A Riding Clinic with Jennie Jackson:
Dressage as Applied to the Gaited Horse
Saturday-Sunday, June 29-30, 2013
Walker’s Triple R (indoor arena), Cambridge, MN

Dressage as Applied to the Gaited Horse
Jennie Jackson has traveled the world teaching and exhibiting Dressage En Gaite, and we are honored to bring her to Minnesota for a two-day riding clinic held Saturday-Sunday, June 29-30, 2013 at Walker’s Triple R, Cambridge, MN.

Whether you ride english or western, are new to dressage or just want to learn exercises that will help improve your horse’s smooth gait, this clinic is for you. Jennie will teach riders and auditors effective dressage methods that improve the quality of natural gait through lateral exercises, balance, bending, rhythm, impulsion, and relaxation. Gaited riders new to dressage as well as experienced dressage riders new to applying dressage to gaited horses will learn from Jennie’s weath of teaching and training experience.

Don’t miss this rare opportunity to get first-hand instruction from a seasoned dressage professional and the pioneer of Dressage En Gaite. A limited number of private 55-minute lessons are available. Unbroke or green young horses are welcome.

Whether you ride your gaited horse western or english, don’t miss this rare opportunity to learn how to improve your horse’s gait through dressage training methods by a seasoned dressage professional.

About Jennie Jackson
In the 1980s Jennie began applying and perfecting dressage methods of training to gaited horses, and in 1998 she introduced dressage as a humane training alternative to the Tennessee Walking Horse breed. In 2006, Jennie and her famous Tennessee Walking Horse stallion Champagne Watchout performed the first Dressage En Gaite Musical Freestyle at The Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington, KY. The team demonstrated Prix St. George movements as canter pirouette, tempi changes, and piaffe and passage en gaite. In 2010, Jennie and Champagne Watchout were formally invited to exhibit their Dressage En Gaite Musical Freestyle at the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games as the official breed representative of the Tennessee Walking Horse.

Dressage for the Gaited Horse, Gaited Dressage Shows, Gaited Dressage Videos

Gaited Dressage at Rocking R

June 4, 2013 Jennifer Klitzke

By Jennifer Klitzke

Rocking R Farms in Foley, MN ordered perfect weather for their Spring Schooling Dressage and Jumping Show: sunshine, light breeze, not too hot or cold, and no bugs.

Rocking R Farm is one of the few facilities in my area that accommodates gaited dressage at their three schooling shows each year. I’ve been participating at Rocking R’s schooling shows since 2010, and so far have been the only gaited rider/horse team entered. I long for the day when more people give it a try. The feedback received from a trained eye is very helpful!

Gift of Freedom (Makana) and I rode NWHA Training Level Tests Two and Three and received scores of 69.28% and 66.8%. At previous shows, judges have encouraged me to establish and maintain contact with the bridle, so I’ve been working at this. Perhaps I took it too far as the judge felt my horse was bracing against the contact. I definitely see a difference in the way Makana moves which brings up another question: What do collected gaits look and feel like?

I asked Larry this question last summer at the five-day Larry Whitesell and Jennifer Bauer Clinic. Larry said that collected TWH gaits do not track up as much as gaits shown in breed rail classes and that the head nod is less extreme. Larry said to look for rounding of the back and bending downward of the haunches—not a hollow back and a flat croup. The legs should step under the belly, not step far behind the horse’s tail, so the horse carries rather than pushes itself forward. I am very interested to hear Jennie Jackson’s thoughts on this topic when she visits Minnesota for the Dressage as Applied to the Gaited Horse Clinic held June 29-30.

On the positive side, it appears that our riding in the snow and over jumps have paid off. We received “8s” in our canter work, as well as free walk on a long rein and center line halts.

I can’t wait until Jennie Jackson gets here for the Dressage as Applied to Gaited Horse Clinic held Saturday-Sunday, June 29-30 at Walker’s Triple R Ranch in Cambridge, MN. Jennie will definitely help me establish forwardness and rhythm into contact for a round frame!

