Diane has 40 yrs experience in the Arabian Horse Industry as a rider, trainer, instructor, and now judge of local shows while working on her "r" AHA judges card.
Diane grew up Diane Delaporte in Plano, Tx where her family owned and operated Delarabia Horse Farm from 1966 -1980. Delarabia Horse Farm bred and raised champion Arabian horses that were shown all around Region 9. Nationally, Delarabia’s stallion, Ramaraas of Delta C was named National Top Ten in English Pleasure in 1973, and also carried Diane to Top Ten in Saddle Seat Equitation.
In 1975, Diane married Randy Shockley and they started their own training stable. After only one show season, they were hired by Imperial Egyptian Stud in Parkton, MD. The couple trained and showed horses all over the United States for Imperial for two and a half years. Diane and Randy moved to Goleta CA to run their own training stable until 1979 when Diane moved back to Plano, Tx and started Winnerhaven Training Stable. She continued training horses and riders throughout Region 9 for several more years.
Diane was away from the Arabian industry for a over a decade while she raised her family and earned a B.S. in Elementary Education, when long time friend, Bruce Crockett passed away. Bruce's wife, Joanne, asked Diane to keep training the horses that Bruce had been training at their facility until she had time to decide what her future held. Diane jumped at the chance to work horses again and stayed to work with Joanne for the next couple of years.
Diane took another short break from the horse industry, but never lost touch, visiting the local shows as a spectator. In 2009, Diane was asked to ring-master at the State Fair of Texas and was honored to work with her friend Judy DeLongpre' Kibler. Judy encouraged her to get her judges card. . .and that’s exactly the path that Diane has taken.
In May of 2011, Diane reopened Winnerhaven - this time in Austin, Tx. She has spent the last year and a half introducing "non-equestrian" folks to our equestrian industry via riding lessons, both english and western as well as general horsemanship. She has taken a couple of horses in training along the way and is excited to extend that part of Winnerhaven as she welcomes a select group of Arabian and Half-Arabian horses and their owners into the training division of Winnerhaven with the ultimate goal of preparing these teams for the show ring. 2013 is going to be very exciting as Winnerhaven Training Center will be competing at various Region 9 Arabian Horse Shows with a great group of Adult Amateurs and their horses!
