Ron Chlasta, Owner

R&M Stables is celebrating 10 years of serving riders from throughout Middle Tennessee offering camps, lessons, clinics, and trail competitions. As the owner, Ron Chlasta is dedicated to teaching horsemanship from the ground up. With a carefully planned curriculum, Ron’s overarching goals are to enable the horse and rider to achieve a working partnership regardless of the style or discipline of riding.
While there are many different points of entry into the equine world, Ron’s focus is on balanced and centered riding. It is important to him that the rider is not simply a ‘passenger’ on the horse, but a rider who can refine and improve their skills with an ability to partner and communicate with their horse. 
Ron gains the most satisfaction from seeing a rider discover that they are capable of exhilarating and amazing breakthroughs in their abilities to perform on the horse. A huge fan of obstacle training, he feels that it is important to have a horse that can be used beyond the show ring and versatile enough to be solid on the trail and for everyday work as simple as riding to the mailbox to check for the mail.
Always looking for innovative ways to inspire the next generation of riders, Ron has developed a unique program for year-round students who ride at R&M known as Junior Wranglers. ‘Leadership through horsemanship’ is the mission of this program and next generation leaders who are selected as junior wranglers are exposed to everything that is involved in operating a working horse ranch. With a focus on business, facility, and equine, these young students gain confident leadership skills that will enable them to serve in the local community currently and in many years to come.
As a rider, Ron is a member of the County Mounties, a search and rescue program that has units throughout the US. While not a sworn police officer, he also rides as an auxiliary member with Hendersonville mounted police unit. As a certified rider, Ron has competed in the National Police Colloquium at the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington, KY. In 2021, he and his horse Trooper placed first in equitation, second in individual obstacles, second in combined obstacle and equitation and first in the department award (obstacle & equitation scores) with Sargeant Kevin Hooper of Nashville Parks department. Ron and Jeff Duren of Hendersonville PD placed 7 th overall in the tandem obstacle competition. In 2017, Ron had two horses in the tandem obstacle competition, winning the event with Ron riding Trooper and Jason Parizek riding Geronimo.

In Middle Tennessee, Ron’s horses have won the WHOA (Walking Horse Owners Association) championships in both individual and tandem obstacles. In 2017, his horse was the overall WHOA champion at the Miller Coliseum in Murfreesboro service horse division international championships.
While the competitions are fun, Ron enjoys the day to day routine at R&M Stables, observing interactions of students and horses and finding great joy in seeing what the horse does for people in their own personal development.

Camp Director/Teacher:  Cella Garro

Cella Garro, head trainer of R&M Stables, is the all around equestrian that every barn needs. As our very first “wrangler” to step foot on our ranch, she is an example of our leadership program. She has been in the saddle since she was 4 years old and has vast experience in nearly every discipline of riding from dressage to eventing, reining to ranch riding, showing both locally and nationally. Through the years, Cella has focused on a basis of vaquero horsemanship and Buck Brannaman teaching. Her goal is to spread her all round knowledge of horses “from the ground up” and create future educated riders in whichever discipline they decide. There is nothing she loves more than a challenge and educating both horse and riders on how to work together as a team. Her goal is to solve the puzzles that create great horsemen.

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Rebekah Shelton:  Teacher

Hello! I am a native Tennessean who has been riding since I was 15. I spent my early horse years working in a multi discipline-boarding barn where I learned horsemanship from the ground up, fundamentals of training, care of the horses and the facilities. I taught and assisted in summer pony camps and beginner rider coaching. I started young horses along with developing my own horses.
 
I competed in the Southern Tennessee All Star rodeo, local saddle club, and participated in the 4-H equine program throughout high school. My main events were barrel racing, pole bending, goat tying, and breakaway roping. After high school I worked as a private contractor for Alpha & Omega Mounted Patrol for Bonnaroo’s 2009 and 2010 festival seasons. I attended Sam Houston State University in Texas and was a member of the College’s Rodeo Team. Go Bearkats!
 
After spending 5 years in Law Enforcement I spent a year in Florida working in the broodmare division of a thoroughbred race horse farm. After returning to Tennessee, I started my current employment with Metro Nashville Parks Police as a member of their mounted unit.
 
I have ridden a variety of disciplines including but not limited to the following:
Western - working cow horse, competitive trail, speed events, ranch rodeo
English - jumping, dressage, Hunter pace, and exercise riding.
 
I believe the gift of horses can help children learn healthy ways of dealing with the challenges that life can throw at them, as well as giving them an outlet for various struggles. Leadership, responsibility, and a greater appreciation for God’s creatures are the golden nuggets hidden in true horsemanship. I look forward to spending time with you passing on the wonderful things I have learned over the years.
 
“No hour of life is lost that is spent in the saddle.”
Winston Churchill.

Brian Felts:
Teacher

Brian Felts started in the saddle at the ‘ripe old age’ of 3 years old. Both of his grandfathers were accomplished cowboys working their respective ranches in west Texas where all of the work with cattle was done from horse back. 

Because of this exposure to horses and ranch work, Brian decided to follow in his grandfather’s boots pursuing horsemanship goals during his early formative years. While his grandfather was a world champion team roper and calf roper being exposed to the rodeo early on had a huge impact on Brian’s life. In high school he was a member of his school’s rodeo team competing in calf roping, team roping and eventually began to ride bulls. 

Two of his favorite mentors were Marty Simpler and Clinton Anderson, both of whom Brian had the privilege of taking lessons from. Because of his interactions with these men, Brian has developed an innate ability in assessing how pain can cause a horse to move or even behave badly. He has an innate sense of reading the horse’s body language to determine what the horse is trying to tell us about where they are experiencing pain. 

He has developed his own method of trigger point therapy that helps to destress the horse. He has done amazing work with the horses at R&M Stables to keep them moving and pain free as they are working and teaching lessons on a weekly basis.

We are excited to have Brian join our team as a clinician and teacher. He has many innovative ideas to expand our curriculum to include ranch work/riding and teaching both youth and adults new skills in working cows in his large animal movement clinics.