BY TYLER BUI

After graduating from the University of California, Santa Barbara, Corinne Bevis had planned to take time off before law school but instead found herself forging a career in the horse industry. She now leads San Marcos Training out of Santa Barbara, CA, which has traveled eastward for the 2022 Pin Oak Charity Horse Show.

“I rode all my life as a young kid and junior, and after I graduated from USCB I wanted to take a break before law school, so I began teaching some [riding] lessons in Santa Barbara, and it has turned into a business,” says Bevis. “I was fortunate enough to have a client who wanted to buy a horse property back in 2007, and now it’s morphed into what it is today.”

Bevis has developed a business partnership with Shawn Casady after seeing him ride as a 19-year-old.

“Shawn came out and rode for us at Thermal, and fast forward seven years, it really seemed to work out well,” says Bevis. “He started out catch-riding some hunters, and as that partnership has grown, we have developed and gotten some bigger jumpers and are looking forward to what comes with that.” 

With their home base being Santa Barbara, San Marcos Training usually attends shows on the west coast. Given the ongoing cancellation of horse shows in California due to an EHV-1 outbreak, Bevis decided to come up with an alternative plan. 

“We recently added a jumper program to our training barn. We needed those horses to go and compete, and we needed to go check out different venues, so we decided to come out here to [Pin Oak,]” says Bevis.

Fourteen-year-old Zoe Wolf has ridden with San Marcos Training for more than a decade. The Santa Barbara native currently competes in the junior jumpers, junior hunters, and the 3’6” equitation divisions and is a Katy, TX newcomer. 

“I started riding when I was three years old and I’ve been riding with Corinne since the start,” says Wolf. “I started riding for mother-daughter bonding, and then I started competing pretty regularly when I was eight. I did the small, medium, and large ponies, and after that I got my first junior hunter. Since then, I have started to do more equitation and jumpers. Being able to be in a new place is awesome. There’s not a ton of variety in California; you mostly go to the same places. It’s been amazing here [at Pin Oak]. Everyone is so nice.” 

San Marcos Training has Wolf and Cassady showing multiple horses at Pin Oak. 

“It’s important to have a goal. You figure out the plan to reach that goal and the steps that need to happen. [For example,] coming to Pin Oak, showing in the indoor ring, all of these things are going toward making up these jumpers,” Bevis says. “We’ve really had a heavy focus on hunters, International Derbies, Derby Finals, and Pony Finals, so this is something new that we’re trying, and it’s awesome that this venue provides a platform to do it.”