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Don Moore
Raised on a
cattle ranch in southeastern desert of Colorado, he grew up with
horses and cattle, was breaking colts for the
neighboring ranches when he was 12, and showed in his first Quarter
Horse show in 1960. Don attended Colorado State
University with a major in Animal production. While attending CSU he
rode horses for Troy Lindsey, cutting horse trainer and breeder.
After graduating he joined the United States Marine Corp. and served
in Viet Nam during 1969 and 1970. Upon leaving the Marines he
became the horse ranch manager for T-Cross ranches at Peyton, CO.
There he was in charge of the breeding, showing, and general ranch
management. In 1978 Don leased the Latigo Equestrian Park,
east of Colo. Springs, as a training facility. There, to make ends
meet, he started putting on horse shows and ropings. At this
time the Colorado Super Circuit (8 shows in 9 days) came into being
in 1980. It was also here that he first met Carol and hired
her to help with horse shows and general management. In 1982, fed up
with cold weather, Don and Carol move back to the ranch in La Junta.
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Carol Moore
Born in Denver
Colorado, raised in Colorado Springs. She has two sisters,
Margaret Hammond (an accomplished AQHA trainer and judge) and
Charlene (Hammond) Morgan, (western artist who is still showing
Quarter Horses). One brother, Dick Hammond who was a
professional trick rider, rode bulls, and bareback horses, is now a
realtor in ranch properties. Raised with horses, at ages 8 &
9, Carol and Margaret trick rode at Forth Worth Stock Show.
She showed horses in Palomino, 4H and Quarter Horse shows until high
school. During her high school years she became involved with
rodeo, traveled to Canada and met and went to work for Harry and
Karen Vold until a tragic accident to a friend made her grow up and
come home. Carol graduated from Business School and met and
married a pilot, at which time she gave up horses, became quite a
golfer, where she played in Pro Am's throughout the southeast.
She has two children, John and Elizabeth. Upon returning to
Colorado (after a divorce) in 1979 with two small children in tow
she met Don.
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Don and Carol had
decided that, with the size of the shows and the amount of paperwork
and time involved, that they wanted to develop a way to do it with
that new gizmo, the computer. Don traded a pair of spurs and a
fancy curb bit for a IBM computer and Carol went back to school
evenings at the local Junior College to studied computer
programming, using their ideas for horse show application as her
study format. The resulting program, with much tweaking and
constant up dating has become considered as one of the best. Don and
Carol were married in January of 1983. They traveled the southwest
extensively that winter finding new facilities to to use for new
shows. The Colorado Super Circuit had been moved to the Colorado
State Fairgrounds in 1982, and new shows were started in Amarillo
(North Texas Spring Circuit) and Sweetwater, Texas. Several shows
had contacted them about managing their shows for them and
everything snowballed into what is now Moore & Co. Professional
Horse Show Management. While doing all of this, Carol was Secretary
for the Western States Cutting Horse Association. for many years,
and they also restored many antique cars and horse drawn buggys. A
new computer program for Horse Show Management is currently being
developed by them and will be launched this year. It is based on
the old program with many new and innovative enhancements. The
Moore's have but one goal in managing all of the show they do, that
is to make them as exhibitor friendly as possible, for as Don always
says " Without exhibitors you don't have horse shows" |