Cowboy Jim is Jim Moore, known as one of the regions leading horsemanship trainers.

Please tell us a little bit about yourself. 

In 2002, I started a company in Los Angeles called ‘Cowboy Boot Camp.’ My primary goal is to teach horsemanship. I always wear this cowboy get up – boots, my wrangler jeans, and my cowboy hat. The American cowboy is one of the most recognizable symbols throughout the world. I work with my horses just about every day. I have four. I like to teach a natural approach to horsemanship because there’s a lot of voodoo horsemanship out there. Anytime you get 12 cowboys together, you’ll get 15 different answers to the same questions. What I try to do is teach a practical approach to horsemanship. I want to bring out the instincts of what horses do in nature. I feel more mature and much calmer since I have been around these horses.

Q: What inspired you to your current career?

A: I worked with the Hollywood Reporter, a prominent trade publication, right on Sunset Boulevard. It was very stressful. There was a little place out in Burbank that had horses, and I would escape to ride them. A group of Hollywood cowboys would ride together, and I ended up meeting a lot of my celluloid heroes.

Q:  When did you start focusing on horses, and how did that evolve? 

A: I moved to Sedona because I fell in love with the area. We wanted to get out of Los Angeles, and we had a great place in the Palos Verdes Peninsula area. There were a hundred miles of trails and probably over 3000 horses in the South Bay of Los Angeles. But it was still LA, and I was looking to have wide-open spaces. My wife and I drove down from the Grand Canyon, and we were looking for a place to settle. I’ve been to Sedona many times, and this was her first trip. I said, “Well, once you see Sedona, you won’t want to move anywhere else.” The sun was setting as we drove down 89A, and she says, “This is where I want to stay,” and we’ve been here ever since.

Q: How long have you lived in Sedona?

A: We lived in the horse trailer right here on this property while we were building. It’s been about five years now, but we’ve been in the house a little over two years.

Q:  How do people respond to the “natural approach” of teaching horses?

A: A lot of the people I’ve worked with would say, “I don’t need lessons.” When I was a kid, my dad threw me on the back of the horse, slapped its butt, and that’s how I learned how to ride”. I start showing people how gentle you can be with getting your horse to do what he naturally wants to do. A horse wants to please you. He wants to have a good working relationship. People ask, “How do you know that horse wants you on his back?” Well, that’s 1200 pounds of solid muscle, and if he did not want you there, you would not be there.

Q:  Talking about building a relationship with your horse rather than treating him like a motorcycle, you need to have a connection to ask him to do things naturally, right?

A: Right. When the movie ‘The Horse Whisperer’ came out, everybody was a horse whisperer. I feel that the horse is speaking very loudly and clearly to me. I want to look at the horse, see what it does, see how he works, and then expand upon that. That human-animal bond is so essential to a horse. Many people tend to look at these magnificent creatures as something that they are not. They’re not a dog. They’re not your pet, and they’re not your best friend. There’s only one thing that animal will ever be, and that’s a horse. Our job is to communicate with them in a way that they understand.

Q:  Who did you meet in Sedona when you first came here, and what inspired you to get involved as heavily as you are in the community?

A: I would say the people here in the village because we didn’t know anybody. Our contractor, Dave Bearman, is pretty active in the community, and he took me to a few places, introduced me to a few people. I’m kind of quiet and shy. Generally, it was the friendliness and the openness of the people here in Sedona.

Q: When people come to visit, where do you take them?

A: My front yard, ha-ha. When people get here, the first thing they want to do is ride the horses. There are a few safe trails around Courthouse and Bell Rock. I enjoy showing them the magic and the feeling of Sedona from the back of the horse.

Q:  How would you like to be remembered?

A: I would like to be known as a horseman and an ambassador for the horse because they are such magnificent creatures.