The Powerhouse Coalition Known as Living on the Edge Partners
- Melanie Smith
- Oct 10
- 9 min read
“When Ty saw that horse, he said we weren’t leaving without him.”
Melanie Smith laughed as she remembered the moment she and Ty Smith laid eyes on Third Edge at the Teton Ridge Absolute Dispersal Sale Sept. 28, 2025.
“He said he had a gut feeling," Melanie said. "That was all I needed to hear to know we could throw that pro forma in the trash. We were buying this horse — because sometimes your gut outruns your budget.”
Months of planning had led up to that moment—spreadsheets, late-night conversations, and a pro forma that had been stretched, squeezed, and reworked until they knew exactly how far they could go. They’d spent those weeks quietly gathering every resource they could, preparing for what they knew would be a fight in the sale ring.
“When we buy horses, real estate, anything, it has to pencil,” Melanie said. “We don’t buy anything for the photo or the press release. When we wake up in the morning, there’s no backup plan. It has to work. We have a team at home who trusts us to make smart decisions, because those choices feed their families and ours."
"When we wake up in the morning, there’s no backup plan. It has to work."— Melanie Smith
Ty is no stranger to buying and selling record-setting horses. In fact, he’s been behind nearly every headline-making sale in the Western performance horse industry over the past five years.
When the bidding started, there were plenty of heavy hitters in the mix, but Ty had already made up his mind.
When he nodded his head for the final time, it wasn’t about the money—it was about the horse.
“You can’t explain it, but you know it when you see it. He’s got it," Ty said.
“Right after we bought him, I texted our long-time controller Laura and said, ‘Gather up the money,’” Melanie said. “She liked the message.That’s all I needed. It’s cool knowing you’ve got people on the other side who are just as all-in, like ‘let’s go.’ If we had a business with any amount of cash reserves in it, we were moving it. That horse was getting paid for. And I’ll tell you, I slept like a rock that night. No second-guessing. Not for a second.”
Within hours, their closest circle of customers and friends—people who’d built businesses from the ground up and knew what it meant to take a risk—wanted in.
Some of them had been part of the early talks, but Third Edge ended up well past those original numbers. Still, nobody hesitated. There was no backup plan, no safety net, just a shared gut feeling that it was the right move.
Over the next 12 days, those people came together to form a partnership that perfectly captured the spirit of everyone involved. A coalition of founders, builders, and risk-takers who shared the same fire and the same passion for the horse industry joined together.
They called it Living on the Edge Partners.
Because that’s what they’d all been doing their entire careers, pushing limits, taking chances, and betting on themselves.
The record-setting purchase of this stallion was no different.
7K Quarter Horses
Kurt Neff of 7K Quarter Horses has been quietly upping his game in the performance horse industry—buying embryos, mares, and prospects that are destined for the spotlight over the next several years. A holder of multiple shares in The Darkk Side, he’s recently invested in Alll In, the 4-year-old Metallic Rebel stallion set to be shown by Joseph Harrison, and Hesa Dual Bet, the $212,000 earner that will stand at Solo Select in 2026.
Beyond the horse program, Neff operates Neff Livestock, a successful cattle ranch and feeding business that runs cattle at the family’s own feedlot in Idaho as well as in Sterling, Colorado. That operation has been the foundation of his success and reflects the same work ethic and foresight that guide his investments in the horse business.
“Kurt has a gritty story,” Melanie said. “He’s built his business buying and selling cattle from the ground up. He’s no stranger to the game, and he’s been asking about getting in on a big-time stallion with us for years. We just had to wait for the right one to come along.”
Neff credits much of his success to his team and family. His longtime manager, Kreg VanOrden, has played a vital role in both the cattle and horse operations, bringing passion and precision to every aspect of the program. His wife, Amy, keeps everything grounded, while their son, Tayson, manages the family feedlot and will carry the legacy forward to the next generation.
Carpenter Farms
Todd Carpenter isn’t new to building big things. A 40-year media executive who started in newspaper production at just 13, he went on to lead Boone Newsmedia as president and CEO before founding Carpenter Media Group, one of the most influential voices in community journalism. His leadership has touched hundreds of publications and shaped the way stories of the American heartland are told. Todd and his wife, Emily, have three grown children — all entrepreneurs themselves — who reside in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. His success in media has been built on vision, execution and a knack for turning ideas into scalable realities, traits that translate seamlessly into the performance horse world.
Horses, though, have been part of his life from the start. Todd grew up following bird dogs with his father and brother on the old Tri-State Circuit, and later worked alongside his dad in a small racing and breeding operation. That early exposure to horses laid the foundation for a passion that never really left.
Now, through Carpenter Farms, Todd and his family are bringing that same focus and precision to his newest passion: breeding elite cutting and Western performance horses. With ranch manager Matt Williams helping oversee daily operations and development, Carpenter Farms is making deliberate acquisitions of mares and key prospects, laying the foundation for a program built to last. And with his recent step into the stallion game through Living on the Edge Partners, his presence in the industry is about to grow fast.
“Todd’s background is fascinating,” Melanie said. “He’s a self-made businessman who’s built empires from scratch. He understands how to grow something the right way, and he’s doing the same thing now in this industry.”
Tercer Borde
The third piece of the ownership group is Tercer Borde LLC—a collaborative partnership of respected horsemen and cattlemen who bring a mix of experience and perspective that strengthens the foundation behind Third Edge.
