Exactly What I Needed

Heavy Hitters! Throughout the month of December, we are featuring heavy breeds and heavy breed crosses!

Did you know that dressage riders who choose a heavy hitter as their mounts are eligible for special awards through the Adequan®/USDF All-Breeds Awards program, as the Draft Cross Breeders & Owners Association (among several others!) is a participating organization!

Here, a rider from Region 2 shares the story of the little powerhouse who may not have been what she was looking for, but turned out to be exactly what she needed to reignite her love of dressage after a traumatic fall.

By Julie Jeske

Sometimes the universe doesn’t give you what you want, but instead, gives you what you need. My name is Julie Jeske, and I’m a USDF Bronze and Silver Medalist who has shown Grand Prix, but has not yet secured the gold for my collection. The universe had its own plan. 

As we know, dressage is a journey, and I’ve traveled its roads with five other horses before I chose my current dance partner. Each has filled a part of me, as both a rider and a human. I’ve learned and grown, and I wouldn’t trade a moment, because the road led me to LSH Top Gun, also known as Maverick. 

I began my dressage journey in my early thirties, after a childhood in saddleseat, and dabbling in basic horsemanship and hunt seat as a young adult in college. I was gifted Fraser, a gorgeous, blood bay National Show Horse (NSH) who desperately wanted to please, but was filled with tension from his previous saddleseat career. The universe saw fit to put people and situations in the path that led us to dressage training, which naturally helped us BOTH learn and grow in our partnership together. We went to our first show feeling relaxed and fluid… until the bell to enter the dressage arena rang. My nerves were felt in all his sensitivity, and all the relaxation we had developed left when I entered at A. 

So, up stepped my daughter’s little Pintabian mare (bless her heart), who gave me the opportunity to get a handle on my nerves and some show experience (and blue ribbons) under my belt. USDF is amazing at providing riders opportunities to achieve small goals (like Rider Performance Awards) that can lead to bigger goals (such as USDF Rider Medals). It was at this point in my dressage journey that I developed a full-blown addiction. 

Two years later, a young Quarter Horse came in for training, and I fell in love. Remington was smart, playful, and athletic. I enjoyed him so much that when the owners offered to sell him to me, I purchased him for a whopping $1500. At his first show, we scored in the 80s at Introductory Level!! (I still have the tests to prove it!) We started working with my coach from Michigan, and Remington took me up the levels. Together, we earned my USDF Bronze Medal. 

About the same time, the universe saw another opportunity. Stuart Tarleton was a Morgan/Thoroughbred cross, who was originally leased by a young rider in my barn. When the lease fell through, I decided to hop on for a few tune-up rides before sending him back to his owner. He was a handful, but was also smart and athletic. Stuart was also like a man in a three-piece suit; all about business (no kisses, thank you very much). He loved to learn, and I started to fall for him pretty quickly. I decided to take him to a show, and the judge’s comments were, “Great future with this horse.” I asked the owners if they would be willing to sell, and on my birthday, I wrote them a check.

When I went through a divorce a couple of years later, I had to make difficult decisions. Remington had taught me how to ride correctly, and purposefully – mostly because he was not exactly built for dressage. Nothing (except pirouettes!) came easy to him. When I applied everything I had learned from Remington and Fraser to Stuart, he moved like a dancer. It came so easily to us, and we progressed up the levels quickly. My heart broke making the decision, but Remington found a happy home with another rider, and Stuart and I continued our journey toward Grand Prix. 

There were life changes, injuries for both of us, illnesses, and struggles along the way. And after a nearly three-year hiatus, Stuart and I tried again to earn the Grand Prix scores for my Gold Medal. His age was beginning to show, and his heart didn’t feel as “in it.” He was still a businessman, working hard for me, but we were falling short, and I didn’t feel good about continuing to push him. I decided a gold medal could wait. Stuart owed me nothing. He is currently living his best retired life in full view from my living room windows. 

On my teacher’s salary, I can’t justify a large horse budget. So I decided that the only shot of getting my dream horse might be to buy it in utero. I had always dreamed of bringing along a horse from start to finish. We put money down and waited. But, I’m impatient! So I tried to tell the universe what I needed. 

I found a mare for sale at a price point we could afford. To me, she was a diamond in the rough, and we brought her home. Sonja was a sensitive, alpha mare who needed to go back to the basics. She was a Percheron/Dutch Harness Horse cross, wasn’t all that athletic, and definitely not playful. But she was smart, and I thought if I taught her to use her body correctly, she would begin to love the work. 

We were getting ready to make our show ring debut at First Level, when one day, my husband pulled up to the outdoor arena on the four-wheeler while I was riding. This was nothing new, but Sonja spooked. I stuck the spook with no problems, but my spur, or leg, or something, must have made her quite upset. She took off, making the broncs at the rodeo look like small potatoes. I know I made it eight seconds, because we ended up at the other end of the arena before my body crumpled to the ground. My husband begrudgingly held her as I painfully remounted to walk her around the arena. I’m not sure if the saying is true, but I was glad I did. A trip to the emergency room showed a compression fracture. Our show ring debut would have to wait. 

