Faulks rides to championships with lifelong friend, Halo
Originally published Sept. 18, 2025, on KACU 89.5 FM, Abilene’s NPR Station, and The Optimist, a student publication of Abilene Christian University.
During the day, Alexis Faulks is the executive assistant to the dean of the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, but when she goes home, she trains to uphold the skills it takes to be an 8-time equestrian national champion.
Faulks grew up on the back of a horse alongside her mother, Libby Teigen. Teigen was pregnant with Faulks while her mare was pregnant with the horse that Faulks grew up on. The mother-daughter duo owns a barn together and breeds horses so that they can compete with them later in life. Faulks has been competing with her Arabian horse named Halo.
Faulks on a horse, pictured with her mother, taken at Dyess Air Force Base in 1987. (Photo courtesy of Alexis Faulks)
Faulks said that horse breeding is an unpredictable business. She said the bloodline of a horse allows them to be good for show, but doesn’t guarantee that something won’t go wrong.
“You can’t just get on a horse and say, let’s go run the Kentucky Derby,” Faulks said. “You have to do hours of training. And I’m not talking like 20 hours, I’m talking like thousands of hours. So almost every day after work, I go out to my parents, get on a horse, and I practice.”
She said breeding horses is an investment because you can’t begin training them until they are three years old. If a horse doesn’t turn out to be built for their intended discipline, there are other disciplines that the horse can ride in.
“For example, I have a three-year-old at the house,” Faulks said. “We sent her off to get trained for Western pleasure. She did not have what it takes to be a Western pleasure horse, but she is the epitome of a ranch horse.”
Faulks said that every horse is made uniquely by God to be able to do different things. She compared the concept to how a football player would never be a good ballet dancer. Being a bad dancer doesn’t make a football player any less talented; they just weren’t born to be a ballet dancer. She said the same principle applies to different horse breeds.
Equestrian competitions are similar to beauty pageants. Riders wear colors that they feel best match their horse. What judges look for in horses depends on the class of competition, but for any class, riders enter on their horses in a jog or a trot, and every horse goes in a single file line in circles around the arena. There can be anywhere from one to five judges, depending on the competition.
Jackie Pakula Powell has been competing since she was eight years old and has been a judge for three years. She judged Faulks and Halo at a competition in Texarkana. Powell remembered Halo to be consistent and steady.
“Every time you look at it, it’s doing its job, and it looks the same every time,” Powell said. “It didn’t give you a lot of reason to hurt it in your place or anything. And it was just a very eye-appealing, and a pleasant, happy horse.”
Halo was taught by a different trainer, so Faulks had to work harder and train longer to establish a good relationship with her.
“Just being on her every day or every other day has really connected us together,” Faulks said. “It’s very similar to getting a dog from the pound. You hang out with that dog, you play with her or him, and you just kind of get to know each other’s quirks. Practice. I know everyone says practice until your bones fall out. You truly have to practice to figure out the best communication in connection with your horse.”
Faulks has four Youth National Championships and three Reserve Youth National Championships. In 2024, Faulks and Halo were MidSummer Reserve Champions. In 2025, they were crowned MidSummer National Champions.
“They called my number, and it was like, oh my gosh, are you kidding me?” Faulks said. “And just a wave of emotion, one, because you’re just grateful that you have this ability to do this. This is a sport that I chose to do. This is the horse that we chose to purchase. And it was just the most perfect ride. She truly gave me her all. Halo was incredible.”
Faulks’ success doesn’t come without sacrifice. She is a full-time employee at ACU, as well as a mother. Faulks says she loves what she does for work, but there are days when she is exhausted and feels too drained to train.
“You sometimes have to work past that mental barrier if you want to be really good at what you do,” Faulks said.
Faulks and Halo will compete again at U.S. Nationals on Oct. 17-25 in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
