Craig’s Heckert’s specialty is starting young horses to go into Dressage or Jumping careers. Craig does not stick a "title" on his type of horsemanship. He feels he is just making use of techniques that have been perfected for thousands of years by the true "masters" of Classic Equitation. He takes the time to develop the horse both mentally and physically so the horse has a confident, calm and willing attitude. To succeed as a Dressage horse or a jumping horse , the horse has to have a trust in his rider and enjoy the work. Yes, it takes longer, but the result is a horse with the ability to compete well into their senior years AND be a fun companion. Craig invests many hours in "long-rein" work with his youngsters so they are comfortable with walk, trot, canter, cavaletti, jumping, stopping and turning before they are ever expected to carry a rider. No "round pennin' and breakin' em in two hours" here!!!  As a result of being started properly, Craig's horses are very "rideable" and confident.

Craig has been a horseman his entire life. His family was very active in the AQHA and were the Leading Producers of AQHA Performance Horses in 1984. Craig trained and rode 13 different horses to Register of Merit Awards in Western Pleasure as well as earning 5 Superior Western Pleasure Awards. He qualified for and rode at the AQHA World Show 4 times. His mare, Zippo Pat Seeker won the Minnesota and Iowa Pleasure Futurities and earned 158 Western Pleasure points.

Craig also trained several Reining horses during  his western phase.  While he found Reining interesting it was not what he was looking for. Having  worked with Jim Dudley, Doug Milhullund  and of course studying  the works of the great Bob Loomis and Al Dunning. Craig was more interested in finding out just how high of a level he could train a horse to.   Craig is confident in saying that Reining is fascinating  and requires  great horsemanship skills, BUT, Dressage and Reining are not the same. It is like comparing apples and oranges. Particularly in the style the Reining horses are trained to be competitive in today's shows with the head carried so low.  The principals of Reining are good for Western horses to make a more ridable horse, similarly to the way Dressage makes a more ridable horse, but this in no way makes the two disciplines the same. 

In 1993 Craig discovered Dressage  and Eventing and felt that Dressage was what he had been looking for.  He began working with Patty Larson, who had had a successful career in Eventing including riding her homebred horse "The Magic Man" to Area 9 Intermediate Horse of the Year.  Patty started Craig with Eventing, as his two geldings, Joe Cool, a Quarter Horse, and James Blond, a Trakehner, National Show Horse cross were more suitable as Event horses. They did well including Joe Cool earning the Area 9 Reserve Championship at Novice Level in 1994. Both geldings were sold and Craig was ready to specialize in Dressage.

In the fall of 1995, Craig began riding the Trakehner Stallion, Meisterwind . In 1996 they had numerous wins at 1^st and 2^nd level and went on to win the Lowell Boomer Midwest Championships at 2^nd Level almost one year to the day from the beginning of their partnership!  They again won the Lowell Boomer Midwest Championships at 4^th Level in 1998 and the Intermediaire 1 Championships in 2001. In 1999 Meisterwind was the American Trakehner Association Prix St. George Horse of the Year. Craig was awarded the Bronze and Silver Medals from the United States Dressage Federation and Meisterwind has been awarded the USDF Performance Certificate at Prix St. George. Craig and Meisterwind continue their winning ways with Meisterwind being awarded the American Trakehner Assn. Intermediare 1, Horse of the Year for 2004! In 2005 Craig and Meisterwind made the step up to Grand Prix. In 2006 Craig and Meisterwind earned their Grand Prix scores for the US Dressage Federation's GOLD MEDAL. This moves Craig into an  elite group of a hand full of people who have earned all three medals on the SAME horse that they have trained!

Craig is also having great success with the RPSI Approved, Hanoverian Stallion, LION KING . At the age of 3 Lion King was winning under saddle and won the Region 4 Colt / Gelding Grand Champion in the US Dressage Federation Cosequin Dressage Sport Horse Breeders Series. At 4, Lion King earned scores as high as 74+% at First Level and was the overall high score at two out of four shows! At 5, Lion King won many Second Level classes, was undefeated in the FEI Young Horse classes and was the Region 4 US Dressage Federation Breeders Series Stallion (and overall) Champion. Another successful season followed in 2007 with Lion King again the West Central Stallion Champion and scores as high as 68+% at Third Level.