During a trip to a horse event in Tennessee a couple of years ago one of our
travel partners said she had found a
gaited horse trainer about an hour from
where we were staying and did any of us
mind driving to her house so that she
could take a one hour lesson – well with
her enthusiasm how could any of us say
no. So on the day of the lesson we all piled
into our little rental car and took off for
the one hour drive to meet a trainer by
the name of Jennie Jackson and wouldn’t
you know it; the one day that we had
available for this adventure it poured…
it actually poured buckets. But Jennie being the good sport that she is offered to
give Lisa her lesson outside in the pouring rain; after all we were visiting all the
way from Maine. So the one hour lesson
for Lisa turned into a lesson (who knows
how long it really lasted) for Lisa, and a
lesson for another person in our group
(again who knows how long that lesson
lasted). Once these two lessons were over
we were all soaked (well not me so much
I watched from the car), on our way out
Jennie went off to some place in her house
and came back with dry clothes for Maureen and Lisa. She wanted to dry their
clothes so they didn’t have to make the
one hour ride back to our hotel in soaking wet clothes. While we waited for the
clothes to dry, Jennie and her husband
invited us in for hot tea and popcorn.
We ended up visiting with them the entire afternoon. They made us feel like we
had been friends forever. We thoroughly
enjoyed the time and the stories told by
her husband of their time in the Tennessee Walking Horse industry. We left that
afternoon feeling like we had all known
each other for years. At some point after this visit Lisa asked me if I would be
willing to hold a Jennie Jackson clinic at
Whispering Woods. Of course I said yes
not thinking that she would actually want
to drive all the way to Maine; but guess
what, her and her husband said yes and
we were lucky enough to have her for a
full three days which included lots of riding, questions, visiting, and even a trail
ride. During this clinic Jennie worked
with all of us on our individual needs.
At that time mine was my confidence; I
had fallen twice and really had not ridden much. So even though I really had
not wanted to participate in this clinic but
was so strongly encouraged by all of my
friends and travel mates how could I say
no. I was so nervous and wasn’t really anxious to be riding with an audience even
though they were all my friends, I did the
ground exercises as instructed and it was
time to sit in the saddle. After a couple of
words from Jennie, I was immediately at
ease, she worked through some balance
issues with me, and then we began the
work with side passing and turning on
the forehand. Before I knew it Reo and
I had increased our speed from his poky
little walk to a much better energetic
walk. Not only had I increased my speed
but Jennie had me more relaxed than I
had been in a really long time. We even
went out on a small group trail ride and
Reo and I were in the front – a place that
we never wanted to be before. During
that three day clinic I was able to get
back all of the confidence I had lost with
my horse and riding in general, the self
confidence that I felt was truly amazing in
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