THANK YOU JENNIE JACKSON FOR EVERYTHING!!!!!!!
To say the Dressage En Gaite Clinic was a success doesn't do justice ....
Wow. What a weekend. Exhausting & fulfilling. This morning there is a hole in my heart and the farm seems so empty. A student shared the same sentiment with me last evening directly after Jennie's departure with Nathanael Jackson. Jennie Jackson gave all of us so much - not just light bulbs and amazing progress with our equine partners, but revelation about ourselves and clear direction. The feed back from the Devine Gaits Farm student body was positive and full of motivation to continue building on all we learned. We all get stuck as riders, and instructors also get stuck helping our students. Jennie gave me many new ways of communicating direction to my students that are very effective. We are all unstuck after this weekend. Thankfully, Deanna purchased a set of DVDs to share with me - so we can review as our memory gets holes. We eagerly look forward to Jennie's return!!!!!
On a personal note. My greatest joy was seeing my husband's enthusiasm soaking up all the knowledge Jennie was conveying and how engaged he was all throughout the clinic, both as a rider participant and an auditor (assistant instructor). Now my husband feels more confident in his ability to "control" communicate effectively with Mojo and is excited to get back out on trail with him and test all he has learned. The icing was Sunday's lesson with him where we road a duet. Already forgot the dressage term for it, guess I'll have to look it up! If you would have told me last week that my husband would be able to perform shoulder in, leg yield, and shoulder out at an instructors request I wouldn't have considered it possible in one weekend - much less while riding with me.
Althea Boryk
Devine Gaits Farm
Owner/Instructor
Litchfield, OH
To say the Dressage En Gaite Clinic was a success doesn't do justice ....
Wow. What a weekend. Exhausting & fulfilling. This morning there is a hole in my heart and the farm seems so empty. A student shared the same sentiment with me last evening directly after Jennie's departure with Nathanael Jackson. Jennie Jackson gave all of us so much - not just light bulbs and amazing progress with our equine partners, but revelation about ourselves and clear direction. The feed back from the Devine Gaits Farm student body was positive and full of motivation to continue building on all we learned. We all get stuck as riders, and instructors also get stuck helping our students. Jennie gave me many new ways of communicating direction to my students that are very effective. We are all unstuck after this weekend. Thankfully, Deanna purchased a set of DVDs to share with me - so we can review as our memory gets holes. We eagerly look forward to Jennie's return!!!!!
On a personal note. My greatest joy was seeing my husband's enthusiasm soaking up all the knowledge Jennie was conveying and how engaged he was all throughout the clinic, both as a rider participant and an auditor (assistant instructor). Now my husband feels more confident in his ability to "control" communicate effectively with Mojo and is excited to get back out on trail with him and test all he has learned. The icing was Sunday's lesson with him where we road a duet. Already forgot the dressage term for it, guess I'll have to look it up! If you would have told me last week that my husband would be able to perform shoulder in, leg yield, and shoulder out at an instructors request I wouldn't have considered it possible in one weekend - much less while riding with me.
Althea Boryk
Devine Gaits Farm
Owner/Instructor
Litchfield, OH
GAITED DRESSAGE: FROM KINDERGARTEN TO HIGH SCHOOL WITH JENNIE JACKSON
By Jennifer Klitzke
Over the last 30 years I’ve ridden with lots of professional riding instructors—both local teachers and traveling clinicians--
gaited and non-gaited. No doubt, I wouldn’t be where I am today without quality instruction. My hope in attending each
lesson and clinic is to learn new insights to help me become a better rider and communicate more effectively with my horses.
Gaited Dressage Legend Jennie Jackson is among my favorite instructors. She generously shares from her rich treasure chest of knowledge and decades of proven experience.
Read the entire article at:
http://www.naturallygaited.com/from-kindergarten-to-high-school-with-jennie-jackson/
By Jennifer Klitzke
Over the last 30 years I’ve ridden with lots of professional riding instructors—both local teachers and traveling clinicians--
gaited and non-gaited. No doubt, I wouldn’t be where I am today without quality instruction. My hope in attending each
lesson and clinic is to learn new insights to help me become a better rider and communicate more effectively with my horses.
Gaited Dressage Legend Jennie Jackson is among my favorite instructors. She generously shares from her rich treasure chest of knowledge and decades of proven experience.
Read the entire article at:
http://www.naturallygaited.com/from-kindergarten-to-high-school-with-jennie-jackson/
"Jennie has helped me learn how to train a quality flat walk
and develop as a gaited dressage rider like no one else."
~Jennifer Klitzke and her naturally gaited
Tennessee walking horse, Gift of Freedom.
Dressage as Applied to the Gaited Horse
"Coming from 28 years as a devoted dressage student riding trotting horses, dressage is not new to me. But applying dressage training methods to my naturally gaited Tennessee walking horse has raised a few questions: How do I ride a head-shaking horse on-the-bit? Does the dressage training pyramid apply to the gaited horse? Can a gaited horse reach high levels of dressage? Is it possible to collect a gaited horse without trotting? What about rider position?
In January 2013 I stumbled upon Jennie Jackson’s Dressage en Gaite training DVDs and purchased them with my Christmas money in hopes of finding answers to these questions.
