When Shelby (Thiebaud) Huxen was in high school, she’d often process her emotions by riding her horse. “If we had a bad practice or I was mad at my parents, or whatever teenage drama, or if I was frustrated or just needed a minute, I would just tell them, ‘Hey, I’m gonna go ride,’ and I’d get on and go ride for a while,” she said. “It was my own therapy that I didn’t even know I was using as therapy at the time.”
That “therapy” translated into a career for Huxen in the therapeutic riding field. “It was quite cool to see that that was an entire industry that helped people,” she said. Now, after 16 years working in therapeutic riding, Huxen has transitioned to a different industry, but still stays focused on helping people and families.
Her senior year of high school, Huxen spent her “college day” — a day off school to do a campus tour — helping out at Tarleton’s Special Kids Rodeo hosted by the Texan Therapeutic Riding Program. “It’s like a whole day for Special Needs classes to come and enjoy a rodeo day,” she said. “They would ride horses, do mock rodeo events. I helped out that whole day, and walked out of the barn and called my mom and said, “I’m going to Tarleton.’” Huxen graduated from Dublin High School in 2009, and did go on to Tarleton where she majored in Animal Industries. Her sophomore year, she began working with the Texan Therapeutic Riding program (then known as TREAT, (Tarleton’s Equine Assisted Therapeutic riding program), run at the time by Dr. David Snyder.
“I started as a student worker in January 2010 and then didn’t leave,” she said.
After she graduated with her bachelor’s degree in 2011, Huxen went on to get her masters in business administration, and worked at the therapeutic riding program as a graduate assistant. She earned her masters in 2013, and in 2014 was hired full time to run the program and do some teaching on the side.
Huxen found the work extremely rewarding. “In the simplest form, we were working with those with special needs and teaching them to ride a horse,” she said. “That’s the simplest version, but what we know about it is how good it is for the body, both physically, emotionally, even spiritually, and what it can do for a person.”
Huxen stayed with the program until May of last year, when Tarleton implemented some changes to the program and Huxen ended up being let go. While the news of being let go was jarring, Huxen felt in some ways it was time for her to move on. “We had been talking about it being my last year, because we have two little ones, and I wanted to be home,” she said. “It was kind of tough, but nonetheless, I had already been working in my spare time with a financial brokerage out of Fort Worth, just because we had kiddos and making some extra money seemed like a good idea,” she said.
Huxen was let go in May, and in July she found out she was pregnant with her third child. “God knew what He was doing,” she said.
Now, Huxen is able to work remotely as a financial advisor for Legend Financial, part of Level Up Financial Group, helping individuals and families plan for life’s expenses, including insurance, investments, mortgages and retirement.
“I helped my mother-inlaw retire after she’d had the same financial advisor for 30 plus years that told her she would have to work till she couldn’t,” Huxen said. “And six months later, we helped her retire and she’s got a pay raise every year. It’s those moments where I’m like, ‘Man, there is good out there.’ We are taking care of families, and I just really love what we do.”
Legend Financial is headquartered in Fort Worth, but Huxen and others at the company have recently worked with lots of clients in the Stephenville area, and are hoping to open up a branch of the company in Stephenville.
“We’re on the brink — I’d say in the next couple years — of opening our own office locally, and so we’re excited about that,” she said.
Huxen enjoys the flexibility of the work, which allows her to work from home and spend more time with her family. Huxen’s husband David Huxen is a full-time ER nurse in Stephenville. “It sounds cheesy, but we are living the dream right now, being intentional with our family and time and helping people in all areas,” she said. “This is what we prayed for.”
Huxen and her husband attend Lingleville Baptist Church. “We’re just kind of in the stage of life where we’re looking to build a home and get settled out here,” she said. “We really love this community and the family we’ve met at church, and just having our kids involved out there as well has been incredible.”
When Huxen is not working, she enjoys spending time with her husband and their three children, Tate, 5, Tripp, 2, and Hallie, 6 weeks. “We really love just spending time with the kids playing outside,” she said. “We love being around water when we can, and David and I really enjoy playing golf together… just staying active outside.”
Huxen’s parents, Daniel and Judy Thiebaud, moved to El Dorado, Texas nearly a decade ago, where her father serves as a pastor.
Throughout her life, Huxen has found inspiration in her faith. “Everything has been rooted in Jesus and, how do I make his name greater? How do I live for Him? That has always been the focus of everything I do,” she said.
In 2011, Huxen was in a bad car accident, and has spent many years recovering both emotionally and physically from the traumatic experience. “We’ve had some hard moments along the way, but in hindsight — and it’s always easier in hindsight — I can look back and know where God was moving, God was working, God was pruning, and that I would not be the wife that I am, the Mother I am, the daughter, sister, friend that I am, had I not been through all of that,” she said.
Huxen’s advice for future Dublin graduates is to soak up all the world has to offer. “I think my biggest advice is, lean in,” she said. “Don’t be scared to leave. But also, if God has you staying in Dublin, going to Tarleton, that’s okay, too. Just understand there’s a big world out there — don’t be scared to lean in and go where God calls you, even if it’s new, if it’s scary, whatever that may look like.”
— Where Are They Now chronicles what Dublin graduates have done since high school. If you have any suggestions for other grads, email publisher@dublincitizen.com.