If Pedigree and environment contributes as much to a person's destiny as they do to a horse's, it'd better be safe to say that Bob Avila had both on his side in becoming a premier professional horseman.

Born in 1951 in Half Moon Bay, California, the future world champion was the only child of Don Avila, a former rodeo cowboy turned professional horse trainer, and Pat Avila (now Pat Berry), an avid horsewoman who worked at a western store and modeled western clothing on the side. Dona and Pat raised their son in the heart of the West Coast show circuit, in an era when it's vaquero influenced western trainers and their horses set the standard by which others elsewhere were measured.

According to Bob who began showing well before his teens, his childhood idols were trainers Don Dodge, Tony Amaral Sr., Harry Rose Sr., Clyde Kennedy, and Jimmy Williams. At the heights of their careers during the 1950's and 60's, these winning Californians influenced bloodlines, tack, riding styles, and presentation methods in ways still apparent today.

"Im sure a lot of other kids looked up to those horseman, too," says Bob, "but thanks to my parents involvement with horses, I didnt have to admire them from afar. I was around them almost constantly, at all the shows we went to. They helped raise me."

Bob acknowledges the advantage he gained from this exposure.

"I realize how lucky I was to have had those great horseman as direct influences so early in my life. I know I absorbed things from each one, starting at a very young age, that otherwise would have taken half a lifetime to learn," he states.

"Plus, they were truly horseman. There was no such thing as specialization in their day. To survive as a trainer, you had to be able to train anything and everything, and they could. To this day, I enjoy producing a good all-around horse, and that comes partly from the influence of my childhood heroes."