This Page: Above & Left: Stella Farm. Right: Jennifer on Tin Tin, 2010, Photo © Flying Horse Photography.
Opposite Page: Jennifer and kids in Maui.
time she went to the ring. It wasn't an easy ride but to us we were use to the hot ones and we got to the Interna- tional ring with huge success." Jennifer says, " I won a lot on Stella and we decided to
go to Europe to find a young prospect in 2002. There we met Eddie Macken and a lifelong friendship just sort of happened. Since I had dual citizenship, for the Interna- tional competitions I decided my country of origin, Ire- land, would be who I rode for. My mom's from there and I felt that was right. " "Fate works in funny ways and there was a horse, Cas- sandra, that Eddie knew about and said to go look at even though we did not have the money. While we were there we got a call from the states that Stella had coliced and was being taken to the vet hospital for surgery," Mike explains as he gets a little pensive. "They found a forty pound kid- ney tumor attached to the renal artery and had to put her down there on the table. We were devastated and decided right there we would call our farm Stella Farms!" Jennifer adds in a quiet tone, "I really think Stella re-
placed herself for me and it was meant to be. Her insur- ance money bought Cassandra for me but I have never forgotten that first great horse." "I started doing the 1.50's and we decided to go to
Spruce Meadows. We walked the 1.50 meter class and I remember saying, 'Oh my gosh this is HUGE!' Mike looked at me and said, 'This is bigger than I ever jumped, we need to get you help. We need to get Eddie!'" She continues with laughter, "I called him every little
bit through the night and when he got up at 7AM he had a dozen or more missed calls from me. When he called, all he could say was 'What's the fuss about' as he laughed. That ended up being one of the three best weekends of my life so far. I made the Irish Team to go to Florida and the Nations Cup. Darragh Karin, Kevin Babington, Con- ner Swaile and myself were the Team with Eddie as Chef de 'Equippe. We WON!! I was so tired all I wanted to do was go back to the hotel to bed but Eddie said, 'If you
go in now girl, you will never ride for Ireland again, we celebrate!!!' And off on the town we went. The Irish have so much fun dancing, laughing and having a great time when they win, it was a great time."
THE FAMILY AND THE CHILDREN, MOSTLY IN JENNIFER'S WORDS
"When Mike and I got married in 1996 he came as a readymade family and he could cook! I became the 'mom' of Lauren (9 years old then) and Shawn (then 8 years old). We all melded together great right off the bat and in 1997 we added our own first baby, Ciara, followed by Hunter in 1998. I had taken those two years off from the shows to have the family complete but then I started to show again." "Something was missing though, and I decided I re-
ally wanted to adopt a child. I had ALWAYS wanted to adopt and have a multi racial family, even as a kid and now I couldn't shake it. Mike was resistant, obviously we already had four children and adopting was a stretch to even think about. Then he read an article about so many Chinese children, mostly girls, that were not wanted. Mike was touched and decided the adoption thing could be OK." "In 2004 we started to work with traditional adoption
programs, then a friend emailed me about Children's House International where they had children with special needs waiting. I went to the website and the first child I clicked on was Xiyang (means happy sunshine). I thought she was the most beautiful child I had ever seen. I called Mike and said I had found our child and he reacted with, 'whoa hold on!' He came to see what I was talking about and as he looked at the monitor he said 'YEP, there she is, OUR DAUGHTER.' We named her Sophie right then." "This was the second best weekend of my life to now.
We took Ciara, Lauren and Shawn to China, Hunter was too small. I felt it was important for them to see life
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