By Laurie Berglie
Portraits by James Berglie
Brendan Wise wanted to be a cowboy when he grew up. Clanging spurs, dusty boots, leather batwing chaps, broad-brimmed hat—that was the vision for his future. However, life presents us with challenges and leads us down different paths. While Brendan may not be the cowboy of his youthful dreams, he has still chosen horses as his life’s work. He’s not roping cows or wandering the wide-open range, but he’s fulfilling his dreams, one lesson at a time.
Brendan grew up in Harford County, Maryland, in a not-so-horsey home. His father had had a few backyard ponies as a child, but Brendan’s mother was a city girl and terrified of horses. That didn’t keep Brendan from dreaming about becoming a cowboy. And while he was fascinated with horses, what intrigued him the most was the relationship between the cowboy and his mount. Little did Brendan know that he would later spend his career focusing on just that—the relationship with the horse.
Ultimately it was his sister who brought horses into his life. “It was not until my family started homeschooling that my riding career began,” he said. “I was around 8 years old, and we needed a physical education credit for our studies. My sister wanted to pursue her lifelong dream of horseback riding and was scheduled to take a free trial lesson. I was also invited to attend and considered it an opportunity to play cowboy for a moment. It was that fateful day that started me down the path of the road I walk today, and by walk, I mean run flat out as fast as I can! After that first trial lesson, I signed up for weekly riding lessons, and very rarely missed one.”
Good Music, Fast Cars and Pretty Horses
By the time Brendan was ready to go off to college, he found himself at a crossroads. He wanted to pursue horses or music, another great love, but his parents insisted on him earning an education or learning a trade. “I’ve always said that I have had three passions in this life: good music, fast cars and pretty horses,” Brendan said. “I originally enrolled in university to pursue a degree in music performance, with a focus of percussion. However, two weeks before I was to begin my studies, I decided to change my path. I could not justify spending all that money, and four years of my life, just to come out a much more proficient drummer saddled with a very large student loan debt. I knew at the time that I eventually wanted to be full time in the horse industry, but I instead chose a trade and completed my degree in automotive technology. Fast cars, right?”
After graduating with his degree and feeling confident that he had a trade to fall back on, it was time to pursue the career of becoming a professional horseman. Brendan wasted no time and signed up for a program run by the two greatest horsemen he would ever have the privilege of learning from—John and Josh Lyons. “At the time, they offered a year-long certification course, and that is where things really took off for me,” he said. “Josh taught me so much about training horses, but even greater than that, though, Josh was instrumental in developing my ability to communicate and teach. There are many great riders. There are some great teachers. There are very few who are exceptional at both. John and Josh Lyons are exceptional at both, and they inspired me to hone in on my craft as a communicator, thinker and teacher.”
After graduating from the certification program, Brendan went on to graduate from their second intensive course, the accreditation program, which focused more on the Western performance disciplines. “I fell in love with reining and reining horses,” he said. “However, as I walked down the path of my personal horsemanship, ultimately it was classical dressage, and the Old Masters, that would completely capture my horseman’s soul.”
Bridleless Brendan
Brendan began experimenting with the concept of riding bridleless during his time spent with the Lyons family. Both John and Josh were famous for their iconic bridleless performances that would dazzle crowds all over the country. “At the time my focus was on Western performance disciplines, specifically reining,” he said. “On any good reining horse, you should be able to take that bridle off in any context and run your pattern just as well as if it were on. As I began to perform around the country at expos, festivals and other venues with my horses, bridleless was always a highlight. My main mount at the time, a Quarter Horse named Colt, was a very proficient bridleless horse. We performed together all over the country, and Colt was my go-to in every situation.”
Later, as Brendan’s career shifted into classical dressage and jumping, he brought the bridleless concept into those disciplines as well. “Even my wife was inspired and began to pursue it with her horses,” he said. “Little did we know at the time she would make history competing with her horse bridleless in show jumping.”
These performances across the country naturally led to Brendan becoming a successful clinician. He has quite a number of return groups every year, which he enjoys because it allows him the privilege of seeing the ongoing progress of these students. “The clinics are also a motivator to myself, and my own personal horsemanship journey,” he said. “It’s my responsibility to grow as a horseman, so that I can grow as a teacher and give valuable content to the students in the clinic. There’s always more to learn in this journey of horsemanship. The moment you think you know enough, you encounter a horse that challenges everything you think you know. This is an opportunity for growth, if you are humble enough to accept it. That growth then trickles down to all those I encounter in lessons, clinics, and other teaching venues. It’s the continuous cycle of knowledge gained and knowledge given. What greater reason is there to pursue wisdom, if not to pass it on?”