T7 Ranches
Kaleb Terlip of T7 Ranches first teamed up with Solo Select in 2020 on Woody Be Tuff, a move that raised eyebrows across the industry at the time.
“Kaleb basically said either WE—being him and Solo Select—were buying Woody or HE was buying Woody,” Melanie laughed. “Kaleb was not leaving without him that day at the sale. I wasn’t excited about having a partner at first. Ty, the eternal optimist, said it was all going to be good. He was right. We gave a million dollars for a 20-year-old stud, and people thought we’d lost it. But that story played out beautifully. Woody has since more than doubled his progeny earnings and solidified his place as one of the most influential sires of our time. It’s been a privilege to help lead him through the later part of his career.”
“When Third Edge came up, Kaleb started getting that familiar itch,” Melanie said. “He wasn’t going to miss out on this one, and I think his family helped make sure of it. His daughter Kylar’s been racking up titles across the cutting horse industry, and she might’ve applied a little pressure to make sure he got in.”
Since Woody Be Tuff, Terlip has partnered on multiple other stallions without hesitation, expanding his ownership portfolio across a wide range of disciplines within the Western performance horse industry.
His partnerships now include Pride And Joyy, 2024’s winningest roping stallion; Meteles Cat, an NCHA Hall of Fame stallion; and Time To Glo, 2023’s leading roping earner.
3 String Cattle Company
Redgie Probst of 3 String Cattle Company founded and grew specialty contracting firms before merging them into Quanta Services in 2013. Over time, he rose through the ranks, eventually becoming Chief Operating Officer of Quanta Services, a Fortune 200 infrastructure and utility services company with tens of thousands of employees and multibillion-dollar revenues.
As a partner in Time To Glo and other Solo Select stallion investments, Probst blends his corporate discipline with his lifetime passion for the Western industry. In 2024, he hosted the first Old West Roping Futurity at his ranch in Utah, offering more than $1 million in payouts—a bold statement of commitment to the sport. In 2025, he expanded the Old West Futurity and hosted the Old West Rope Horse Sale that saw millions of dollars of new money infused into the sport.
Probst is deeply invested not just financially, but emotionally, in building legacy for the next generation. He often speaks of doing it for his daughters, who are a major part of the 3 String Horse Division that is building a program across multiple disciplines.
Las Tunas Cattle Company
Miguel Guerrero of Las Tunas Cattle Co. brings a strong international presence and a deep background in both cattle and performance horses to Living on the Edge Partners.
Based in Chihuahua, Mexico, Guerrero has built Las Tunas Cattle Co. into a respected operation recognized by the American Quarter Horse Association’s International Best of Remuda Award. In addition to his ranching operation, Guerrero plays a leading role in his family’s global mining enterprise, experience that brings real-world business insight and strategic perspective to his role in managing and developing elite horses.
Guerrero is also a partner in Time To Glo, underscoring his dedication to supporting elite horses across disciplines.
His business reach, horsemanship, and global perspective make him an invaluable part of the partnership, helping bridge relationships and influence across borders.
A&C Racing and Roping
A&C Racing and Roping, based in Roosevelt, Utah, has been operating since 1985 under the leadership of Albert and Chad Richard, and now Chad’s son, Rhen Richard.
Over the decades, the Richard family has built it into one of the most respected programs in the industry focused on breeding, training, and selling high-quality rope and race horses.
In 2009, their homebred mare Runnning Brook Gal won the All-American Futurity, becoming the first Utah-bred racehorse to claim that title and later earning over $1.3 million on the track.
Today, A&C maintains a broodmare band of 30 to 40 mares. Rhen—a five-time NFR qualifier in the heading and the tie-down roping—develops some of the most successful futurity head horses in the world, with most of them being home bred. A&C is one of the pioneers of breeding elite head horses, and their influence is seen beside the winners’ names time and again.
The Richards were also among the founding partners of the Old West Roping Futurity. Their vision and investment helped bring the concept to life alongside Redgie Probst, setting a new benchmark for payouts, production quality, and opportunity within the roping industry.
In Chad and Rhen’s role in Living on the Edge Partners, they bring a hands-on understanding of what it takes to build horses that perform under pressure across a multitude of disciplines. Their decades of experience and bold investments make them a natural fit in a partnership built on both risk and results.
Solo Select
The fourth and final partner, Solo Select, not only led the record-setting acquisition of Third Edge but continues to shoulder responsibility for his management, marketing, and long-term vision. Backed by significant investment and a proven track record with elite stallions, Solo Select will position Third Edge at the forefront of the western performance horse industry.
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The story of Third Edge isn’t just about a record-breaking bid.
It’s about belief.
He represents the kind of bold decision that only happens when business minds, horsemen and visionaries collide.
The group behind Third Edge, Living on the Edge Partners, embodies every corner of the Western performance horse world, from cattlemen and competitors to entrepreneurs and builders. Each one came to the table with something different to offer, but all with the same conviction: this stallion is the future.
Their combined experience, reach, and grit have created a foundation built to last. From cutting and cow horse to roping and racing, Third Edge will stand as proof of what can happen when the right people bet on the right horse for the right reasons.
Third Edge is backed by people who don’t do anything halfway. People who move quietly, work tirelessly, and believe that when you build something with integrity, it stands the test of time. The record may have made headlines, but what comes next is what will matter most: A legacy already in motion.
