John Mitchell has achieved the dual honor of earning his way into both the NCHA and the Australian NCHA halls of fame. Involved with horses virtually all his life, John actually showed his first cutting horse about the time he was 9. As a teenager, he started breaking colts, training horses and working for a farrier. By the age of 18, he was training for the public. In 1986, John came to the United States to work with trainers Bob and Nancy Cahill.
In 1997, John moved to Weatherford, Texas, and took a job training for Glade Knight's Slate River Ranch. "It was an obvious choice to go that one step farther and compete at this level," Mitchell said. He now works exclusively for Slate River Ranch, which keeps approximately 30 head in the training barn. His business relationship with Knight, a non-pro competitor, has grown over the years into a comfortable partnership.
"Our owner-trainer relationship is probably second to none in the industry," Mitchell explained. "Honestly, this program keeps getting better."
Mitchell started collecting NCHA earnings right from the beginning of his career in Texas. He won the 1998 Open Limited Futurity on Playdox, and the following year he won the Gold Coast aboard Bob’s Smart Chance.
"Those two horses really got me started," he said. "I trained both of them, and they both made the Futurity finals."
In 1999, he also won at Memphis riding Acres On Fire. He claimed the win for the West Texas Futurity with Bobs Freckle in 2001 and two years later won the Bonanza aboard That Sly Cat.
John and wife Hope are both deep into the cutting horse world. Hope regularly competes in the NCHA as a non-pro. She is a tough competitor in her own right and has been inducted into the NCHA Non-Pro Hall of Fame.
John is a strong advocate of Priefert and utilizes a Priefert Panel Walker as a regular part of his training program. He is confident that the conditioning his horses receive in the Priefert Panel Walker are a major contributor to his success in the arena.
We are proud to have John wearing the Priefert name.