Life At Rutledge Ridge
Brendan and his wife, Melanie Ferrio-Wise, are based at Rutledge Ridge Farm in Fallston, Maryland, where they have a thriving lesson, training and sales program. “My day-to-day barn life consists of barn chores, riding training and sales horses, and teaching lessons to my hardworking and devoted students. I have two sales programs: imported hunter-jumpers and draft-cross sport horses.” 
Each day he sets aside time for three students to trailer into the farm for lessons. He does not teach typical “riding” lessons; he teaches his students how to be trainers. “All students must learn to think like a trainer and pursue their horsemanship like this,” he said. “No matter the discipline the horse and rider would like to pursue, they are all first dressage riders. It’s the beginning of all understanding and development for the pair. The jumping is just good dressage with an obstacle in the way. If a student of mine wins blue ribbons, wonderful. If a student of mine discovers a deeper understanding of their horse and themself through the pursuit of a riding discipline—that is time well spent.”
When Brendan isn’t giving lessons or working with a sales horse, you can find him with one of his three personal horses: Colt, Arwen and Cracker T. Colt came to the family years ago as a freshly weaned 6-month-old and was started under saddle at the Lyons certification program. “He is my brother, my performing partner, my teacher and my laboratory all wrapped up into one,” Brendan said. “I can’t tell you how many times I trained that horse, started from scratch, trained him all up again, started from scratch again, and repeat. He is truly a saint and probably the best horse I will ever have in my lifetime.”
Arwen is another crown jewel of the family. She is an Andalusian mare with all the spice you can pack in. “Arwen came to us a complete mess mentally,” Brendan said. “It took quite a few years to help her develop a critical thinking process that could work past the anxiety under saddle. She still struggles with some things today but has reached a proficient level of education and relaxation. She has even achieved a level of bridleless education that allowed her to perform in front of a crowd of thousands in Theater Equus at the Pennsylvania Horse World Expo.”
Finally, Cracker T is a show jumper who was imported into the U.S. as part of their sales program, but thanks to some incredible people, Brendan now calls Cracker T his own. “Show jumping is more of a recent pursuit of mine, on a professional level,” Brendan said. “Cracker T has been a big part of me pushing my skill set over fences. He’s a sensitive type of ride, with prior experience up to the 1.40m jumpers. He needed a sensitive rider, and I needed an experienced mount. We came together and have been partners in the show-jumping arena for the last 14 months.”
Future Goals and Greatest Achievements
Like every professional, Brendan has set some specific goals for his future. In the next five to 10 years, he’d like to push himself as far as he can go in both the hunter and jumper rings and become a Grand Prix show jumper. “Secondly, I wish to continue to push myself in my pursuit of classical equestrian art,” he said. “This is a never-ending goal, but still on the list. My pursuit of dressage has always been about the art rather than the sport. However, I would like to see myself in the competitive ring more often in dressage and attain proficiency at high levels of competition there.”
Though he is hard at work in pursuit of these future goals, Brendan can also look back on some significant achievements. “There are a few stand-out accomplishments that have great personal meaning to me,” he said. “The first would be my first time teaching as a solo clinician under my own name. I will never forget that day because it was milestone in my career, but also because it was the day I met the woman who would become my wife. So it was a pretty cool day in my life story! The second would be watching my wife dazzle the world, competing bridleless in show jumping at the Washington International Horse Show. The third is the feeling of being under the lights, center stage, with Arwen, bridleless, in front of thousands. This accomplishment is not nearly as much about the performance itself as it is about that particular horse overcoming the mountains of adversity it took to get her to that spotlight.”
His final greatest accomplishment is building an internationally recognized and respected teaching and sales program from absolutely nothing but grit and determination. “We have encountered some amazing people along the way who have helped us in incredible ways,” he said. “But let it be a beacon to all the young riders out there who look at the daunting task of pursing a riding career—please know that it’s possible to do it without millions in the bank or being born into an established business. It’s incredibly hard. It takes more determination than you think you have, but it is possible.”
For more information, visit www.brendanwisehorsemanship.com
Photos by James Berglie
