Mark Upton is the senior director of agricultural products for Central Life Sciences, and he trains horses in his spare time.
Upton has profit and loss responsibilities for two businesses in his full-time position.
“The first business sells feed additive products that you would give to livestock to prevent flies,” Upton said. “The other business sells products such as sticky traps, scatter baits, and sprays used to kill or prevent flies.”
While he enjoys his day job, Upton pursues a passion that he has had since childhood.
“I grew up on a large ranch in eastern Oklahoma, and we always had horses,” Upton said. “After I graduated from Oklahoma State, my wife and I moved to South Carolina and had to sell all the horses. We moved back to Oklahoma in 1994, and I wanted to get back into it.”
Upton bought his first horse, but he had to be financially conservative.
“I couldn’t bring myself to spend a lot of money on a good horse with so many other things that we needed money for, especially while we were starting our family,” Upton said. “I was fortunate to be introduced to people who were great at training horses, and I learned from them. I made that first horse better and sold it for a profit.”
He started finding more horses and training them to increase their overall value on the market. Upton also competes as a tie-down roper in the rodeo world.
“I had an older horse that I was hauling to rodeos, but I wanted a younger one that I could start the training process with,” Upton said. “I was never afraid to ask for help, so I reached out to many people who are way better than me, and they helped me train that young horse.”
Eventually, life caught up with him, and he had to take a break from roping.
“I had to work and needed to spend more time with my kids, who were involved in a lot of stuff,” Upton said. “I’m also very involved in my church and community. So roping took a back seat for three or four years.”
After his kids graduated high school, he returned to his lifelong passion.
“Rather than buying horses to improve them, I’ve started raising a few,” Upton said. “I used to travel often with my job, but COVID changed that. Now I can train horses consistently and spend almost daily with them.”
He says that training horses is rewarding for him.
“You’re teaching an animal that doesn’t know anything about the job you’re asking it to do,” Upton said. “I’m not a patient person by nature, so it’s sometimes a challenge to enjoy the process. However, I enjoy seeing their response when they figure it out in the end.”
