Horses and Registered Black Angus Cattle.

Over the years, Patrick has written many "How To" articles for various magazines and equine newspapers.  His latest project is a book titled 101 Ranch Horse Tips for Globe Press and is now available.  Drawing from his book titled Fix It Up For The Horse, Patrick has written a series of articles for the AQHA/America's Horse e-zine.  This 17 part series has gone on to become one of the hottest items on the AQHA America's Horse web site where he also does Question & Answer in a how-to format. An in-depth edition of Fix It up For the Horse is available on the Books and DVDs page of this web site.

One man's opinion: 
Our outfit definitely didn't "invent the wheel."  We believe in "greasing the wheel" by continuing to learn and share about the horse.  No matter how hard some folks try to come up with self-claims and new gimmicks, horse training will always revolve around the oldest fundamental exercise known between horse and man.  I call it "rear end under, front end across."

If the exercise worked for King Solomon's battle horses during a time when a warrior's life depended upon his horse's ability, surely it can work for you today.  God considered Solomon the wisest man on the face of the earth.  Solomon was so pleased with the ability of his warriors and their horses that he would sprinkle gold dust on them and parade them through the streets.  Solomon stated in the book of Ecclesiastics, "There is nothing new under the sun."  Do you really think for a second, today's horse training techniques are new or belong to one individual? No, they belong to God and the horse. I challenge you to trace back the term "jáquima to freno."  Follow the different languages, spellings and meanings and see where it takes you!