11/19/2024
Our leaders and elders of the Nez Perce Appaloosa Horse Club - Jon & Rosa Yearout. Owners of MY Sweetwater Appaloosas.
Day 7 - Celebrating Indigenous Elders / Leaders
✨Jon & Rosa Yearout✨
Jon and Rosa Yearout continue the horse culture for their 9 children, 37 grandchildren, and 10 great-grandchildren.
Jon was raised by his parents, Jack and Nellie Yearout, in Wapato. He and his siblings rode horses all over the Yakima valley. His dad was a well-known trainer of Thoroughbred horses for the racetrack. .
Rosa's parents are Titus Spencer and Rena Katherine Lott. She grew up riding horses in the hills around Kamiah. Her great-grandma Ida Showaway trained horses, so she learned many aspects of horse ownership. As a teen, she won the American Indian Beauty contest at Pendleton which involved wearing a traditional outfit while riding a horse with beaded horse trappings.
They say when they married in 1972 that they joined two horse herds. The horses they both owned eventually grew to a herd of close to 100 Appaloosas or Nez Perce horses (Appaloosa and Akhal-teke). They formed the M-Y (McFarland-Yearout) Sweetwater Appaloosa business.
Through their leadership, the Nez Perce Appaloosa Horse Club has advanced the horse culture with efforts to teach riding, training, and revitalization of the Nez Perce National Historical Trail.
Jon and Rosa have both rode the entire 1,170 mile trail at least once. With their family and friends, they have logged thousands of miles seeing the Nez Perce homeland in the best way possible-- on the back of a horse.
