If you are looking for Dee Ann Staley, good luck!

Saddle a good horse and head out to the Wayne National Forest of Ohio, and you might find Dee Ann logging more hours and getting closer to her second 5,000-hour buckle with the AQHA Horseback Riding Program.

You can also find Dee Ann in the barns at the 2007 AQHA World Championship Show. She has two horses competing in halter. Tattle On Touchdown is an aged stallion and Coolest Touch qualified in open and amateur 3-year-old geldings.

“I like the competitiveness - the excitement,” Dee Ann said. “I show such totally different aspects from halter to barrels.”

Dee Ann keeps her barrel horses at home in Kitts Hill, Ohio, while halter horses “Dallas” and “Tattle” are fit and shown by Bill Coffman in open competition.

The Judgement is a 1996 sorrel stallion and Dee Ann’s barrel horse. She hopes to show “Wondie” in amateur performance halter next year. Dee Ann placed eighth in amateur 3-year-old geldings with Dallas at this year’s World Show.

Dee Ann said she takes Wondie on trail rides but accumulated about 90 percent of her HBR hours aboard another horse, 20-year-old bay gelding The Bud Light.

Dee Ann and her husband, Lonnie, trail ride for relaxation.

“We live in Southern Ohio where Ohio, Kentucky and West Virginia meet. So our house is in the middle of the Wayne National Forest, and you go out the back door to trail ride,” she said.

“My husband likes to trail ride, but he really likes to camp. My idea of roughing it is the Holiday Inn!” Dee Ann said, laughing.

She said her favorite ride aboard Bud Light was at Gettysburg with her father.

As a Civil War history buff, Dee Ann’s father, James Staley, decided he wanted to go on the Gettysburg ride.

“So we packed everybody up and rode while my mother went shopping,” Dee Ann said laughing. “It was great, tons of fun and it’s the one (ride) that stands out because that was the last ride my dad was able to do with us.”

James Staley died July 7. Ironically, Dee Ann was at a horse show that day earning her last point needed to qualify for the World Show with Tattle.

“We were fortunate to have the opportunity to buy (Tattle) and we just love him. My dad adored him,” Dee Ann said.

Another portion of Dee Ann and Lonnie’s involvement with Quarter Horses is their therapeutic riding facility. Two different families nominated their 28-year-old mare, Tippys Sugar Bar, for this year’s MD Silver Spur Award.

What started out as assisting with therapeutic lessons eight years ago has become a permanent fixture to the Staley family’s barn.

“Our school is called Mighty Oaks and Little Peanuts and we take the kids on trail rides a lot,” Dee Ann said.

The school provides individual care for mentally, physically and emotionally challenged children.

“You don’t give Tippy to the little boy, you give the little boy to Tippy,” Dee Ann said about their special mare and their newest student.

Surrounded by her horses and family, Dee Ann still finds time to work. She and her brother run two independent pharmacies in Ironton, Ohio.

Dee Ann has certainly come a long way since her first Quarter Horse, Custus Sandy Man, more than 30 years ago.

“I don’t think I have a life outside Quarter Horses,” she said.