Breaking a horse's bad habits is all in a days work for 39-year-old Donnie Bricker.

His stern voice and consistent reign tugs are familiar to some of the country's top colts. Bricker trains and shows horses from around the country in reigning competitions, or judged events showing the athletic ability of a ranch-type horse. His six-day work weeks also include teaching his trade to others.

"They're like products, where I can mold, develop and groom them into prized horses, but they're not all superstars," said Bricker, who has won multiple World and Year-End Championships. "This can be just a fun sport or a real money venture, kind of like horse racing."

This month, Bricker is preparing to enter 12 young horses in the Arizona Sun Country Circuit Jan. 28, hoping to get some qualified for the 2003 World Competition held in Oklahoma in November.

Bricker wasn't always a horse man. In his late teens and early 20s, the Pennsylvania native dabbled in auto mechanics and construction, but both were too repetitious for him. At age 24, he found himself accepting the chance to become an apprentice to Bill Horn, one of the sport's founding members and a leading rider who is a million-dollar competitor.

"In this business going up the ladder means moving around a lot and making changes often," said Bricker, who decided to settle and open a nine-acre facility of his own in Temecula four years ago.

At that time he was one of a handful of trainers in the area, he said, but now more than a dozen professional and amateur trainers are based in the wine country area.

Of his success, Bricker says he's not lucky, but rather determined to see the horses and other riders do well. In the clinics he offers, he advises others to be patient and hook up with someone who is successful to really learn the trade.

Although his passion sometimes requires 24-hour drives to competitions, long periods of time spent away from home and physical demands, he doesn't plan to retire until he's too old to ride.

"I'm content, and besides, it pays the bills."

Reach Jamie Ayala at (909) 587-3128 or jayala@pe.com