About Jill & Gypsy

Statistics

dressage show Show name: Trinity’s Gypsy Moon
Height: 14.2 hh
Weight: 1100 (too fat, always!)
Color: Tobiano pinto
Year of birth: 1993
BLM freezebrand: 93541167
Origin: Trinity Range, Nevada

Beginnings

Gypsy and I have been a team since 2002. After over 30 years out of the saddle, I decided to get back into horses and found this cute little BLM mustang through a friend. I brought her down from Oregon to our ranch in California on Halloween day, and started right away riding her on roads and trails around the ranch.

Our first obstacle was rude behavior. Gypsy had been taught right, but being the bossy, lead mare personality that she is, she had to test me. In my youth I rode hunter/jumper. Back then we had no concept of horsemanship, natural or otherwise. I needed help to be safe with this horse and gain her confidence. So I studied for a while with Charles Wilhelm, and learned all about ground work and respect work. This made a big difference and helped me through a very rough time. I will always be grateful to Charles for his quick and sympathetic response to my panicky call on New Year’s Eve of 2002!

Dressage

With better control on the ground, I wanted to learn to ride this new horse, so I started taking lessons from a trainer recommended by a neighbor. It didn’t matter to me that she was a dressage trainer—I didn’t even know what dressage was!—it just mattered that she would help me with my riding. Martha Gregory recognized right away all the good qualities of my new horse, and predicted she’d do quite well at the lower levels of dressage. I studied with Martha for five years, clinicing occasionally with world-class masters Karl Mikolka and Gerhard Politz. In that time, I took Gypsy through First Level, and we won the United States Dressage Federation All-Breeds Award for mustangs at both Training and First Level.

Last winter I started studying with a new dressage trainer, USDF Fourth Level certified Heidi Riddle. It takes me five hours round-trip to trailer to her, but it’s been worth every minute. Heidi has taken Gypsy and me to new heights, teaching me how to access my core and activate my seat, and Gypsy how to collect. We’re now preparing to compete in the 2009 season at Second Level. Meanwhile, I’ve enlisted freestyle designer Diane Kernodle to help me over the winter to prepare a First Level musical freestyle, for presentation next spring.

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