Biography

Mike & Lori Hanes

Lori:         I started riding horses when I was very little. My parents would take me to Yosemite National Park camping and would rent a lead line pony for me to ride so they could hike. I would sit on the pony and not get off while they went into caves and do other sightseeing. The pony was way better than the cave any day. Whenever we went on vacation I had to ride. I grew up in Southern California on the beach so there wasn't a lot of opportunity to own a horse. My Aunt Jan who lived near us bought an Arabian horse and then some others. And that changed everything. She had horse property and I spent all my summers at her house riding and showing her horses. I was about 10 years old at the time. I quit riding while I was in high school, but when I got a part time job in college I bought an Arabian gelding named Jubie that I boarded for a long time. I rode him and showed him. He was the most barn sour horse in the world but I didn't care, he was mine. Through the years I have had many, many horses, including one that ran over me as I was leading her and broke my ribs, and one who reared up and over and broke my arm.

I got into driving when I bought Wild Bill a miniature/Shetland cross. Mike said my big horses were too much to learn to drive on, so I had to start with something smaller. I found Bill in a field near Bellingham with a lot of other horses. He was broke to drive and had spent his life as a pony wheel horse. You could say I sort of rescued him, I knew nothing about driving at all so I got a book and learned to harness with my friend. We put Bill in the garage and spent about 2 hours trying to figure out how to harness him. We finally did and I hitched him up.

I limited my driving to the neighborhood for a time, until I found out about a CDE clinic for mini's on the internet, at a place called Happ's. Don and Lisa Eckhardt gave the clinic and there were 4 of us there. I learned a lot and fell in love with combined driving. I was in the first CDE that allowed mini's at Happ's. There were a total of three mini's that first show.

I showed Bill for a couple of years, and then got Mardigan my Friesian/Welsh cross and then a year later his brother Tango. I now show them as a pony pair. I sold Bill to a Vet. in Tennessee and she has her 5 and 7 year old daughters drive Bill. They were in their first show with him a few weeks ago.

Mike and I have been married for 22 years and have an 18 year old son named Thomas. Mike has a 1939 mahogany Chris Craft boat that he loves. He learned to ride when he trained and field trialed Irish Setters. At one time he had 17 setters that he had in for training. He trained and showed many Champions. We moved to Roy on 20 acres last year from 3 acres in Maple Valley. We have lived in Washington for 10 years.

We have two dogs, Sparky, a Cairn Terrier, and Mico, a Papillon. We also have two barn cats named Buffy and Jodi. Mike and I are retired from Boeing . We love to travel, and have been to many countries including China and Tibet. We also love to fly-fish, hike and bike.