Marnie Somers
has over forty years of management experience in the public and private sectors in Ontario and Manitoba. Somers began her freelance writing career in 1993, and was regularly published in numerous North American light and heavy horse periodicals, breed journals, industry magazines and agricultural community newspapers, until she decided upon a career change, in the fall of 2006.

Somers enrolled full time at Assiniboine Community College (ACC) in the Web Design diploma course, where she took courses in Web Design, Digital Imaging and Graphics, Visual Design, Digital Audio, Flash, Dreamweaver, and Computer Operating Systems.

First elected In 1996, Somers was elevated to Director-At-Large status in March of 2011, on the Board of Directors of the American Quarter Horse Association.She attends annual AQHA meetings in the US and Canada, and is one of fifteen provincial/ regional Canadian AQHA Directors.

Since 1974, Somers has owned, bred and trained American Quarter horses which she has shown competitively at open and breed shows in Manitoba, Saskatchewan and north western Ontario.Currently Somers owns two registered Quarter Horses.

Somers is the 2010-11 President of the Canadian Quarter Horse Association an elected position held since 2000. She was instrumental in establishing the CQHA's web site in 2002 and currently serves as its web master.

Somers is serving her second term on the Board of Directors of Equine Canada, the national governing body for all things equestrian in Canada. From 2000 to 2003, she was an elected Director-At-Large, and is currently the EC Industry Division's representative appointed to the Board.

A past president of the Manitoba Quarter Horse Association,Somers serves on MQHA’s Board of Directors as Chair of the Public Relations and Equine Welfare Committees. She designed, implemented the MQHA's web site, and currently serves as its web master.

Email:marnie@horsescoops.com

(Self-portrait generated during
Digital Imaging Course at ACC)

In 2005, Somers was honoured by recognition from her peers. She was awarded the MQHA's Lorna Greig Memorial "Builder's Award" and proclaimed "Horse Person of the Year - 2005" by the Manitoba Horse Council.

Email:
wilf@horsescoops.com

(Portrait taken for Digital
Imaging Course at ACC)

Wilf Davis graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Agriculture, from the University of Saskatchewan in 1959. Following graduation, Davis spent eleven years working with all aspects of beef cattle production, as a livestock specialist for the Manitoba Department of Agriculture.

In 1969, Davis was instrumental in establishing Bar 5 Simmental Stock Farms Ltd. As part of Bar 5, in the early 1970’s, Davis selected and imported Simmental cattle foundation breeding stock from Switzerland, Austria, Germany and France, helping to introduce the breed in North America. A member of the Canadian Simmental Association and the Manitoba Simmental Association, Davis has developed, promoted and merchandised purebred Simmentals to a world-wide market.

In 2006, Davis was honoured by the World Simmental Association with their Golden Book Award, for his significant contribution to the Simmental industry. The same year, Davis was inducted into the Canadian Simmental Association's Hall of Fame.

Davis is currently a self-employed livestock marketing consultant for a variety of purebred cattle producers. Services include: sales management. livestock photography, co-ordinating advertising programs, cattle selection and order buying.

Davis owns a small herd of Simmental cows and heifers from which he raises quality black and red Simmental calves, in partnership with Bill and Nancy Biglieni of WLB Livestock, Douglas, MB.

Rhett Borton

Rhett Borton was born in Portage La Prairie, Manitoba and his family moved to Lethbridge, Alberta when he was four-years-old. When he turned 16, Borton relocated to Brandon and graduated from Crocus Plains High School, in 1994. After working a few years in the automobile service industry, Borton decided to pursue a more creative career, one that would complement his extensive computer skills.

Borton enrolled at Assiniboine Community College in the Web Design course, (where he was a classmate of Marnie Somers) and has earned top grades in every class. He is trained in design, web scripting, content creation and site management. Course emphasis is placed on fundamental web, multimedia and visual design skills and creating compelling content in a full range of media that includes text, graphics, audio, video and animation.

In addition, Borton has mastered a full complement of high-end, industry-standard applications, such as Flash, Photoshop, Dreamweaver, Illustrator, and Maya, and the sophisticated technical skills of Internet scripting and rich media authoring.

Since graduating from his four-year web design program, Borton is a consulting associate for Carberry Sandhills Consulting. Marnie Somers says, “Whenever I have a coding issue to resolve, Rhett is my ‘go to’ guy. I know that he abides by his personal motto, ‘Everything is worth doing right the first time. Clean coding structure makes changes on the fly, quicker to implement to get the client's views across, accurately.’ I feel very fortunate to be able to count Rhett as a personal friend, as well as a highly competent business associate.”