It’ll be Warmer in Scottsdale!

DAYTON - Jill Andrews' clients range from modest Dayton families to investors from Seattle and as far away as Missouri. But they share one thing - a love of Arabian horses. Andrews is a Dayton horse trainer who helps bring the best out of her clients' horses at regional and national shows.

In February, Andrews and her husband, Dan, along with a group of her local clients, will travel to Scottsdale, Ariz. for the Scottsdale Arabian Horse Show.

"They expect about 2,400 horses there," she said. "People come from around the world. It's one of the largest horse shows in the world."

The group will bring along five horses to show, all trained by Andrews. They include her stallion, Paparazzi, along with two owned by Dayton resident Cheryl Strang, one owned by Paul and Jan Strohbehn, also of Dayton. The fifth is owned by Dr. Peter Maher, his wife, Vicki, and their daughter Jessica, of Pasco.

All are clients of Andrews business, Graycyn Farms. She has nearly a dozen clients that bring their horses - all full Arabian or half-Arabian - to her new arena in Dayton. "At any time I have 18 to 20 horses I'm working with," she said.

Strang, the Strohbehns and the Ma­hers will all accompany the Andrews' to the show. The group will leave Dayton February 7. The show begins Feb. 13 and runs through the 23rd.

Andrews will compete with the Strang and Strohbein horses, and her own stallion, Paparazzi. She will show in both the "Hunter Pleasure Open" and Western "Pleasure Open" classes. She explained that the "Hunter" class is an English style of riding that is more subdued than the western style. She said the rider's attire matches the style of riding.

Vicki and Jessica Maher will com­pete with their horse in the "Amateur Western Pleasure" and "Youth West­ern Pleasure" classes, respectively, in Scottsdale.

"We'll be showing in some event every day of the show," Andrews said. But, she pointed out, there's much more to see and do besides the competitions.

"The whole event is huge," said Dan Andrews. "There are thousands of vendors sell­ing everything. They fill up the whole Westworld park in Scottsdale."

This is the Andrews' second trip to compete at Scottsdale. "2012 was my first year competing at Scottsdale," Jill Andrews said. "I've been a few other times as a spectator."

Andrews is a veteran at competitions, how­ever. She has competed at the Canadian national Arabian Horse Show twice, and has shown at the Youth National Arabian Horse Show in Albu­querque, N.M. once. "I compete in seven or eight regional shows a year as well," she said.

"Our horses have taken 28 regional and 15 national titles," she said. "These are competitions in which we place in the top five."

Andrews, who grew up in Richland, started riding when she was about ten and got her first Arabian horse at 12 or 13. "My parents weren't into horses at all," she said. "They kept going, 'When is this going to end?'"

By the time she was 16, Andrews was giving lessons to other riders. But for many years, working with horses was just a hobby.

Andrews and husband Dan, who is Member Ser­vices Manager for Colum­bia REA, moved to Dayton in 1997 and began raising their family.

"I guess my first real client was Cheryl Strang and her daughter Devon," Andrews said. Andrews began helping Devon with her horse at the Columbia County Fairgrounds. "It just grew from there," she said. She named her new com­pany Graycyn Farms partly because her first horse and Devin's horse were both gray.

After Devon left Dayton for college, her mother decided to start riding their horses more. "I'm just a be­ginning rider," Strang said, "but Jill's been a big help. I love it."

Besides working with clients' horses, Andrews oc­casionally buys young hors­es and trains them. "That's a good business area that I'd like to develop," she said. "If they do well in shows, their value can increase a lot."

Andrews lists horses for sale on her website, gray­cynfarms.com.

Andrews says her clients have a wide range of needs. "Some want me to work with them and teach them to ride," she said. "I work with both the rider and the horse. Other clients just send their horses to me to train. I rarely see them."

Jan and Paul Strohbehn recently got their first horse, and are excited to be taking to Scottsdale. "It was my 26th wedding anniversary present," Jan said of her horse, which Jill found at a farm in British Columbia.

"She always wanted a horse and I didn't; and I al­ways won," Paul Strohbehn joked. "Until now."

After returning from Scottsdale, Andrews will return to the regional show circuit, including shows in Nampa, Ida. and Monroe, Wash. She also plans to compete again this year in the Canadian National Championships in Bran­don, Manitoba, in July.