By Jennifer Klitzke

Still seeking answers as I apply dressage with my naturally gaited horse, I learned about a DVD by Jennie Jackson. In January, I purchased her DVD set with my Christmas money.

The DVDs showcased naturally gaited horses moving in collection, engagement, and forwardness within their smooth gaits. I watched every DVD back-to-back for hours. This is what I wanted to learn how to ride my naturally gaited Tennessee Walking Horse using dressage.

An Amazing Connection

To my amazement, a couple weeks after my purchase, Jennie Jackson contacted me and asked for feedback about the DVDs. ME? I was a bit spellbound that the famous Jennie Jackson, only person in history who has trained and shown a naturally gaited Tennessee Walking Horse to the highest levels of dressage, was interested in knowing my thoughts. More so, I was thrilled just to connect with her.

She was interested in knowing, “Who is this person who bought my entire DVD library?!”

During our conversation, I asked, “Do you hold clinics in the Midwest?”

That’s how the first Midwest “Jennie Jackson Dressage as Applied to the Gaited Horse Clinic” got started. Six months of preparation came together June 29-30, 2013.

So how was the clinic? Stupendous! The Jennie Jackson Dressage as Applied to the Gaited Horse Clinic exceeded my already high expectations. There was a terrific mix of gaited horses, ages three to thirteen, green to advanced. There was a unique mix English and western riders who were new to dressage as well as experienced. Riders and horses were challenged and took home effective dressage methods that addressed their riding goals.

Jennie drew from 40 years of training and showing experience with Tennessee walking horses and the dressage she has learned from top instructors.

During the clinic, both horse and rider received individualized instruction. Jennie explained dressage concepts to the horse as she rode. Then she coached each rider through these concepts as they rode their horse.

My training questions

I brought two questions to my sessions: 1)How to ride a head nodding horse with contact and 2) How to cue my horse forward without rushing into short quick steps.

Jennie addressed both questions with effective tools to help me at home. During each lesson I experienced moments of “the feeling of right.” Connection, forwardness, and engagement while riding at a medium walk, flat walk, and canter.

I’ve been an avid dressage rider since 1988, so the concept of inside leg to outside rein is not new. In fact, I believed I had been riding this way. Jennie explained a more effective use of my rein, seat, and leg aids. She helped me understand why “hands together” equals “horse together” and the difference between direct rein and indirect rein.

Jennie also addressed my forwardness issue with Makana. Jennie noticed it took twenty-two cues of squeeze, cluck, tap, and repeat before my horse finally moved forward.

Jennie said, “Your horse reads you faster than you read her.”

I didn’t have a lazy horse. I have a smart horse. Makana had duped me into believing she’s doing the best she can when she’s only been giving me 20% of what she is capable of! It is quite sobering to realize I had desensitized my horse to my leg aids.

Jennie’s intervention was just what we needed. She showed me the need to establish myself as the leader in our relationship as I retrained Makana to respond to my first cue.

Riders and their Walking horses learned lateral exercises to break up pace or hard trot, engage the hindquarters. She helped others introduce the canter or improve the quality of the canter over cavalettis. We all got an adrenaline rush watching Jennie coach one of the riders hand gallop.

Jennie taught us how lateral exercises, such as pivoting around the fore, shoulder in, shoulder fore, and leg yield molded each horse into exquisite, round and beautiful frames.

Riders and auditors took pages of notes to jog their memories as they returned home.

One of my favorite sessions was watching Jennie ride a multi-gaited Tennessee walking horse through medium walk, flat walk, fox trot, rack, and running walk. Then Jennie coached the rider through the same series of smooth gaits. Another session Jennie transformed a pacey horse into a natural four-beat gait using dressage methods. Then she coached the rider how to maintain the smooth gait.

An enormous “thank you” to riders and auditors who helped bring Jennie to Minnesota and a huge “thank you” to Jennie who drove the 2,000-mile trek from Tennessee to Minnesota and back. We are already talking about when Jennie will be back!

In my quest for answers the last six years riding my Tennessee walking horse using dressage methods, I feel like I have finally connected with “the feeling of right” as it relates to riding a head nodding horse with contact and forwardness.

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. For more about Jennie Jackson and Champagne Watchout, visit Jennie Jackson: Dressage En Gaite.

Let me know your thoughts. Send me a message. Visit my website: NaturallyGaitedHorse.com. Stay connected by subscribing to the Naturally Gaited youtube channel and “like” us on facebook.com/naturallygaitedhorse.