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he signed it, and at the clinic we got Laura Graves, Debbie McDonald and Robert Dover to sign it too.” Once the horse bug has bitten, of course, there’s no go-


ing back. The family also just bought an 8-year-old Dutch Warmblood from Eiren Crawford in Maryland and Emma Claire is hoping to do the children’s FEI classes with him, for ages 12-14 year olds—equivalent to Second Level. Emma Claire has obtained sponsorship from County


Saddlery as well as a law firm in Dallas called Sifford, An- derson. Jennifer is a lawyer and thanks to her connections this firm has taken Emma Claire under their wing, helping to pay for the new horse. Emma Claire recently started training with German dres-


sage rider Berndt von Hassler, whose barn is just a few min- utes down the road. She also attends clinics when she can and her mother acts as her “eyes on the ground” at home. “She has a good feel and excellent timing,” says Jenni-


fer. “When she rode the PSG and I-1, she’d never practiced the entire tests before; she’s able to visualize really well— she just reads the test once and she’s got it. Almost all the tests have been that way.”


Emma Claire has an auditory processing disability, so in


a classroom with lots of background noise it’s confusing for her to figure out what the teacher is saying. It was rec- ommended that she homeschool, and horses have been the perfect fit for her. “It’s amazing how they take to her and she takes to


them,” Jennifer adds. “She just kind of has a way with horses.” Initially Jennifer had hoped that her daughter would


follow in her own athletic footsteps, but it was not to be. “I was a gymnast and later a gymnastics coach and a judge, so when she was younger I put her in gymnastics and she had zero talent! It was heartbreaking for me. Of course then she found horses, which I knew nothing about. Now we have all these horses and it’s become an addiction! We’re in the process of building a barn, we have five horses total, plus my sister has a horse here, and then we have one in the full training program with Ber- ndt. Moose is in our front yard while he’s healing. They’ve taken over our lives and we’re broker, but happier than ever!”


Warmbloods Today 93


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