A love of horses began almost at birth for Jana Echols Thornton. Jana’s father, Roy Echols, a team roper from Arizona, knew that this girl was going to be a cowgirl through and through and everywhere that he rode, Jana did also.

By the time Jana was not much more than a year old she had her own horse and was riding by herself. At the tender age of three years old, Jana was riding her first colt, which was started by a cutting trainer and Roy Echols, a great three-year-old named (Diamond Bear Okie) “Paco”. Child and horse grew up together, and with the careful sculpting of many great trainers, became the first horse of many that with Jana on board, had victorious accomplishments in many arenas. At eight years old, Jana was a competitive rider, competing often in open events, for barrel racing, and other rodeo events, as well as riding English and competing in three day jumping events, and showing western pleasure. From that point forward, Jana continued to build herself a career in horses. Never was Jana handed a finished horse. It was up to her to train her own horses for whatever event she wished to pursue. At thirteen years old, Jana took her first outside horse in for training and began giving riding lessons.

At sixteen, Jana graduated from high school and began taking college courses. Her riding continued, and after learning to be a racehorse jockey, she decided to focus her attention on training barrel racing horses and traveled from the west coast to the east coast competing in barrel races. Here is where she found her true love, something that is still a major part of her life today.

Jana was able to relocate from Arizona to Las Vegas, Nevada to accept a full ride scholarship for barrel racing at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Jana then graduated from UNLV with a B.S.B.A. in Business Management, with the idea of managing her business of training horses and giving riding lessons.

Jana has accomplished a lot during her career with horses. Some of these honors are: CNFR qualifier, NBHA World Show qualifier, several times over, NBHA World Show top ten barrel racer and 2 x NBHA World Show finalist, GCPRA rookie of the year, GCPRA champion barrel racer, NIRA regional reserve champion, multiple times NIRA tri-region qualifier, as well as setting multiple arena records. Jana accredits her success to having the opportunity to learn from great trainers. Jana has been fortunate to learn from great trainers such as Marlene Eddleman McRae, Ed Wright, Al Dunning, Cleve Wells, Manuela Profe-Credo, Sandy Finstead, Anita Mills and Laura Holbrooke. (Thanks so much!) It is because Jana has experience in a variety of horse events that she is able to draw from all these areas to create a great finished product in both horse and rider. So, if you want your horse started or trained the correct way, without holes, by a professional trainer with over ten years experience, for any event or pleasure riding, or you would like to learn the correct methods for yourself, you’ve come to the right place!