Team #681 Elizabeth Jacoby and Jet
Photo by Leah Strid
Team #681: Elizabeth Jacoby and Jet
From: Union, Missouri
Ages: 74.5 & 25.5
Combined Age: 100
Test: Second Level Test 3
Date: August 5, 2023
“Can I have a pony?”
I remember constantly saying as a child on birthdays or Christmas. My parents were used to seeing this as the first item on my Christmas list which I would post on the bulletin board in the kitchen. As I grew up it became “Can I have a horse?” But the results were the same: socks and a new sweater!
I spent plenty of time on horses at camp and dude strings. In my efforts to convince my father, I would describe how easy it would be to keep a horse, how cheap I could make it (haha), and how I knew just the animal which was only $150. One dad my dad replied, “But you would want something better than that?” And so, it began.
I started out riding western and used to go to all the little local horse shows with a friend and ride in Western Pleasure classes. After I moved to Colorado, I started riding English pleasure on my “Quarter Horse with spots” named Chubby. One day, after I had moved him to Table Mountain Ranch in Golden, I was watching Julie Sodowsky school one of her horses. I thought that I would like to learn to ride like that. I signed up for lessons. Julie suggested that I not rush out and buy a saddle or breeches until I decided that this was what I wanted to do. I rode in my hunt seat saddle and cowboy boots. It didn’t take long to get hooked and when Julie returned from wintering in Arizona, I not only had a saddle but was decked out with breeches and boots too. When Julie stayed in Arizona, Dolly Hannon took over my instruction. I was so lucky that I had such excellent instructors available to me.
My time in Colorado didn’t last as long as I would have liked. I moved back to Missouri. Which, back in the mid-eighties was a wasteland for dressage. I retired Chubby and bought a young Trakehner, Hal, and spent the nineties doing combined training. I picked up dressage lessons where I could mostly from Karen Pautz from William Woods.
As Hal approached retirement, I began looking for another horse. Tim and Cheryl Holekamp invited up to their New Spring Farm, which was then in Columbia, Missouri, to view one of their young horses. There was Harrier (Jet), steel gray and lanky, just a three-year-old. The selling point was that he had a great temperament, essential for me, especially since I was over 50 and way past the tough rides of youth.
Jet and I have been a team for 23 years, through ups and downs, wins and losses, suspensory injuries, knee replacements, hock injections, and rotator cuff repairs. I finally found a great instructor in Brianna Zwilling who moved to the area about 10 years ago. With her help, I have shown him through Third Level and earned my USDF bronze medal. Brianna showed him at Fourth Level with decent scores in the sixties. He’s been a great partner for me.
After my Century Club ride, I brought him home and he did what I knew he would, roll in the mud. He has earned every muddy patch on him.
