Kimberlee and Metallic Maverick
Photo by Shane Rux Photography

Kimberlee Gabel has been involved with reined cow horses for five years. Previously, she had rodeoed and competed in stock horse versatility before making the switch.

“For me, the pinnacle has always been the reined cow horse,” she said.

Gabel bought her current horse a year and a half ago at the end of his futurity year. She has continued to finish him herself and recently competed in her first premier event at the 2021 Celebration of Champions. She ended up middle of the pack in the Derby and in the 5K she was just a few places out of the top 10. She was very happy with her results and said her horse, Metallic Maverick, has taught her a lot.

Gabel loves the challenge of the sport and the journey of working with her horse to rise to the next level. Her greatest achievement so far was competing in a premier event at the John Justin arena in Fort Worth.

“That was a bucket list [moment],” she said.

Gabel hopes that in 2022 she can attend more of the premier events.

Why Kimberlee Uses RCHTO:

“I don’t ride full time with a trainer. I am very fortunate to have many trainer friends that keep me out of the weeds. And when I’m working on something, if it’s just not coming together, I can sit down and my husband and I can both watch the videos and say it’s our run down, the approach and the stop, I’ll watch two to three different videos on it. And [my husband] will video me and we can watch it and figure out what [an RCHTO trainer] was talking about… It’s just an immediate access to getting down to a root problem and then therefore a potential remedy. It’s an immediate tool…We’re so appreciative of all of these trainers…They are providing [me with] a great [source] to grow.”