o
running your own sport horse farm is a full-time job
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for anyone, especially a mom with two young daughters. Jennie Hodgson manages horses, farm and family in beautiful Sedalia, Colorado. For the last ten years, Jennie is able to excel in her chosen
sport despite coping with the stresses, both physical and emotional, of the chronic disease Multiple Sclerosis (MS). “Horses are my equivalent to a psychiatrist,” she says. “I come out here to the barn and I’m with the horses and I forget about everything else.” She trains with top coach Michael Dennehy and shows in USEF A circuits in California and Colorado, where she competes in Amateur/Owner classes at 1.30 m (4’ 3”). She’s also made the trip to North America’s most prestigious showgrounds, Calgary’s Spruce Meadows, three times.
Devoted to the Sport Jennie’s been training with Colorado’s legendary hunter-
jumper family, the Dennehys, most of her life. “I’ve ridden off and on with all three of them—Wilson, Charlie, and Michael—for 25 years,” she says. “I took one break after I graduated from college, moved to New York, and rode with Peter Leone three years. Then I came back here.” Currently she trains with Michael at Bridlewood Farms in Elizabeth, Colorado. Michael, a USHJA certified trainer, is Wilson’s younger son, and is the only rider who’s won the AHSA (now the USEF), Maclay and USET equitation finals. Michael admires Jennie for her dedication to the
discipline. “She is a wonderful person and she has a great husband, Marley.” Marley Hodgson is CEO of Mad Greens, a chain of eleven restaurants in and around Denver.
First Lucy… Jennie’s two current jumpers, Lucy and Waterloo II or “Louie,”
are both imports. Lucy is from Germany and Louie is from Canada. The Dennehys found both horses for Jennie, although
she bought Lucy herself on a solo trip to Germany in 2008. “She went to Europe by herself,” recalls Michael. “The trip was organized by my father. Now she has two wonderful horses.”
Top: Jenny and Waterloo II (“Louie”) in Thermal California. Warmbloods Today 31
wning and showing two jumpers and
Life’s Challenges b
Despite her chronic disease, this Coloradan fields success in the jumpers.
By Charlene Strickland
Lucy is a 2002 Württemberger (Romino x Zeus) and was
showing in jumper classes in northern Germany when Jennie went to see her. Her sire Romino (Ramiro Z x Moltke I) was a 1979 Holsteiner, while damsire Zeus sired jumpers Playback, Lonesome Dove, Midnight Madness, and was also damsire of Tinka’s Boy.
Jennie did take a friend with her to Germany, not wanting
to go completely alone. “There were three different barns where I looked at horses,” says Jennie. “I looked at Lucy and two others.” She remembers that Lucy was “great to ride when I tried her. I knew that Wilson had really liked her and approved of her, and the price was right. She was the right age.” When Lucy arrived in Colorado, she was greener than
expected, not unlike other imports. Jennie calls her kind of a puzzle to figure out. “When we first got her, I think she had been mishandled. You couldn’t go anywhere near her head. She would throw her head up and run backwards. She was just scared, not trying to be mean.” “Now she’s great,” she continues, but adds that Lucy
continues to show off her mischievous side. “I think she does it on purpose. She will stick her head way up when you’re trying to put her bridle on, for example. And because Lucy is 17.3 hands, her groom routinely has to stand on a stool to bridle her.” “Lucy is a very nice young
prospect, but difficult,” Michael concurs. “I showed her at Wellington a
Jenny and Lucy in Tucson, Arizona. Lucy
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