Yes, we're the people in the trailer
Suzy and Julie's excellent adventures... the Ohio saga.
Julie Christie and Suzy FitzSimmons spent a month living in the trailer next to the DHF office. Yes, we had
heat, electricity, and even water- thanks to Lenny's generosity and creative problem solving. Of course,
it helps to have a rocket scientist on call.
Whatever possessed two women from Minnesota to drive 12 hours with their horses all the way to
Ohio. This is after three weeks spent riding with Mary Wanless in England. You would think that our
brains were full- or that we didn't have husbands or homes (we do).
The short version of the story is that Julie took a sabbatical from her job for a semester (she teaches
equine science at a community college) and Suzy was ready to get back into the dressage world after
spending the past 20 yrs working on general horsemanship skills. Both of us wanted to ride with a
RWYM instructor- on our own horses. Suzy had met Jen in Toronto in 2010 was was instantly enamored
with Jen's intelligence, teaching style, and diverse background.
We (Suzy and Julie) came to DHF for a month of intensive training- and we certainly got a month of
intensive training! Quite intense. There were (many) days of legs seizing up, new (painful) muscles were
discovered, and even our brains got a workout. We were fully satisfied with the amount of riding and
learning (and physical suffering) that we had while at DHF.
What we didn't expect was to meet so many wonderful people along the way. DHF has so many
extraordinary staff and boarders! We felt like a part of the family while we were at DHF and honestly,
we didn't really want to leave.
Besides the daily (sometimes twice daily lessons), watching Jen ride and teach, and the apprentice lunge
line lessons, we took some extra small trips during our month. Suzy spent 3 days watching Jen teach her
clinics in Michigan and Julie went foxhunting and played polo (thanks for inviting me Helen!). While at
DHF, we enjoyed being a part of Jen's virtual lessons with Heather Blitz- we were the “IT” (information
technology) and “PP” (poop picking) department. We also audited the Mary Wanless clinic in November
which was fun after having spent so much time with Mary in September.
Jen did an extraordinary job connecting rider biomechanics to horse biomechanics and was always
available for questions and discussion. She introduced us to her training philosophy of KISS - keep it
simple & straightforward. Leg means go, rein means whoa. As a concept it is so easy to remember and
apply. It integrated into the "natural" horsemanship training I (Suzy) have been working on over the
years. To keep things simple so the horse (and human) can understand each other better.
Jen and Lenny also were awesome tour guides and full of Ohio state trivia facts.
Other trips to explore the local culture included a visit to Traders World Market, sightings of the giant
Jesus, and (many) trips to the Tack Trunk.
We left DHF with a deeper understanding of RWYM biomechanics, how to apply it on our own horses,
how to begin to change our riding patterns, as well as how it all fits into dressage riding.