If you’ve ever come back from a traumatic fall, you know firsthand that the next few months were difficult. I rode my “husband horse,” Oprah, who made me feel safe, and I did round pen, ground work, and liberty work with Sonja to try to rebuild the trust we had lost in each other. 

Long story short, it helped. I did eventually take Sonja up to Third Level, but the spark had gone out in our partnership. My husband said, “You don’t even act like you want to ride her.” That was when it hit me. He was right. While I had proven to myself that I was brave enough, and that she was trustworthy again, something had been lost in the trauma we shared. I made the difficult decision to list her for sale. Meanwhile, the universe already had plans….

Enter my client, Dawn, who brought her Gypsy Vanner, George, in for training. She had told me about George’s younger half-brother, Maverick, at home. He sounded naughty, but she insisted I would LOVE him. She raved about the Vanners and how amazing they are, but all I saw was the HAIR! I did enjoy training George, though. He was a bit stubborn, but was fun to ride and learned quickly. Dawn took George home after a couple of months and, a year or so later, brought him back for me to ride while she had surgery. 

Tagging along was Maverick, the hairy Vanner/Halflinger cross who had been lightly started by her husband. I was nervous, but not overly worried about getting him going. 

Maverick was definitely naughty. Within the first few days of his arrival, he managed to find the ten feet of fencing in his paddock that wasn’t electrified, and I watched him step through it. I fixed it, and thought the problem was solved. But later, we came home to find him and George standing in the driveway. While my husband put up permanent fencing, Maverick explored his tools and watched with intensity. It was almost as if he were learning how to run the drill himself… if only he had thumbs. He would (and still does) inspect every inch of every human he comes in contact with, removing anything he finds interesting (gloves, hats, zippers). Okay, he’s a little naughty… but only because he’s that smart!

We started with groundwork (as I always do), and I would laugh at the dolphin squeal that accompanied almost every canter depart. He had lovely gaits for his short legs, and was a little more refined and flexible than his brother. And holy moly, was he athletic! When we did his very first canter under saddle (caught on video), he picked up the incorrect lead, so I went across the diagonal for him. I didn’t realize that he had changed his lead, and then changed it again!

I would come home from work every day, excited to go out and put in another ride. It felt like he was continually having a conversation with me, asking questions, looking for answers, and trying his heart out. He had just enough silly antics to keep me on my toes. He was so playful, and so much fun.

Around the same time that negotiations to purchase a former training horse had fallen through, I ran into Dawn at our local grocery store. She half-heartedly told me they were thinking about selling Maverick. My heart flipped, and I noticed. We were leaving to go on vacation for a week, and just before we left, I texted Dawn and told her I was thinking I might like to own him. I spent the entire vacation going back and forth about it: Is he too small for me? Can he do the things I want to do? Is he worth the investment? My husband was probably sick of my musing, and at one point, he said, “Julie, how does he make you feel?” I nearly cried thinking about him leaving. Pure joy, that’s what he makes me feel. 

Before I could make my final decision, I had one box left to check, and that was to run it by my coach. I made plans to ride Mav in a clinic, and it was our first time off-property. He handled it like a pro, but I will never forget the moment during his first ride when he dolphin-squealed and bucked across the diagonal. My coach laughed and said, “It’s like he’s decided today is the BEST day of his life!” 

My coach’s only concern was regarding the struggles of showing a “non-traditional” dressage horse. I hadn’t yet owned anything considered “traditional,” so this was nothing new to me. I was also pretty sure I didn’t care. At that moment, I realized it didn’t matter what anyone said. I just wanted the joy Maverick brought to my riding. So, to heck with the judges! We wrote the check and drank the champagne (Maverick, too!).

Owning Maverick has been nothing short of amazing. I don’t have to work him hard; he’s eager to learn new things, and he loves his job! As a four-year-old, he dolphin-squealed his way through his very first Training Level test, ending the season as Central States Dressage and Eventing Association (CSDEA) Training Level Open Champion. 

That winter, we “played” with changes (because we already knew he could do them!), and the next season, as a five-year-old, he earned the scores for my Bronze Medal with Distinction, and my Bronze Freestyle Bar. We ended that season with scores in the 60s at Fourth Level. This last show season, we focused on – and earned – the Fourth Level scores for my Silver Medal with Distinction. He was also CSDEA Fourth Level Open Reserve Champion amid a sea of warmbloods. 

My mother used to tell me that I need to smile when I ride, and I used to respond, “I can’t! I’m concentrating!” The last three years, there’s been more smiles than not, though. When he dolphin-squeals and bucks instead of doing his extended trot, I just have to laugh. He still asks me questions and looks for answers, and he gives me his all. When he rests his head on my shoulder and wiggles his nose on my jacket, I know I’ve found the joy I needed. My hope is that someday, we will get to Grand Prix and earn those scores. 

In the meantime, I’ll just keep smiling. Sometimes, the universe gives you not what you want, but what you need. God bless the horses that come into our lives and give us all we need.