Hunters Chase Farms--About Us

Marylaura Doherty, our proprietor, was born in 1966 in College Station while her dad ,Tom Bradfield ,attended veterinary school at Texas A&M and her mother, Kathy Bradfield, taught first grade. She was born into a family of horse lovers and veterinarians. Her aunt and uncle, Demarious & Martin Frey of Corpus Christi, were both veterinarians also. Her family moved to Westlake Hills in 1968 and opened Westlake Animal Hospital , which is now in the top two percent of veterinary clinics in the country. She was raised in the vet hospital. She has helped deliver baby horses, cows, goats, rabbits, kittens and puppies. Once she even helped her mom with a c-section on a cat that had been run over by a car. The kittens all lived. She always had animals to care for. Horses, goats, calves, chickens, ducks, pigs, and even peacocks to name a few were part of the daily routine.

Her mother Kathy Bradfield, who had always been a teacher by heart offered an "Experience school" when Marylaura was about 4-5 years old. Many children came and learned about riding, farm animals, gardening and even how to make ice cream and butter. Marylaura and her friends will never forget that summer.

Marylaura and her family also grew up going to the ranch. All the kids participated in working the cows which included penning ,vaccinating , neutering, and loading them in the cattle trailer . Riding the Brahma bull and the ranch horses were an added bonus. Her great uncle Mally Keller raised Thoroughbred race horses and that was always a treat especially to see his big pretty stallions. When Marylaura was about 12 she and her dad decided to start raising their own horses. After testing out a few auctions , they went from having just a few horses to about 20. Of course she tried to ride them all which most of them were not ride able. They had been brood mares for years. She then started training horses both young ones off the track and horses bought through horse traders or from someone's back yard. She learned a lot through trial and error and is now very successful with training just about any horse. She still raises a few babies just for fun.

Growing up , Marylaura always had a horse of her own. She started riding English and showing at age 6. Her first blue ribbon was won. She continued showing until Katherine was born and on and off since. Marylaura has trained with many different instructors and learned from them all. She has ridden through the hills and villages of Scotland , Hyde Park of London, beaches of Texas, Horse Tail Falls of Mexico and the mountains of Colorado and New Mexico.

Marylaura was teaching neighborhood kids to ride starting when she was 13. She received her real estate license before she graduated from high school. After high school she attended Southwest Texas State , Austin Community College and Texas A&M with a biology major and completing 130 college hours. The original intent was Veterinary school but while teaching riding during college her love for it grew and in 1988 decided to move back to Austin and incorporated Hunters Chase Farms. Her Grandfather helped her come up with the name. A hunter was the type of horse and riding that she liked the most and a chase was the area you rode in. It was perfect and that is how HCF began. She started at the ranch in Spicewood, then moved the barn to Bee Cave road then again to Spicewood and from there to Hamilton Pool Road. Now finally to her own property in Wimberley. This is where she now calls home.

Marylaura is happily married now to Dale Doherty with three kids of her own, Katherine, Triston and Hunter. All three of them ride and the whole family is a big part of the HCF program. Through all of her great experiences growing up, Marylaura has been able to live her dream. The HCF program of teaching children and adults how to love and care for the horse. This school is much more than just riding a horse. We see changes for the good in everyone everyday here. We cherish every moment of it and want to continue sharing this wonderful life with the rest of the world. "Boss Mare"

Dale and Marylaura were married September 15th, 2005. This was who she has been looking for all these years. Dale is her partner in everyway. He operates his own heavy equipment business . Dale has been in the concrete , cable, hunting business and a heavy equipment operator for years. He now builds arenas and works in central Texas with the bobcat clearing cedar, spreading rocks and dirt ,making driveways etc.. Dale loves kids and is awesome with all the students and is a great dad to Katherine, Triston and Hunter. Dale gets the same glory from changing a kids life as Marylaura does. Dale has years of experience driving with a trailer and they do a lot of hauling and road trips together along with all the horse shows.

Paulina is the newest edition to the HCF team and already fits right in. Paulina started riding when she was younger at Westbridge Equestrian, and trained there for about 10 years with Dee Ehlers. She had a great beginning with horses thanks to her, which will always stay with her. In the latter part of these years, she bought a young Thoroughbred and started training him. "Griffin" and her have been experienced in a variety of equine activities, most recently training in 3-Day Eventing with 2008 Rolex hopeful Christian Eagles. She has traveled a lot, and had the opportunity to train with Chris Bartle and Sue Foley, who introduced her to Eventing. She has attended Hunter/Jumper clinics held by Greg Best while at school at Colorado State University, and recently graduated with her BS in Equine Science with a concentration on business. She had many other great learning experiences like competing in Scotland on the CSU Equestrian Team, being VP of the Collegiate Horsemen's Association and getting to run her own 2-day horse show, and going on day-long trail rides in the beautiful Rockies! Here at Hunters Chase we are happy to have Paulina as part of the team! She has organized many fun events for us all! We are also able to learn alot from her exeriance in the Equine Industry, and Eventing.

Marylaura has had three children of her own, Katherine, Triston and Hunter. They have all been raised in the barn or in a back pack while she was teaching. All three ride and are a big part of the HCF operation.

Marylaura's daughter has assisted with teaching for most of her life. Katherine was born saying "up down, up down" and was in a back pack teaching with her mom at one week old. She was riding by herself on her 1st pony , Bubba, when she was two years old. Katherine started teaching campers parts of the horse and tack along with colors and other basics when she was 4. She started showing at age 5 on "My Ambition" . The winning began. She has continued assisting at HCF and winning in the show ring ever since. Katherine is very popular with all of our campers and students. Katherine plans to continue on with this great business for years to come. Katherine will continue to be a real asset to HCF forever.

Triston, Marylaura's middle child, is our trail boss. He and his pony , Colonel, know the trails with their eyes closed. He and his sister will gather up the horses and tack them up for the group that will be there soon. Triston assists the riders in getting on there horses then takes them out to enjoy the beautiful hill country. He also helps with camp and is Sam's main assistant. Triston is always very sweet and helps entertain the campers especially the sports minded boys for he is a big athlete himself. When not at the barn he is playing Baseball, Football or Soccer.

Hunter, is Marylaura's youngest. He was born in the year 2000 and is definitely a millennium child. He is very strong minded and quite physical himself. Always full of imagination and great stories, Hunter is our animal specialist. He has saved several orphan goats and a calf by encouraging them to drink when they were about to die. Every time you turn around he is teaching Macy Dog new tricks or trying to catch the rabbit or maybe holding a new born baby chicken while fighting off its mother. He learned how to ride on our beloved ambition. He is a cowboy for sure. He helps Polo clean the stalls or Juanita water the plants or helps his mom fix the fence. During camp he and his brother help with cleaning the pool and of course participate in many camp activities.