Gaited Dressage: Rocking R Farm Photo Gallery>

Video: Gaited Dressage NWHA Training Level Test Two

Video: Gaited Dressage NWHA Training Level Test Three

Dressage for the Gaited Horse, Gaited Dressage Videos, Gaited Horses and Cows, The Versatile Gaited Horse, Western Gaited Dressage

Cow Sorting Gaited Dressage Style!

June 1, 2013 Jennifer Klitzke

By Jennifer Klitzke

It was the last night of my cow sorting league, and I finally got to take the my naturally gaited TWH, Makana. She’s who I had in mind when I had signed up, but she was recovering from a tick-borne illness. Of the three horses I took, Makana got into this the most. I think she enjoys the idea of having something to push around being the lowest on the pecking order!

Dressage training has really helped us maneuver our way around the sneaky cows when they quickly change directions. At the sorting league we got to ride one time with each person, and I was one of two first-timers among very seasoned riders—and the only one riding a gaited horse.

The goal is for a team of two to move ten cows in the correct sequence from one round pen to the other within 60 seconds. The center between the two pens is called the “hole.” Each cow wears a number from 1 to 0 with two blank cows in the herd. When the timer starts, the announcer picks a number for the team to begin with. As a team, we alternate guarding the hole and moving a cow from one ring to the other. If the wrong number cow sneaks through the hole before it is their turn, the team receives “no score.”

Our best run of the league was with Makana, and we moved six cows in a minute. One team moved all 10 cows in 39 seconds which was fast-paced and exhilarating to watch.

I had my hopes to break six cows when my last ride was with one of the best sorters in the league. I don’t know what was funnier, that me the rookie said to the advanced rider, “Let’s shoot to get all ten,” or that we ended up getting the fastest “no score” of the league! The “5” and “8” cows were running at me from different directions while we were manning the hole.

We’ll get you next time number 5!

Video: Gaited Dressage Sorting Cows

Dressage for the Gaited Horse, Gaited Dressage Shows, Gaited Dressage Videos

Gaited Dressage at North Run

May 19, 2013 Jennifer Klitzke

By Jennifer Klitzke

Our 2013 show and clinic season was off to a late start with wintry weather through April and treatment for Ehrlichiosis from a deer tick bite just days after the snow melted. Would we be ready for the May clinic and show schedule?

Yes and no. We missed out on riding at the Jennifer Bauer gaited dressage clinic held at RNR Ranch in St. Croix Falls, WI and a couple weeks of our cow sorting league at High Circle Vee Ranch in Isanti, MN. I wondered if we would be ready for North Run Farms schooling dressage show I had planned on. In April I had contacted the show manager for approval to bring my gaited horse to their May show, and I didn’t want to miss this opportunity. Since we were off to a late start, I dropped our level of difficulty back a few notches and entered the show at Training level, tests two and three.

Not a bad strategy, as I am also competing my nongaited Spanish Mustang in Training level this year, and this would be an opportunity to get familiar with these tests. Plus, I had never ridden Makana through these Training level tests as the tests change every four years.

North Run Farms in Delano, MN put on a well organized schooling show. Rain and a flooded outdoor forced us inside, so after each two rides, the arena was open for ten minutes of schooling and warming up. For Makana, it was an opportunity to familiarize herself with the unusual objects hidden in the corners with lots of transitions to get her attention and lots of bending to unlock the tension in her poll. While riding through the tests I noticed that there were many improvements over last year. Makana is more forward without prodding or rushing, she’s more engaged from behind into a rein contact, more up in the shoulders, and more even in rhythm with deeper steps.

In Training level test two we received 68.214%. Dressage Judge Ginger Kawell remarked, “Nice forward ride. Try to get horse rounder on bit to get even better scores.” In Training level test three we received our highest score of 69.6% and the judge remarked, “Nice ride! Horse had movements with rounder frame! Keep it up.” Our two rides received some of the highest percentages of the show out of 14 horses (only one gaited) and 27 rides ranging from Intro to Third Level! To make it even better, the show organizer invited us back for their July and August schooling dressage shows and asked if I knew of any other gaited dressage riders who would like to enter as well. This is terrific news for gaited dressage!

