Martin Muehlstaetter
ABOUT MARTIN
Muelhstaetter Performance Horses excel at training and showing Reining horses for all of the NRHA's premier events. Martins NRHA LTE are over $1,000,000.
November 7, 2020 – Oklahoma City, Oklahoma – At just 12 years old, Martin Muehlstaetter knew he wanted to train reining horses for a living. He is now, unofficially, the newest National Reining Horse Association (NRHA) Million Dollar Rider.
Originally from Villach, Austria, Muehlstaetter’s first official mount was a warmblood on a lunge line. As the years passed, he would continue riding everything from warmbloods to haflingers and all other breeds in between until he became an assistant trainer for NRHA Million Dollar Rider Rudi Kronsteiner in 1999.
After three years of tutelage under Kronsteiner, Muehlstaetter was set to become an assistant trainer in Italy. Fate had other plans and he ended up in Texas before working for some of NRHA’s founding fathers: Bob Avila, and NRHA Million Dollar Rider Dell Hendricks, and Todd Sommers.
“When I told my mom I wanted to be a reining horse trainer, she told me there was no such thing,” said Muehlstaetter who now resides in Scottsdale, Arizona. “Ever since then I’ve always been focused on reining horses. That’s where my heart and soul is at.”
In January 2007, Muehlstaetter moved to Scottsdale to be with his future wife, Kim, and then stepped out on his own as a professional. One of the first horses Muehlstaetter trained from the ground up as his own boss was Country Custom (Custom Crome x Calatrava).
“We bought Custom as an early yearling and I did all the work from there until he hit the show pen,” Muehlstaetter said. “He was a special horse and now he’s living out retirement in our front field.”
Together, Muehlstaetter and Country Custom finished in the top ten at major NRHA events across the country in both the Open Level(L) 3 and 4. Muehlstaetter’s biggest payday to date came at the 2014 National Reining Breeders Classic (NRBC). Marking a 226, Muehlstaetter and Blue Collar Tag (Whiz N Tag Chex x Kachina Oak Olena) finished in the number one spot for both Open L3 and 4.
Another one of Muehlstaetter’s top finishes was at the 2017 NRHA Futurity where he placed fourth in the Open L4 finals riding Seven On Seven (Spooks Gotta Whiz x Anne Get Your Gunner). Muehlstaetter humbly credits his success in the reining industry to his team standing on the sidelines for every run.
