Isidro & Amber Espinoza
At Isidro Espinoza Horsemanship, our balanced training approach creates clear communication and real harmonious partnership that respects the horse’s unique character and personality. Through our real transparent process we empower riders around the world with the skill-sets to safely and confidently work with their horse from wild and untouched to competition ready performance horses.
Isidro and Amber both grew up with horses and have a combined experience of over 50+ years working with them. Isidro grew up on a large ranch in Durango, Mexico, where he learned from generations of horsemen and ranchers. Amber grew up in Southern California and focused primarily on hunter/jumpers and dressage before finding her love for wild Mustangs.
Isidro and Amber met in 2005 while working at Winbak Farm in Chesapeake City, MD, the second largest breeding horse farm in North America. They worked together in the foaling barns on the night shift delivering hundreds of foals, and when foaling season ended, Isidro helped bring in and break the yearlings for sales. Amber transitioned to become the Office Manager at the farm and assisted the Breeding Manager. They both learned how to run a farm with over 1,500 horses.
In 2009, Amber adopted her first mustang and fully trained him. This experience sparked a passion to help wild horses. They began adopting wild horses, training and selling them. This lead Isidro to become a TIP Trainer with the Mustang Heritage Foundation in 2015 when a BLM employee told him about the program and encouraged him to join. Isidro then began gentling and adopting out mustangs through the TIP Program. In 2019, Amber was asked by the Mustang Heritage Foundation to host a TIP Challenge and she hosted her first one in Las Vegas, NV. She has since hosted six TIP Challenges in total. They both have assisted in the training and adoption of close to 1,000 mustangs and burros to date.
In 2016, Amber signed up to compete in her first Extreme Mustang Makeover, and Isidro followed suit. They have trained a total of 18 makeover horses, with multiple Top Ten finishes and two Reserve Championships, a Horsemanship Championship, and The Mustang Heart Award. Isidro has also competed with his mustangs in endurance races with multiple Top Ten finishes and was one of the hand-selected 2022 Mustang Magic Rising Stars competitors in Fort Worth, TX.
Amber was a Top Ten finisher at the 2021 Extreme Mustang Race and has multiple top placings in Mustang Open Shows and a Championship in Extreme Cowboy Racing with a mustang. She also won the 2019 Battle Of The TIP Trainers in Arizona and was the Adult Burro Champion at the 2021 SoCal TIP Challenge. Most recently she placed Top Ten at the 2023 Mustang Magic Invitation Only Makeover at the Fort Worth Stock Show and Rodeo. They have coached their children to win multiple Youth TIP Challenge Championships and Reserve Championships, training young wild burros and yearling wild horses.
Their experience and expertise have led to a growing demand for their training services, and in 2021, Amber was able to quit working as an RN to train full-time alongside Isidro at their ranch in Snowflake, AZ. The TIP Challenges they host are two of the largest and most popular TIP Challenges (wild horse competitions) in the country. They also love to intern and mentor up-and-coming young trainers. They have coached mustang trainers to Top Ten Finishes at TIP Challenges & Extreme Mustang Makeovers. Most recent and notable was coaching their intern to winning the 2023 Fort Worth Mustang Show Championship.
Isidro & Amber Espinoza
Isidro & Amber’s 2024 Presentations
Acero Parts 1-3
Follow along as we bring Acero, a gorgeous 16.1hh gray wild mustang, through his first saddling to his first WTL under saddle! (Videos 1-3)
See a clever way to get a halter on a wild horse who doesn’t want to be touched.
See how we use positive reinforcement training to help counter condition a pony with a history of trauma. Have you ever wondered what a horse looks like who is shut down? We show you in this video how to spot it happening and what to do when it happens!
Haltering a wild horse (dark blue roan horse: -
See a clever way to get a halter on a wild horse who doesn’t want to be touched.
This is for the video on Counter-Conditioning (the pony):
See how we use positive reinforcement training to help counter condition a pony with a history of trauma.
Shutdown (cremello horse): -
Have you ever wondered what a horse looks like who is shut down? We show you in this video how to spot it happening and what to do when it happens!
