Learn with JAM
Mounted Lessons & Groundwork
The Balanced Brain and Seat for all Disciplines.
Jennifer’s core belief of connection through the balanced brain and body emanates throughout her teaching both on the ground and in the saddle. She delves deep into horse psychology and how they learn to tease out misconceptions and draw similarities unique to the human/horse connection. With the proper implementation of both positive and negative reinforcement, awareness is found, and impeccable timing is achieved. She believes everyone should and can consider themselves a trainer putting the power in the students’ hands and seats. Because no experience with a horse is bad, Jennifer distills years of study and application with both excellent and not so excellent hunter jumper coaches, natural horsemanship coaches and positive reinforcement teachers to her junior and adult riders who benefit and progress quickly to upper-level concepts and successes.
“It is important to me to begin creating correct muscle memory of what I call “balanced through the gaits” in my riders as soon as possible.” Jennifer will problem solve for both the rider and the horse all at once during the lesson, and she is quick to call up that lesson at the end for retention’s sake. Don’t be alarmed by the learning preferences quiz she gives all new riders. “As a teacher it’s pretty important to know what learning style best suits the student. Good luck calling out aids to a visual learner. Its best to show them. Voila, problem solved or at least minimized!”
Beyond the rote learning, McDermott differentiates good from great by assessing the rider’s connection with the horse. “Amazingly you can force these 1200 lbs. animals to do many things but to make it seem fluid and effortless by keeping the horse in the thinking and willing side of their brain; that’s the key to the castle.”
“A forced horse, through whip and spur, is not unlike a dancer taught by the same abusive hand. We can expect only so much beauty and fluidity to come through.”
– Xenophon, 346 BC
Jennifer brings to her riders the exploration of horses as mirrors and a concept called “Comparable Parts.” Little is hidden from her watchful gaze. “It’s easy to see when something is not quite right with my student internally because horses can’t keep secrets.” As for the horse’s wellbeing, McDermott educates on body assessments and trigger checks, a system implemented during the tacking up process. And if you can’t quite figure out this whole connection piece, she’ll have you on the ground soon enough working through basic tenants of liberty work and connection.
Foundational skills are taught through fun and engaging exercises; experiential learning is valued highly. “I feel it’s important for the rider to feel what they are actually doing to their horse. When we talk about the importance of balance, I like to call to mind the childhood pool game of chicken fights, the person on the bottom has the greater chore sorting out the weight shifts of the partner on top. Similarly, the slightest instability in the rider must be compensated for by the horse,” she’ll go on to explain, “to maintain the free-swinging motion in our horse, we must get out of their way by maintaining a balanced seat and not blocking them with our misalignment.”
McDermott loves demonstrating the power of “Comparable Parts” – a thread woven through Sally Swift’s Centered Riding methodology. “It’s a fun way to work, making the impossible easy because of the intuitiveness it awakens. This makes some of the seemingly harder tasks like lateral work easier in thought and application.“ In the end, Jennifer’s passion is palpable in her quest to find and disseminate knowledge. “I want my students to see the generous, patient, spirit that I see in the horse. It is so hard to quantify what great riding through connection feels like. It’s the coming together of two beings acting with one mind. Leave your ego at the door and ‘Let’s ride!’”
I want creativity in learning!
“The most underutilized part of the horse’s body is the brain.”
– Casey Sugarman
I’ll be honest, I don’t know whether there is another form of training that makes horse people run for the hills faster than Marker or Clicker training a horse. You can hand a kid a whip or strap some spurs on an uneducated heel, but don’t you bring that carrot into the arena!! One thing I do know is the person with the strongest critique, guaranteed, has never truly investigated nor implemented this fun and engaging teaching modality. I love seeing my horse think! Marker teaching is science-based and is used across all species on this planet. See goldfish successfully navigate a maze or a husband clean the garage with a smile. It’s all possible with marker based positive reinforcement teaching. My 1st OTTB, Ponche’s Solo, was a real tough nut (RIP) and for that I am grateful. He was a racehorse with “no go” but here’s the thing, HE WAS A WAR HORSE!, meaning he raced and won later than most horses. So, what was the catch? Simply put, his brain was not willing. He saw no point in following a leading rein, he saw no point in going up into a trot, etc. without seriously excessive force. This is where one of my most valuable horsemanship lessons/tenants came from – “Don’t fight the brace! Finesse it.”
In the horse world, violence begins where knowledge ends, so back to the drawing board and my stacks of books I went. Coached by a true naturalist/behaviorist, I turned my biting (yes, biting,) unwilling, cranky, “Jen, you know I can send you with just one powerful buck” horse into a willing, compliant, “please, Jen, is it time? Can we ride out together?” telepathic, thinking partner. The horse turned mugger is a MYTH, and only created by unaware human treat dispensers. The 10 ton treat bag that must be on my hip is a MYTH. Your horse’s brain moves on, and a jackpot treat is necessary (something most riders do anyway) occasionally.
Used with in-hand work, liberty work and mounted work, this empowering learning/teaching method will:
- Perfect your timing through awareness and focus.
- Teach you the clear, progressive steps for teaching a skill.
- Create a willing partner that is a joy to work with.
- Open lines of clear communication you never thought possible.
- Allow you to see your horse thinking and making choices.
- Provide a framework for changing unwanted behavior.
…and the list goes on.
Yes! My horse needs me to develop these skills!
PATH, Intl
Professional Association of Therapeutic Horsemanship, Intl“Horses have a way of helping the voiceless talk and the physically disabled walk.”
Mounted & Groundwork
These inspirational words have been used to describe the therapeutic equine experience. Motivation, self-confidence, personal awareness, joy, kinetic learning, relaxation, and mobility are some of the words we coaches see as the reason. Personally, I once saw the horse as a huge, patient distraction for my clients and actions never thought possible became possible. I once saw the horse therapy experience simply as another form of exercise (for low tone clients, the horse will shift their body over 2,000 times in one 45-minute session. Try engaging a child for that long on an exercise ball!). But, through my continued education and work at a barn emphasizing mental health, my understanding is far greater. With that, I realized why horses are so important in my life.
Mental Health
The horse is a conscious, sentient being capable of creating change in the human mind and body. The horse’s energetic footprint has been mapped outside their physical, so it is no wonder we feel their peaceful state of being when we stand beside them. This in turn causes energetic shifts in the student. If you have a therapist interested in exploring the human horse connection, I can guide this experience utilizing the horse’s perspective. I am not a certified therapist; however, I have had great success working as a team with therapists who have no horse experience. My Liberty in Life clinic builds confidence, leadership skills, patience, negotiation (with a language barrier!) and a sense of well-being in both my student and horse. It’s contagious.
I need horse energy!
Currently, I am teaching out of Shrewsbury, VT with my herd of three, Castleton, VT where we have a nice selection of school horses suitable for all levels of riders, and Woodstock, VT where we have a strong herd attuned to mental health work.