ShowBiz
Featured PROFESSIONAL By Kathy Hobstetter
J
enny Karazissis is a California home town “valley girl” in every sense of the word. Born in the San Fernando Valley, Burbank to be exact, she has never ventured far from there. Her route to the very top of the hunter sport in this country has been interesting and more unique than most, and certainly much different than any of us may have thought. She says it better than anyone…. Living in Northridge (San Fernando Valley), she was
the youngest of four children, Pau- la, Mike, Helen and then Jenny. “Be- ing the baby of the group, six years behind the others, I was always targeted as the spoiled one, which I was. They laughed constantly and gave me grief about it, but always in a humorous way.” “I started riding,” says Jenny with
a pleasant nostalgic look, “when I was really young. Shari Rose (Lowe) was our babysitter and lived across the street. She had a horse in a backyard down the street with Hank Bermiester and her kids Charlotte-Bobby-Little Paul. Shari was not a trainer, she rode for fun but said, ‘I’ll give you lessons in Hanks backyard at $3 a lesson’ and my parents, Tom and Mary O’Donnell, grabbed at the chance. When I was seven years
old, Shari started taking me to horse shows; I and the oth- ers rode in the back of a pickup truck with the horse trailer behind us. There were also a lot of times we would just get on and ride several miles to the horse show.” “Shari finally figured out she had a knack for it and
was pretty darn good. A few kids in the neighborhood and their friends started asking for lessons so she moved to Fara Ranch in Chatsworth and officially became a trainer. She gathered a lot of us…. Lise Quintero, Leslie Steele, Candice Schlom, Joanne Girgenti (Arakelian), Joie Gatlin, Linda and Robin Har- wood, Shauna Pennell, Linda Cooper to name a few of the top junior riders of the time. All of us there together at the same time, who knew??” “When we finally decided to go to
a big show off we went to the Santa Barbara Turkey show. Young and full of enthusiasm, we of course figured out that Shari needed a trainer ‘shin- gle’ or a business sign so we found a placard, painted and hung out a sign
that said “Gunselle’s Incorporated”, her term of endear- ment for all of us. To this day I still think it is one of her favorite words. Lucky the ones she used that on!!” “Eventually Shari started to gain a large following so she and her husband, Merle Rose, moved to Northridge and
Top - Jenny and Rusty. Bottom, Left to Right - Jenny, age 7 on Boy, her first lesson horse; Jenny and Christopher Robin at the Santa Maria horse show in a hunt coat made by her mother.
65 Photos Courtesy Jenny Karazissis
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