StockBIZ: From horses to performing to coaching, Michael Fouts capitalizes on movement to shape a unique career

Fouts with Olympic ice dancers Evan Bates (left) and Madison Chock (right). “They will be vying for Gold at the next Winter Games,” predicts Fouts. Photo provided by Michael Fouts.

by Mary Jo David

Last month, this column ended with a reminder: “If you can do what you love, you’ll likely love what you do.” The ink was barely dry on the March edition when an interview with Michael Fouts presented the opportunity to learn from someone who has made a career out of doing what he loves. He would be the first to tell you he loves what he does—all of what he does.

When he was a child, his family owned ponies, and his first job, at the ripe old age of 12, was to work seven days a week on a horse farm near where he grew up in Azalia, Mich. It comes as no surprise, then, to learn that Fouts owns Gentle Reins Farm in Stockbridge Township, where he offers riding and driving lessons, wagon rides, trail camps, and a unique “moving with horses” adult clinic.

You get the sense his horses are like family when you watch him interacting with Cody, Eli, Chuck, Lou, and Mae. He may be busy grooming one while predicting exactly what the others are going to do in the nearby paddock.

“Growing up, I worked all the time and always with horses. From the age of twelve, I worked hard, but I loved it—I liked to think of it as play rather than work—and I never outgrew horses,” Fouts explained as he recapped his years spent apprenticing with Standardbred race horses. Later he learned Natural Horsemanship skills that depended heavily on observation and movement.

“My favorite horse is the one I’m working with or riding at the moment,” Fouts said. But Cody has a special place in his heart because Fouts has had him the longest—more than 20 years. Photo credit: Mary Jo David

Movement is an overarching theme in his life. In addition to his work with horses, Fouts is the presence behind Michael Lee Mime, the business he founded for marketing his performances as a professional mime and his business as a physical acting coach and movement therapist.

As a mime, he studied under the legendary Marcel Marceau numerous times, and he channels his mastery of the “art of silence” toward coaching the movements of Olympic-caliber figure skaters as well as stage actors and actresses. And as if that’s not enough, he also teaches and coaches patients through specialized movement therapy to increase ease of movement and promote health.
In college, Fouts studied to be a mental health therapist and worked in that field for a while. He realized that wasn’t meant to be his life’s work, but what was?

“I knew it had to have something to do with performing. I tried my hand at all sorts of things—improv, ballet, even balloon tying. Then I happened upon mime, and it just blew my mind!”

Fouts has performed his original mime pieces across the U.S. in salon performances, specialty shows, and full-length mime dramas. It was only a matter of time before his reputation snowballed, and he was receiving calls from coaches and directors requesting his availability for coaching body movement and expression with their skaters and performers.

Fouts shares this advice: “Do what you love…I happened upon mime, and it just blew my mind!” Photo provided by Michael Fouts.

So how, exactly, does one cultivate such a broad career ranging from performing to coaching to maintaining a horse farm?
“I love to create moments and make opportunities for special things to happen,” Fouts said. “One opportunity has led to another because I have been open to the idea of trying new things. I view every opportunity as a chance to learn something profound and learn it well.”

As a lesson for keeping an open mind for every opportunity, he recounted his high school theater days and the teacher who directed school plays while warning the young performers, “Don’t even think about being able to make this into a career.” Twenty-five years later, that same teacher hired Fouts to return to the school to coach.

Asked to recall his most notable experience from a career that encompasses such varied opportunities, Fouts found it difficult to pick only one. Ultimately, he returned to one childhood experience. “It would have to be that anticipation I experienced as a twelve-year-old riding my bike to my first day on the job to work with Mr. Craig’s horses. I can honestly say I was more excited than a kid going to Disneyland.”
And he still remembers that feeling to this day.

For more information go to GentleReinsFarm.com or MichaelLeeMime.com. Or you can reach Michael Fouts at 734-730-2164. Gentle Reins Farm is located at 16250 Bowdish Rd., Stockbridge.

His horse farm is just one of the places where Michael Fouts puts his skills of observation and movement to work. Here, he brushes Lou, one of his five horses at Gentle Reins Farm. Photo credit: Mary Jo David