This is the fourth entry in the USEA’s Member Story Series. Help us reach our goal of over 300 stories – email your story to [email protected].
Hello fellow eventers! My name is Jennifer Eis. I live in a small town, Two Rivers, Wisconsin. I have had a strong passion for horses since I was a very young child. I started in the suburbs of Chicago. My dad likes to blame himself; since he and my mom divorced I would visit him on the weekends. One weekend he decided to take me trail riding, and life would never be the same.
Like a lot of young girls I was also in brownies and girl scouts, and on one of our outings we stopped at a local stable where the trainer gave a demonstration and even jumped for us. I went home immediately to tell my mom that there was a barn in our area that actually gave riding lessons (as if this existed nowhere else)! My wonderful mom enrolled me in lessons around the age of seven, and I never looked back. My mom and I moved to Green Bay, Wisconsin when I was ten and the hunt was on for a local stable. I did not own a horse, but was able to experience many lesson horses who taught me many valuable skills. Also I believe DNA had a part to play in my horse craze. I found out in my mid twenties I was adopted as an infant and after locating my wonderful biological family, I was elated to find out I have an aunt, Pat, who is a successful thoroughbred breeder/blood stock agent that runs a farm just outside Lexington, KY.
I was introduced to eventing when I was about 12 or 13 while taking lessons at a stable that was also involved with Pony Club. The stable itself had two trainers, a well established eventing trainer and my trainer who was geared toward hunter/jumpers. At that age all I wanted to do was jump often and BIG. I also was given the wrong impression of eventing by my hunter/jumper trainer. At the age of 16 I got my first horse, Perfect Timing (Ernie). He was 15 and deemed the hell horse of the barn. Ernie is an OTTB who was fast and jumped anything you pointed him at. We went on to compete in the jumper ring for many years.
Ernie helped me through my teen years and college. When I graduated from college as a Dental Hygienist in 2001, Ernie was in his early twenties. He was still going strong but I didn’t want to risk injuring him. So as a graduation present to myself, after I got my first dental hygiene job, I purchased another OTTB. He was a gangly 3 year old dark bay that stood about 17 hands. His name was Lil Bert (Bert). That’s right now I had two horses, Bert and Ernie.
What seemed unfortunate at the time turned out to be a blessing. The barn I had been at for quite some time was closing. We had to start the dreaded barn hunt. Our new barn had a wonderful trainer working out of it. Deborah Chinana, a British Society Certified Trainer from the UK who was also a top eventer. I learned things I never knew existed, especially dressage! Fortunately Bert was willing to learn with me. Sadly, after two years of learning from her, Deb decided to move back to the UK to be near family.
After getting married to the most wonderful man who accepted me and the “boys”, I decided it would be fun to purchase a project pony. We bought a 10 year old 14.0 hh morab mare named Sue. She had only been used as a trail horse. I immediately found out she LOVED jumping. But she wanted nothing to do with going slow. The light went on in my head and I thought maybe she would enjoy running cross country. The stars aligned and my trainer moved back from the UK. We started taking lessons. Unfortunately, Sue and I butted heads when it came to dressage even though Deb could get her to melt like butter. I finally decided to take Sue to our first event. We competed at the beginner novice level at Otter Creek Farm in Wheeler, Wisconsin in 2007. Dressage, as expected, wasn’t great. Cross country came on day two and we whizzed through the course. Then onto stadium on day three where we flew around the course winning our division! Now I was hooked on eventing. It actually had little to do with winning first place. I was blown away with how nice the fellow eventers were. People were always willing to help each other out. Trainers were not screaming at their students or talking about other riders. It was a revelation! Of course the adrenaline and exhilaration of cruising around that cross country field was incredible. I eventually sold Sue to a wonderful family.
Bert and I picked up where Sue and I left off, except with a better agreement on dressage. After a small disagreement on water, we went on to compete at the Beginner Novice level. We even qualified and competed at the AEC our first season! Last year we moved up to Novice with flying colors and again qualified for the AEC. This year we are going to try our luck at Training level with a goal to go to the AEC. Eventing is by far the best sport on Earth! I am still blown away at what an incredible group of people that make up the eventing world.
My husband and I moved to Two Rivers a year ago. We purchased a hobby farm and now have Bert and Ernie (he’s now 31) at home. Thanks to Aunt Pat we have collected a few new OTTBs. We started Regal Equine in an effort to “repurpose” thoroughbreds from the track. Bert and I have continued training with Deborah Chinana during the off season. My dad still travels to every horse trial along with my husband and our two dogs. We are excited and eager to get back at it and look forward to seeing all you wonderful and welcoming eventers this season!
