Covenant Show Horses
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By Susan Winslow
Kelley and Adam Wainscott joined forces for life and in business in 2018 to start Covenant Show Horses in Sanger, Texas. Each of them brings a wealth of experience as competitors and professional horsemen to the table. Together they and the horses they’ve trained have won over 300 World Champion titles.
Although they didn’t meet until they were adults, they grew up less than eight miles from each other in Indiana, and their paths crossed many times through the years. They shared friends in the horse industry, yet they didn’t meet until a stroke of kismet put them at the same horse show in Cloverdale, Indiana. Kelley recalls, “I was judging at a Quarter Horse show, and Adam was the ring steward. We met, and we just clicked. We were both single at the time, and we started spending time together.” Adam adds, “Since then, we’ve almost never been apart. We both feel like it was God’s perfect time for us. Somehow, He brought us together at the right time in our lives, and it has been just amazing to spend every day doing my life’s passion with my favorite person in the world.”
Together, Kelley and Adam created a Halter dynasty at Covenant Halter Horses, but each of them came to this point through a different route. Kelley grew up in a decidedly non-horsey family in Fishers, Indiana. She recalls, “My first word was ‘horse,’ and I pleaded with my parents for a horse on a routine basis. When I was six, they bought me a series of lessons for Christmas, at Janet Keesling Stables, and that was it. I was so passionate about horses. When I was in seventh grade, I met Tom Younts, an amazing teacher who inspired me and changed my life. He was an agriculture teacher who taught a class in livestock judging. He’s nationally known for his skill in livestock judging, and I learned so much from him. I begged him to let me try judging horses, and he told me if I could find three more kids to make a horse judging team, he’d coach us. I found those kids in no time and not only did we win the area competition in judging that year, we won the state contest. I loved judging, and after that I never looked back.”
Kelley’s success as a livestock and horse judge helped her land a scholarship to Northeastern Oklahoma A&M College in Miami, Oklahoma, and helped pay for her education which she completed at Oklahoma State University. While still in college, she judged and won at the Congress, the NRHA Futurity, the Denver Stock Show, the AQHA World Show, and many collegiate shows. She says, “I owe so much to Dr. Don Topliff, who coached me at Oklahoma State and to my mentor, Dr. John Pipkin, at West Texas A&M. They inspired and encouraged me, and were both huge influences on me and still are to this day. I stayed at Oklahoma State to work on my Masters of Agriculture Degree while coaching the Horse Judging Team there. I loved it and created lifelong friends from those judging teams–many of which are extraordinarily successful equine professionals or amateurs–which makes me very proud.”
