Inspiring Conversations with Taylor McCollum

Today we’d like to introduce you to Taylor McCollum.

Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I grew up in Southern CA and was always super interested in horses. I rode and took lessons but didn’t get my first true horse of my own until middle school. He was a retired San Bernardino County police horse – Mr. T. This was a snowball effect that lead to an arguably unhealthy obsession. You could find me horseback pretty much every free second I had! I was lucky to grow up on the banks of the Mojave River which ran through a pretty large area of protected land so I had hundreds of acres to ride directly outside in my backyard. Up until college I rode endurance, and Western pleasure, and started working at a reining barn once I graduated. I was also a driving apprentice for a long time and drove horse-drawn horses at my hometown’s cemetery. I broke my first horse at 15 years old for an old man that lived in my neighborhood, Ed Gross. It was a little Palamino colt that I fell in love with.

I moved to TN in 2021 and brought an old mare here with me that I have had for about 15 years. We found a beautiful spot to board her in Springfield. Fast forward a few months and I started training at this facility. What started as a fun project to help me from getting too homesick turned into a Rolodex of students and training horses that kept growing and growing. When the current owners expressed their interest in selling, I jumped on the opportunity in an effort to save the barn and the property from developers.

I reached out to a client, Chris Hunt, and his wife Kristen, and expressed my interest in the purchase and not knowing where to start. Chris is a successful businessman in the area, and one thing led to another, Chris and I decided to take on the venture together. We really balance each other out – what we lack, the other makes up for. We are truly opposites, but it works for us!

Since the purchase of the property in March, we have built up a student base of over 40 (with an extensive waitlist), and an immense amount of training horses, and are developing community involvement efforts that include leadership and awareness opportunities. We host shows and events, have an on-site Air BnB above the barn, board, train, and sell. Our specialty is colt starting – a true artform when done correctly – that is becoming rarer as a service offered.

We are excited to see what the future holds!

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
NO! Owning a business is the hardest thing I have ever done! You are on call 24/7 – especially when it comes to being responsible for taking care of other people’s horses. You never know what is going to happen: weather, injury, or utility outages that shut down the facility. Horseback riding is a dangerous sport as well. Injuries, kicks, bites, getting bucked off. You have to be 100 % in it, it isn’t a hobby or a business, it’s a lifestyle that you have to be bought into every second of every day or it can get overwhelming. It doesn’t matter the weather or how you are feeling, those animals need to eat twice a day, every day of the year. Holidays, weekends. Vacations are not a thing in this industry. Blood, sweat, and tears get poured into this place every. single. day.

People’s relationships with their horses are personal for so many reasons. Horse ownership is an investment, both financially and in yourself. Being in this sport brings out the best and the worst in you. We end up becoming counselors in some lessons. It is physically and mentally taxing so we never know what is going to be unearthed internally in a training session. With any sport, we are dealing with the creation of leaders and athletes, except with a whole other layer to it – all other athletes in this world deal with one mind – in equestrian sports you have to control your mind, plus that of a 12oo pound animal that can statistically kill you in 7 seconds. Every day there is so much to do and so much to process!

That being said, nothing good comes in life without struggle, and the reward of getting through a tough session, seeing a well-trained horse go to their forever home, or winning that blue ribbon is indescribable. Being a part of so many people’s journeys and educating the community on these beautiful creations is the most rewarding life I could imagine.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
Hello Nashville and beyond!

My name is Taylor McCollum. I am the Owner and Trainer at Breakaway Ranch, We are a full-service equestrian facility 30 minutes North of downtown Nashville, but we are so much more than that. We are a community of cowboys, hippies, creatives, outlaws, black sheep, and artists who are navigating this life with the help of horses.

On paper we offer boarding, lessons, training, sales, events, showing, and overnight horse boarding and we have an Airbnb onsite that is charming and cozy, situated directly above our horse stalls.

In reality what we are is a place of togetherness, creation, learning, and development.

A horse is considered a “mirror” animal. In essence, they show you your strengths and weaknesses through communication all their own. We are lucky enough to train these animals to understand us, as much as they train us to understand them. We then get the opportunity to teach this to our clients and visitors.

We specialize in colt starting (training horses who have never been ridden or worked with before) and train Ranch Versatility/reining cow/performance horses (think Yellowstone for my non-horsey people).

We live a magical life where every day we are taught a new life lesson. It is hard work – there is blood, sweat, tears, and an immense amount of trial and error that we experience every day. But with that, there is a great reward.

We can’t wait to share it with you.

Any big plans?
In the near future, we are thinking about adding some more community involvement-type things (both for our horsey and non-horsey friends).

As we continue to grow we will expand our training and sales business, grow our show team and offer opportunities for young people to learn leadership and life through riding and working. We also have some plans to expand a part of our business to Nashville more directly, but more of that later.

Pricing:

• Stall Boarding – $600 /month
• Pasture Boarding – $400 /month
• “The Loft” rental – please call
• Events – please call
• Sales – please call

Contact Info:

• Website: breakawayranch.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/breakawayranchtn/?next=%2F
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100083471793679