Several people watching the show were intrigued with gaited dressage and approached me with questions. They had never seen anything like this before and were impressed with how comfortable a smooth gaited horse must be to ride.

Thank you to North Run Farms in Delano, MN and dressage judge Ginger Kawell for accommodating gaited dressage at the May 2013 dressage schooling show. North Run Farm is a terrific facility and Ginger is an encouraging judge who provides constructive feedback to help entrants in their pursuit of dressage. She draws from her experience in training both traditional and gaited dressage horses. The next North Run Farm Schooling Dressage Shows are Sunday, July 28 and Saturday, August 17, 2013. If interested, mail in a copy of your NWHA test with the entry form.

Overcoming Riding Fear

A Gift of Freedom

March 29, 2013 Jennifer Klitzke

Galloping through an open field feeling a sense of freedom is something that I have always longed to do, yet paralyzing riding fear had imprisoned me.

A Gift of Freedom

By Jennifer Klitzke

My Tennessee walking horse mare was a Valentine’s Day gift from my husband in 2007. (Well, actually, I pleaded with him for two weeks when he buckled on Valentine’s Day and said, “Okay!”) She came with the registered name “Gift of Freedom” which is ironically symbolic. You’ll know what I mean in a moment.

As a child, I rode my spring-loaded plastic pony through the wild, wild West of my imagination. We galloped through the open plains joyful and carefree.

I dreamed for the day of owning a horse. Then 24 years later a friend said to me, “Jennifer, you’re going say ‘Someday I’ll buy a horse’ for the rest of your life. You need to do it or your ‘someday’ will never come.”

She was right, so that’s what I did. I saved enough money for my first horse and decades later, I think I’m more horse-crazy than ever! Bringing horses into my life was one of the best decisions I have ever made.

I was born for this.

Horseman Buck Brannaman says, “Horses are a mirror to your soul,” and I’ve found that to be true. I believe that God has used horses to expose the broken and misguided pieces of my life. Once I courageously acknowledge my need for healing and work through these broken areas, God has blessed me with a gift of freedom.

In fact, my first gift of freedom came around Easter 1996.

Leading up to this, horses had become a god of sorts. Horses were my source of life, my source of purpose, and my source of identity. Anytime horses fell short of the god-role I had placed them in, I became more demanding, and perfectionism replaced what once had been a harmonious partnership.

Then whenever my horse did anything where I felt out of control, hyper-ventilating panic attacks consumed me. I became so imprisoned in paralyzing fear that I only felt safe riding on a 10-meter circle, traveling to the left, on a calm day, with no distractions, in an indoor arena, at a slow walk.

Then one day I faced a crossroads: Either quit riding horses, what I was born for, or face the fear in humility, with courage and an open mind in hopes of overcoming it.

Yes, Brannaman’s words ring true, “Horses are a mirror to your soul.”

I am thankful that horses humbled me to realize they were not meant to be my source of life, God is.

Horses are a gift from God—not a god. I believe God allowed my crossroads experience to ultimately find what I had been searching for— an identity, a purpose, and meaning for life, which I found in Jesus Christ, “the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and the only way to the Father.”

Not only that, but God has also given me the courage to face my fears and overcome them. Through dialogues of prayer and perseverance, God has given me a gift of freedom to do what I never imagined I would be doing with horses.

Today, I am enjoying many adventures I only dreamed of doing with my naturally gaited Tennessee walking horse, Gift of Freedom. We are riding in the beauty of nature outside the four walls of an arena, participating in endurance rides, moving cows in sorting leagues, gymnastic jumping, and more. All without the straps of fear.

I’ve learned riding horses isn’t about controlling them when I am afraid. It is about humbly seeking God for strength, receiving His grace to persevere, learning to become a relaxed and confident leader with my horse, and building a trusted partnership.

Enjoy your journey!

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A Gift of Freedom

Dressage is More than Trot