1. Meredith Sue Hodges is an American equine trainer, competitor, educator, author and TV personality specializing in mules and donkeys, specifically the contemporary saddle mule.
16 Facts About Meredith Hodges
1. 2.
Meredith Hodges grew up as one of Schulz's five children, and did not learn until she was an adult that he was not her biological father.
3.
Meredith Hodges was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, after which her family moved to Colorado Springs, Colorado where her younger brother was born.
4.
Meredith Hodges became an assistant trainer and worked with her mother, on and off, until 1979, when her mother sold the Windy Valley Ranch.
5.
Joyce Doty gave Meredith Hodges the last mule, Lucky Three Sundowner, and the last jack, Little Jack Horner, that were born at Windy Valley Ranch in 1980.
6.
In 1980 Meredith Hodges purchased a 10-acre former sheep ranch in Loveland, Colorado and christened it the Lucky Three Ranch.
7.
Meredith Hodges began breeding and training what would become a top-quality line of mules and donkeys, some of them future champions.
8.
Meredith Hodges's purpose was to prove that mules could do everything that horses could do in all kinds of recreational equestrian disciplines to further their use in modern America.
9.
Concurrently, Meredith Hodges' evolving technique proved successful in showing her animals in both horse and mule shows.
10.
Meredith Hodges then became the World Champion 3rd level Dressage Mule in 1992, and again in 1993, while working at home at 4th Level Dressage.
11.
In 1986 Meredith Hodges lobbied at the United States Dressage Federation Convention, wrote letter campaigns, and held forums and discussions with various breed organizations in an effort to change the USDF rules to include mules and donkeys in competition.
12.
Meredith Hodges continued to work with other mule enthusiasts to get mules accepted by the AHSA.
13.
Meredith Hodges is involved in the efforts to end horse slaughter and the consumption of horsemeat overseas, and the call for ethical and humane treatment and management of the wild horses and burros being overseen by the United States BLM.
14.
Gary Fredricksen drowned in a swimming accident in Bear River in Grass Valley, California in 1975 and shortly after Meredith Hodges went to the Windy Valley Ranch to work with her mother's equines.
15.
Meredith Hodges married Gary Hodges in 1980, the same year she purchased the property that would become the Lucky Three Ranch.
16.
Meredith Hodges has two brothers, Monte and Craig, and two sisters, Amy and Jill.