It was no accident that I grew up to love horses. My Great Grandfather Phillip Crosthwaite (Phillip in the Bible means lover of horses) came to California in 1843 from Dublin, Ireland. I should say to the west coast, because California didn't become a state until 1850.

My Great Grandfather married a Miss Maria Josefa Lopez. He started the first general store in San Diego in 1853. A story in the San Diego Union newspaper on November 2, 1891 stated that Grandfather and his three sons owned a forty-five thousand-acre ranch, on which they had 5,000 cattle and 400 horses. So you might say to be an entrepreneur of  horses is in my blood.

My father Phillip was a cowboy all his life. He worked some of the biggest ranches in California. While a cowboy on the Tejon ranch, he was gathering cattle near the Tejon reservation when he first saw my mother. They would laugh when telling me the story of how dad would ride 15 miles a night to court her. They married and I was born on the Great Rancho Mission Viejo Ranch, where my wife Ruby and our three sons own and operate our family business St. Augustine Training Center.

As a young boy I remember riding out with my dad and all the other cowboys. Some rode their horses with hackamores, some with double reins and spade bits, others with just spades bits. As we rode along I would listen as their horses tongues worked a fit on the Spanish bits. How tall and proud they rode. I knew from that day on I wanted to ride horses for as long as God would allow me.

Phillip would take me to the LA Horse and Mule auction at night to watch horses being bought and sold. That was an education you can't get in a classroom. I bought my first horse there for thirty five dollars, a big bay I named Ready Teddy. I rode him for six months and sold him for one hundred seventy five dollars, I knew right then that buying and selling horses was how I wanted to make a living.

I started roping when I was twelve and by the time I was eighteen I found myself competing at the National Finals Rodeo in OK. City. I competed there twice and have been able to win at major rodeos and roping shows since. 

I don't travel much now like I used to, and like being at home with Ruby and my three boys. I have been blessed with enough horses in training to be able to stay here at the Ranch. We have so much fun when  great horseman like Les Vogt (fifteen time world champion reiner) stops by for a few days. We  rein all morning and rope all afternoon.

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How can I help you? I have trained horses that have gone on to win AQHA world championships and some compete at the NFR. Last year we had a young man who had never been on a horse in his life and in his first year he was rookie of the year in the USTRC. So if horsemanship or roping skills are what you're looking for Ill bet we can help you.