DHF Owner and Head Trainer, Jen Truett
Jennifer Truett is a United States Dressage Federation (USDF) Bronze Medalist, Bronze Freestyle Bar recipient, past NAYRC (now NAJYRC) competitor, and active rider, trainer and competitor in Dressage. She also served as the USDF Region 2 Youth Council Coordinator for two years. She has been an elected USDF Region 2 Participating Member Delegate since 2010 and holds the position of USDF Region 2 Education Chair.
Jen has been on horseback ever since she could sit up unsupported as an infant (riding in her mother's arms). She has competed horses in many disciplines starting with a childhood of showing Quarter Horses in western, hunt seat, reining, barrels, jumping, trail, pleasure driving and showmanship; she also competed in saddleseat, hunter/jumper, and eventing until she found her heart’s desire in the ideal sport for the obsessive-compulsive perfectionist…dressage.
Jen earned both a Bachelor of Science in Psychology (1995) and a Master’s degree in Criminal Justice Research (1997) from Wright State University, Fairborn, Ohio. She started a consulting company working with the Dayton (OH) Police Department in the Domestic Violence (DV) Squad. Jennifer quickly realized that a streamlined data tracking system would help investigators track DV offenses more efficiently, so she developed software that was sold to multiple police departments, prosecutor’s offices and the US Air Force. The USAF’s request to “Web-enable” their software led her to connect with the defense contracting company, James Gregory Associates, where she eventually became VP of Business Development for the Washington DC Region. In 2006, she realized her heart was really in the horse business and she decided to use the business, networking, management and marketing skills she’d developed to run her own equine corporation, Dancing Horse Farm.
Jen prides herself on starting and training her own competition horses that she buys as untrained youngsters. All of her horses have won numerous individual competition high score awards, Regional and USDF Year End Championships.
Jen is very excited about the future of her young superstar mount, Sunset N, (YOB: 2006, Show Star-Sandro Hit x Florestan I) that she found on a shopping trip with her coach, Heather Blitz, in Denmark in the Fall of 2009. Sunset is proving himself to be the rockstar Heather and Jen hoped he'd become. He competed very successfully in both Training and First Levels in his first competition year, earning high score awards at almost every show he attended and USDF year end awards.
Jen also is very proud of the progress and success her other competition horse is experiencing. Lafayette HQ (AKA "Taffy") was purchased at the end of 2009 as a rehab project after he'd suffered a horrible accident as a four-year-old where his left hind leg got stuck in a manure spreader. When he arrived at DHF, he was totally lame. After a tremendous amount of rigorous biomechanics-symmetry work, body work, and chiropractic, Taffy is now 100% even behind and competed very successfully in Training through Second Level in his first competition year earning a record-breaking 78.083% in First Level Musical Freestyle at the Region 2 Championships. He won several show high score awards and many USDF year end awards including being ranked 2nd in the nation in Musical Freestyle Challenge with a 73.053% and 3rd in the nation in Musical Freestyle-1st level with a 76.500%.
Jen believes that every teacher needs their own teacher to ensure continued growth, learning and skill evolution. Until November 2007, Jennifer had always ridden with “traditional” classical instructors but never felt like she had fully tapped into her body’s capabilities, nor did she truly understand the ways of the invisible communication between the top FEI riders and their horses.
The turning point in Jen’s riding and teaching was when she was introduced to rider biomechanics through a clinic she hosted at DHF with Sandy Howard, USEF “S” judge and USDF “L” Faculty Member. Sandy worked with Mary Wanless for 17+ years at that point and had just successfully integrated Mary’s biomechanics theory, coupled with research results obtained by Dr. Hilary Clayton at the University of Michigan’s McPhail Institute, into the USDF L program’s certification training regimen. DHF clients were fortunate to have Sandy present the entire seminar she gave at the 2007 USEF Judge’s Forum to them that very cold, but life-changing, November weekend.
After that clinic, Jennifer’s eyes were opened wide to a whole new world of learning, teaching and biomechanical pattern changing—she was totally hooked! Jennifer was invited to and attended “TeacherTraining” at Sandy’s farm with Mary Wanless in February 2008 and 2009 and began bringing in Mary-trained “Ride With Your Mind” clinicians like Sandy, Joanie Bolton (USDF Gold Medalist, short-listed for the Pan American Games and 2000 Olympics), USEF Team Gold and Individual Silver medal winner of the 2011 Pan Am Games, Heather Blitz, and of course Mary Wanless herself. Jennifer also gets coaching locally from Sue Madden-Mandas, USEF "S" judge.
Jennifer very much enjoys teaching Mary’s Ride with Your Mind approach to dressage through riding, theory, and lunge line lessons focused on rider biomechanics that improve the communication and skills of the horse and rider as a team. She is very proud to be among the very few accredited RWYM instructors in the world. She also enjoys helping her clients develop Musical Freestyles that represent the music in their hearts.
