Leavin A
Legacy

My Story

I grew up a broke kid in Pembroke Pines, Florida.

My parents, Rob and Teresa Stopanio, started dating when they were just 11 and 13 years old. They grew up together, built a life together, and ultimately left this world together at only 48 and 50 years old. To me, they were the epitome of love, loyalty, faith, and hard work.

We weren't a horse family. But my mom was obsessed with horses.

When she was a teenager, her dad—my grandpa—would take her to a place where she could ride and groom horses. He promised her that one day she would have a horse of her own. Unfortunately, he passed away before he was able to make that happen.

So my dad made it his personal mission to fulfill that promise for her.

Eventually, he did. Mom ended up with a half-starved horse that nobody would have thought much of. Once she got her healthy, she turned out to be a wicked barrel horse.

Looking back, I think that story shaped more of my life than I ever realized.

We didn't have much. Most of the horses we ended up with were horses nobody else wanted. At one point, we had one bridle, and I borrowed a saddle once a month so I could compete at the local game show. Most of the time, I even had to pay someone to give me a ride because we didn't own a horse trailer.

For my 12th birthday, I finally got a saddle of my own. I rode in that same saddle until I was 18.

But I never cared about having the fanciest things. I loved the horses. I especially loved the misunderstood ones, the projects, and the ones other people had overlooked. I loved learning. I loved figuring them out. And maybe most of all, I loved finding value in something that somebody else couldn't see.

That has followed me my entire life.

Years later, I convinced my parents to move with me to Ocala, Florida—horse country—so I could chase a bigger dream and have access to more competition, better horses, and more knowledge.

We had only been in Ocala for about a year and a half when everything changed.

On October 29, 2011, while coming home from the NBHA World Show in Perry, Georgia, my parents were killed in an automobile accident.

In Loving Memory of Rob & Teresa Stopanio

“A legacy isn’t only what we leave behind—it’s what we choose to carry forward. Honoring where we came from, living with purpose today, and making sure the legacy continues for generations to come.”

From that day forward, I've felt like I was on a mission to carry out the legacy that Mom and Dad wanted so badly to leave behind.

The road since then hasn't always been pretty. There have been wins and losses—in horses, relationships, family, business, and just about everything life can throw at a person. But through all of it, three things keep coming back to the surface: Faith. Family. Purpose.

My parents lived those words long before I ever put them beneath a Leavin A Legacy logo.

They started as two broke young kids with very little education and built something from nothing. My dad went from cleaning parts, to building motors, to eventually owning one of the largest automotive-parts manufacturing companies in the United States.

But what I remember most isn't what they accumulated. It's what they left better.

They wanted the people, places, businesses, animals, and lives they touched to be better because they had been there.

And that's what I want Leavin A Legacy to stand for.

I want to help people. Help horses. Bring light and hope into bad situations. Find value where other people may not see it. And leave a mark on an industry that I have loved for nearly my entire life.

I've had good experiences and bad ones. I've made mistakes. I've won, I've lost, I've learned, and I've kept going. Through it all, my faith has remained unwavering.

My hope is that God can use every part of my story—the good and the bad—as a tool for something bigger than myself.

Because to me, leaving a legacy isn't about being remembered. It's about making sure something good continues because you were here.

And that's exactly what I intend to do.