Nashua Native Wins $120,000 Horse Training Contract

How does a $10,000 per month contract sound? That's the reality for one young Montana woman after recently claiming victory in the "Horse Help Train-Off."

Shaylin Barnett was candid when we first spoke about the competition in June. She basically was just shooting her shot in applying for the Mississippi-based event featuring horse trainers across the country vying for the top spot in a reality type program broadcast on YouTube. In fact, she thought her chances for so slim that she originally believed she was being pranked when she received the call telling her she'd made the top six. A fluke it was not.

"After I won," said Barnett, "I was like holy cow, there's a lot of things to think about now.

Indeed, her brain is in high gear. Her win comes with a $120,000 annual contract to continue training horses alongside the "Horse Guru," Michael Gascon, in Poplarville, Miss. A fifth-generation horse trainer, Gascon has been titled the #1 Gaited Horse Trainer in the World and has high aspirations to make it to the top of the equine industry. He is also an equine viral video sensation with over 350 million views on his social media videos.

A young woman with a ferocious work ethic, Barnett is leaving the future fairly open-ended. "You have to set goals bigger than what you think you can make," she says. "Even if you don't hit those large goals, you've hit something more than you thought you could along the way."

Curious as to what went into the competition?

You can now binge the YouTube playlist on the Horse Guru YouTube Channel.