Marketing Director/Newsletter Editor/Webmistress/Jen's Mom

I'm a professional sculptor, producing bronze horses, domestic animals, wildlife, some people, lots of trophies in bronze and resin, and one (so far!) life-size bronze of a17 hand Friesian stallion.  

I'm also a writer (3 books on Amazon).  My experirence as a writer led to my being asked to do the DHF Newsletter.  My experience at building and maintaining a Website for my art and writing business led to my being asked to build and maintain a new DHF website.  My marketing experience from my business led to my being asked to be Marketing Director for DHF.  And since my daughter (Jen Truett, co-owner of DHF with her husband, Lenny) asked so nicely, I agreed.  :)

I live on a 32 acre farm west of New Lebanon, Ohio, with my dear  husband, John, two house cats, one barn cat and my two sweet horses, "El Paso Aricos" (AKA "Ricos") who's half-Andalusian/half-Appendix Quarter Horse (when you meet him, ask him to smile) and is my dressage horse, and "Impowered for Time" ("Jack" to his friends - and he will consider you a friend, so go ahead and call him that).  Jack's my retired Quarter Horse.

I've been riding since I was six years old, and got my first horse at 9.  The western saddle I had for my horse was so much too big for me, I had to put my feet in the straps on top of the fenders ABOVE the stirrups!  But I had fun with her.  When I was 13, my Girl Scout troop took riding lessons at a forward seat hunter/jumper barn in order to earn a riding badge.  When they'd earned the badge, all of them left the riding school but me.  I stayed on and eventually became my instructor's working student/assistant instructor.  I taught during my summer breaks from college and trained horses while in college in South Carolina.  I was a full-time instructor at a different farm than my original trainer's during the summer when I was 19.  I also had to train the smallest horses and the ponies because I had the shortest legs of all the instructors.  I taught full-time again for a couple of years in my early 20s after finishing college and getting married.  Then in 1973, my husband's job dragged us (I didn't want to leave Virginia!)  out here to Ohio.  A year later, Jennifer was born.  At six months, she was in her first horse show riding in front of me on the horse we'd brought with us from Virginia. We sold that horse and I trained another horse when she was 2 but that horse was too hot for me to put a small child on.

When Jenny was 5, we moved to a farm near New Lebanon, Ohio, and started raising Quarter Horses.  Jen's first horse was a 15.2 H black Quarter Horse mare named Darby who'd been a polo pony but had a quiet mind and beautifully smooth gates.  We deliberately built a paddock too small for Darby to canter in so Jenny would be safe riding without being led while she was learning.  I learned how "show western" and "hunt seat" were ridden from magazines and taught my kids so they could compete successfully in 4-H and open shows - and boy, did they, even showing (and in Jen's case, winning!) at the Ohio State Fair several times!  

I started showing myself when I was 50.  I really enjoyed riding western, but when I needed a better horse and found Jack, I had a deluxe hunt seat horse, so I learned how to ride hunt seat rather than forward seat.  He and I had a great time showing  until the idiotic fads and "training" things done to horses to make them succeed in those show circuits made me decide to stop showing.  

About that time, Jen and Lenny moved back to Ohio from Maryland and opened DHF, so I took Jack there for dressage lessons.  Jack couldn't believe that I wanted him to be on the bit and through! Poor guy!   Rather than forcing him to do something he really wasn't built for, I asked Jen to find me a dressage horse.  She found Ricos, and he's perfect for me.  We've developed a really close relationship over the few years I've had him and he's taught me a bunch!  I've taught him things too, like how to smile.  :D  We have a good time together.

I figure dressage is so complex and physically demanding that it will keep both my brain and my body healthier as I age, so I'm glad I chose to try it.  And this way, I get to see my daughter more often.  :)

Contact Lynda at Lynda@mydhf.com or 937.272.7691

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