Jennie is the only person I’ve come to know IN HISTORY who has trained and shown a Tennessee walking horse to the highest levels of dressage: piaffe en gait, passage en gait, canter pirouettes, tempi changes, and has developed the full range of motion–collected through extended walks, gaits, and canters.
Watching Jennie’s DVDs began to answer my questions. That’s when I invited her to teach a Dressage as Applied to the Gaited Horse Clinic in MN last year. The clinic was a huge success. So this year, I team with the Minnesota Walking Horse Association for the 2014 Jennie Jackson Clinic held Friday-Sunday, May 30-June 1 in Proctor, MN.
Not only is Jennie the pioneer of Dressage en Gaite, she is an international Walking Horse judge and clinician and has a full scope of knowledge and experience with Tennessee walking horses‒from breeding through breaking, training and finishing, in and out of the show ring: English, western, trail obstacle, driving, stadium jumping, cross-country, and dressage. Plus, Jennie and her husband Nate have been on the front lines fighting soring and abuse for 30 years. What an honor to have them in our midst!
Auditors, riders, gaited horses, and a gaited mule came to the clinic from various backgrounds: some from the Walking horse show world, others from the trail, some new to dressage, and a few returned for more advanced dressage teaching.
Clinic riders and auditors experienced the importance of: teaching the horse relaxation, stretching and seeking a snaffle bit contact; teaching the horse to move away from the rider’s lower leg, step across and under its belly with its inside hind leg, and into the outside indirect rein through leg yield, turn on the fore, and shoulder in exercises; using ground rails to break pace; using half halts to discourage trot and establish a smooth four beat gait; establishing correct canter leads over ground rails; using travere through counter canter to maintain lead; applying the freshening canter to establish a true three-beat canter; collected walk-canter-walk transitions; simple changes at “X”; transitions between collected, medium, flat walk, and running walk; turn on the forehand; turn on the haunches; walk pirouettes; leg yield to half pass; introducing the kinton noseband and its function; introducing a double bridle and the function of the curb vs. the snaffle bit; plus demonstration rides by Jennie on some of the student’s horses to help riders, horses, and auditors understand the exercises Jennie taught.
I hope everyone who attended the clinic enjoyed it as much as I did. Thank you Jennie Jackson for traveling to MN and to the MWHA for sponsoring this clinic!"
~Jennifer Klitzke
www.NaturallyGaited.com
"Coming from 28 years as a devoted dressage student riding trotting horses, dressage is not new to me. But applying dressage training methods to my naturally gaited Tennessee walking horse has raised a few questions: How do I ride a head-shaking horse on-the-bit? Does the dressage training pyramid apply to the gaited horse? Can a gaited horse reach high levels of dressage? Is it possible to collect a gaited horse without trotting? What about rider position?
In January 2013 I stumbled upon Jennie Jackson’s Dressage en Gaite training DVDs and purchased them with my Christmas money in hopes of finding answers to these questions.
Jennie is the only person I’ve come to know IN HISTORY who has trained and shown a Tennessee walking horse to the highest levels of dressage: piaffe en gait, passage en gait, canter pirouettes, tempi changes, and has developed the full range of motion–collected through extended walks, gaits, and canters.
Watching Jennie’s DVDs began to answer my questions. That’s when I invited her to teach a Dressage as Applied to the Gaited Horse Clinic in MN last year. The clinic was a huge success. So this year, I team with the Minnesota Walking Horse Association for the 2014 Jennie Jackson Clinic held Friday-Sunday, May 30-June 1 in Proctor, MN.
Not only is Jennie the pioneer of Dressage en Gaite, she is an international Walking Horse judge and clinician and has a full scope of knowledge and experience with Tennessee walking horses‒from breeding through breaking, training and finishing, in and out of the show ring: English, western, trail obstacle, driving, stadium jumping, cross-country, and dressage. Plus, Jennie and her husband Nate have been on the front lines fighting soring and abuse for 30 years. What an honor to have them in our midst!
Auditors, riders, gaited horses, and a gaited mule came to the clinic from various backgrounds: some from the Walking horse show world, others from the trail, some new to dressage, and a few returned for more advanced dressage teaching.
Clinic riders and auditors experienced the importance of: teaching the horse relaxation, stretching and seeking a snaffle bit contact; teaching the horse to move away from the rider’s lower leg, step across and under its belly with its inside hind leg, and into the outside indirect rein through leg yield, turn on the fore, and shoulder in exercises; using ground rails to break pace; using half halts to discourage trot and establish a smooth four beat gait; establishing correct canter leads over ground rails; using travere through counter canter to maintain lead; applying the freshening canter to establish a true three-beat canter; collected walk-canter-walk transitions; simple changes at “X”; transitions between collected, medium, flat walk, and running walk; turn on the forehand; turn on the haunches; walk pirouettes; leg yield to half pass; introducing the kinton noseband and its function; introducing a double bridle and the function of the curb vs. the snaffle bit; plus demonstration rides by Jennie on some of the student’s horses to help riders, horses, and auditors understand the exercises Jennie taught.
I hope everyone who attended the clinic enjoyed it as much as I did. Thank you Jennie Jackson for traveling to MN and to the MWHA for sponsoring this clinic!"
~Jennifer Klitzke
www.NaturallyGaited.com