Jennifer finds the most rewarding part of her job to be the small successes that her clients experience on a daily basis. Her wish for her students is to enjoy every moment with their horses, the good and the bad, because each moment offers a blessing, a life lesson and a memory.
Jen has been on horseback ever since she could sit up unsupported as an infant (riding in her mother's arms). She has competed horses in many disciplines starting with a childhood of showing Quarter Horses in western, hunt seat, reining, barrels, jumping, trail, pleasure driving and showmanship; she also competed in saddleseat, hunter/jumper, and eventing until she found her heart’s desire in the ideal sport for the obsessive-compulsive perfectionist…dressage.
Jen earned both a Bachelor of Science in Psychology (1995) and a Master’s degree in Criminal Justice Research (1997) from Wright State University, Fairborn, Ohio. She started a consulting company working with the Dayton (OH) Police Department in the Domestic Violence (DV) Squad. Jennifer quickly realized that a streamlined data tracking system would help investigators track DV offenses more efficiently, so she developed software that was sold to multiple police departments, prosecutor’s offices and the US Air Force. The USAF’s request to “Web-enable” their software led her to connect with the defense contracting company, James Gregory Associates, where she eventually became VP of Business Development for the Washington DC Region. In 2006, she realized her heart was really in the horse business and she decided to use the business, networking, management and marketing skills she’d developed to run her own equine corporation, Dancing Horse Farm.
Jen prides herself on starting and training her own competition horses that she buys as untrained youngsters. All of her horses have won numerous individual competition high score awards, Regional and USDF Year End Championships.
Jen is very excited about the future of her young superstar mount, Sunset N, (YOB: 2006, Show Star-Sandro Hit x Florestan I) that she found on a shopping trip with her coach, Heather Blitz, in Denmark in the Fall of 2009. Sunset is proving himself to be the rockstar Heather and Jen hoped he'd become. He competed very successfully in both Training and First Levels in his first competition year, earning high score awards at almost every show he attended and USDF year end awards.
Jen also is very proud of the progress and success her other competition horse is experiencing. Lafayette HQ (AKA "Taffy") was purchased at the end of 2009 as a rehab project after he'd suffered a horrible accident as a four-year-old where his left hind leg got stuck in a manure spreader. When he arrived at DHF, he was totally lame. After a tremendous amount of rigorous biomechanics-symmetry work, body work, and chiropractic, Taffy is now 100% even behind and competed very successfully in Training through Second Level in his first competition year earning a record-breaking 78.083% in First Level Musical Freestyle at the Region 2 Championships. He won several show high score awards and many USDF year end awards including being ranked 2nd in the nation in Musical Freestyle Challenge with a 73.053% and 3rd in the nation in Musical Freestyle-1st level with a 76.500%.
Jen believes that every teacher needs their own teacher to ensure continued growth, learning and skill evolution. Until November 2007, Jennifer had always ridden with “traditional” classical instructors but never felt like she had fully tapped into her body’s capabilities, nor did she truly understand the ways of the invisible communication between the top FEI riders and their horses.
The turning point in Jen’s riding and teaching was when she was introduced to rider biomechanics through a clinic she hosted at DHF with Sandy Howard, USEF “S” judge and USDF “L” Faculty Member. Sandy worked with Mary Wanless for 17+ years at that point and had just successfully integrated Mary’s biomechanics theory, coupled with research results obtained by Dr. Hilary Clayton at the University of Michigan’s McPhail Institute, into the USDF L program’s certification training regimen. DHF clients were fortunate to have Sandy present the entire seminar she gave at the 2007 USEF Judge’s Forum to them that very cold, but life-changing, November weekend.
After that clinic, Jennifer’s eyes were opened wide to a whole new world of learning, teaching and biomechanical pattern changing—she was totally hooked! Jennifer was invited to and attended “TeacherTraining” at Sandy’s farm with Mary Wanless in February 2008 and 2009 and began bringing in Mary-trained “Ride With Your Mind” clinicians like Sandy, Joanie Bolton (USDF Gold Medalist, short-listed for the Pan American Games and 2000 Olympics), USEF Team Gold and Individual Silver medal winner of the 2011 Pan Am Games, Heather Blitz, and of course Mary Wanless herself. Jennifer also gets coaching locally from Sue Madden-Mandas, USEF "S" judge.
Jennifer very much enjoys teaching Mary’s Ride with Your Mind approach to dressage through riding, theory, and lunge line lessons focused on rider biomechanics that improve the communication and skills of the horse and rider as a team. She is very proud to be among the very few accredited RWYM instructors in the world. She also enjoys helping her clients develop Musical Freestyles that represent the music in their hearts.
Jennifer finds the most rewarding part of her job to be the small successes that her clients experience on a daily basis. Her wish for her students is to enjoy every moment with their horses, the good and the bad, because each moment offers a blessing, a life lesson and a memory.
