Instructor: Jessica Recknagel
Jessica's Teaching Philosophy
In terms of teaching, Jessica believes that there is no such thing as a dumb question and that the purpose of an instructor is to help guide their students. She believes that when someone is first introduced to the horse world, they learn in small steps and explains everything in terms that people with zero horse experience can understand. She cultivates a safe space for everyone to feel comfortable asking any and all questions. Jessica is a firm believer that it takes time to learn how to ride a horse and that you have to be okay with the fact that you won’t be perfect right away. She creates an environment where everyone is here to support you and cheer you on.
In addition, Jessica wants both lesson students and lessees to understand what it means to own a horse and what that requires on a day-to-day basis. Jessica provides education on the financial aspect of owning a horse, including the dentistry, veterinary care and chiropractic work that is crucial for a healthy and happy horse. She recommends having two months of board in an ’emergency fund’ in case something happens in addition to savings for the general annual cost of owning a horse. She also believes it’s important to understand the transportation aspects of horses such as loading a horse into a trailer and how to hook up a trailer to a truck so that the horse and owner can go off property and experience different aspects of showing and trail rides.
Jessica's Horse Training Philosophy
Jessica believes in using natural horsemanship techniques in training her horses. She uses techniques similar to those of Warwick Schiller – making things easy for the horse and working on things that they would naturally do and using the herd to ease anxieties when working on new tasks. Jessica also believes that horses should live as natural of a life as possible. This means that horses should be allowed to live in a pasture most of their day and not be confined to a stall for hours and hours at a time.
Jessica's Riding Story
Jessica has been riding horses since she was eight years old. She started taking lessons at what is now The Dancing Horses in Lake Geneva, WI for basic English equitation skills. During this time, Jessica also volunteered at Sorensen’s Equestrian Park to help carry papers for dressage tests back and forth and other various errands. After taking lessons for a while, Jessica switched trainers to Linda Sorenson and joined 4H at age 11 for one year and rode/drove welsh ponies.
When Jessica turned 16 and got her drivers license, she also took lessons more regularly from Linda Sorensen as well as Ted Gibson up until she was about 18 or 19 years old.
Jessica did not start giving lessons regularly until she got Bravado and Sparrow. Prior to that, from age 14 until about age 18, she had been breaking horses to ride and training horses for others while working under the guidance of Ted and Linda.
In addition, Jessica has been to many clinics such as Warwick Schiller, Charmayne James, Dan James, Pat Parelli and Clinton Anderson as well as working under the guidance of Ted Gibson and Linda Sorensen.
Jessica's Personal Horses
Miscellaneous Photos of Jessica Riding & Teaching
