Wind In Your Hair Riding. Photo: Park City Chamber of Commerce

PARK CITY, Utah — Some dreams take a lifetime to build. For Sueanne Clark, founder of Wind in Your Hair Riding, that dream began in Australia, where she grew up with a deep love for horses.

“I’ve loved horses ever since I was a little girl,” she shares. “I used to cry myself to sleep at night because my parents wouldn’t buy me a horse. I like to joke that it took me 47 years to manifest not just one horse, but seven.”

Today, those seven horses are part of the story behind Wind in Your Hair Riding, the horseback riding company she has operated in Wanship, Utah, for nearly four decades.

Finding the right horse

Before starting her own business, Sueanne worked as a para-groom and spent years around horses. During that time, fellow para-grooms repeatedly encouraged her to try riding a Paso Fino.

One ride was all it took.

Sueanne had the opportunity to participate in a beach photoshoot, riding bareback in a bikini on a Paso Fino. It was an experience she never forgot.

Sueanne remembers the moment when she first experienced the Paso’s gait. “She went into her little gait and then the canter — I thought I’d died and gone to heaven. I remember thinking, someday I’m going to have a Paso Fino.”

Years later, she went to work for one of Utah’s first Paso Fino breeders. Over seven years, she raised and trained many of the horses from foals, developing a strong bond with the herd. Eventually, the owner’s family decided it was time to sell the remaining horses and asked Sueanne to act as the selling agent. “It was just a total ‘heart-gut’ thing,” Sueanne remembers. “It’s like, these are my babies, the herd would’ve been split up.”

Rather than watching the horses go their separate ways, she made a bold decision. She went to the bank “on a whim” and obtained a loan. “This was the ’80s,” she laughs. “Back then, a single woman with nothing but seven horses used as collateral could get a loan.”

That decision became the foundation of Wind in Your Hair Riding.

Teaching more than riding

Sueanne has now been teaching horsemanship for 37 years. “I teach from ages 4 to 84,” she says. While many guests come for a trail ride, her focus has always been on helping people understand horses, not just ride them. “It’s not just about getting on a saddled horse,” she explains. What she teaches involves everything from being around horses, which includes safety, control on the ground, and learning to speak the horse’s language. “They all have their own language, just like cats do and dogs do,” she explained.

Everything Sueanne teaches on the ground transfers to the experience in the saddle. By building confidence and understanding before riders ever mount up, she helps create a safer and more meaningful connection between horse and rider. That philosophy extends to the riding experience itself. Guests are offered the opportunity to groom their horses, help saddle them, give them treats, and spend time with them before and after the ride. “It adds another dimension to the ride,” Sueanne explains. “It’s what embodies Wind In Your Hair Riding.”

For many visitors, those moments become some of the most memorable parts of the experience.

A different way to experience Park City

Over the years, Sueanne has welcomed guests from around the country and across the globe. Many visitors plan their trips around the opportunity to ride with her and experience Park City from a different perspective. “When I think about Mountainkind, I think about the importance of preserving the beauty and uniqueness of the Park City area, and sharing that appreciation of the land with others, on horseback.”

For many first-time visitors, horseback riding offers a slower, quieter way to experience the area and connect with the landscape. Just as important to Sueanne is protecting the land that makes those experiences possible. Preserving the environment and the landscape has always been part of how she approaches riding, teaching, and sharing her love of horses with others.

Wind in Your Hair Riding began with a simple dream and a lifelong love of horses. That dream evolved into a business that has introduced thousands of riders to the world of horses over nearly four decades. For Sueanne, the work remains as rewarding today as it was when she started.

“I just love it,” she says.

After 37 years, that’s still the best explanation for why she’s doing it.

Read more Our Town stories on the Park City Chamber of Commerce’s blog.