Heath Gunnison enters his ninth season as the head coach of the Midway University equestrian hunt seat program in 2025-26.
The 2025 season featured a major breakthrough, as Reese Dorsey won a national championship in limit flat at the Intercollegiate Horse Show Association National Championship. Dorsey is the first national champion in Gunnison's tenure and Midway's first since 2004.
Gunnison took over in January 2018 as the hunt seat head coach and helped lead the team through the end of the 2017-18 season. The team finished the 2017-18 season as the Reserve High Point Team in the Region.
Gunnison has served as the head trainer at Midway since August 2014. He has worked on training both the hunt seat and western horses, while also helping students in the equestrian over fences and open equestrian flat divisions. He has also helped in the healthcare and equine management of Midway’s 32 horses.
Gunnison got his start in the horse industry when he worked as an apprentice for Dave and Kim Moore in Fort Lauderdale, Florida for nine years. While there, he showed hunters and reiners and handled all other aspects of an assistant trainer including instructing riders and clients.
Prior to becoming a trainer, Gunnison enjoyed a successful riding career. He has won multiple National and World Appaloosa Championships in Working Hunter Divisions. He also was the Kentucky Quarter Horse Association Year End High Point Winner.
In 2011 he was named Regional Quarter Horse Working Hunter Reserve Champion and then in 2009 he won both Southeast Affiliate Finals Rookie Pro Champion and Limited Open Reserve Champion, while also winning Florida Reining Horse Association Champion Rookie Pro and Limited Open. He has also coached students to Regional, National and World Championships.
