Since Day One

Ever since I was a little girl, honestly, as long as I can remember, I have been in love with horses. I had an entire wall of my bedroom dedicated to my horse collection; pretty sure my mom has a picture somewhere. For one of my birthday parties, I told my mom I wanted to go horseback riding. So, she and my dad called a local barn and got everything set up for my friends and I to ride around the arena for a few hours. Now I know there’s photos of that floating around somewhere. But ever since then, I knew that I truly loved horses and even more, I loved to ride horses. I’m pretty sure that’s the day my parents knew I was going to be expensive (sorry mom and dad).

Fast forward to the summer of 2014. I was introduced to 4-H by my dad’s good friend, Stephanie Gramberg. She gave me lessons for a while and taught me a lot about horses. Steph had lots of horses and she let me show on her horse Jack. He was one of the best horses I have ever ridden, beautiful mover when you got him collected. Stephanie and I grew closer the more I spent time at her farm riding and working with horses. On September 11, 2015, right after my school’s homecoming pep rally, I was getting my things together that I was going to need that night for when the dance team showcased our halftime performance when my phone started ringing, it was my dad. He tried to keep himself together as he told me that Stephanie was in the hospital and that her cancer had relapsed, and she was dying. Everything changed for me a few weeks later when my dad called me again and told me that she had passed away while in her home surrounded by her family and her horses. At that moment, I was beyond thankful that my dad and I got to say one last goodbye. After that day, I stopped ridding for a little bit because I didn’t think it was going to be same without her. I still loved horses, but it felt different.

In April 2016 my dad decided to buy a horse for me to work with and ride. Her name was Liberty, she was a beautiful horse and the moment I saw her, I fell in love. I remember the first time I worked with her, I almost cried because I could hear Stephanie’s voice in my head telling me what to do. Every time I rode Liberty, I heard her voice telling me, “Heels down, eyes up”. Liberty is featured in many of the photos on the website. Another family friend, Jenny Arnes, let us board her at her farm and she gave me lessons on how to retrain her. I worked with Liberty for the next few months getting her ready to compete with her at the fair each year. I showed on Liberty for 3 years at the County Fair before I moved to Stanley, WI. Liberty was sold and I tried to find things to fill my time.

In 2021 I posted in a horse group on Facebook if anyone was interested in having someone exercise their horses for them, I had a lot of inquires about what I charged and how far I traveled. At that point I had no idea how to answer those questions so I did some thinking and decided to stay within an hour of my house. I had a good number of people interested in my area and started talking with them and working with their horses. I worked with well behaved horses who were dead broke and just needed to lose weight, all the way to the other end of the spectrum of working with some mules and horses that needed quite a bit of work. I made it work and took pieces of advice from Stephanie, Jenny, other trainers, books and blogs and applied them to horses. All the owners were thrilled with the results they got and that’s when it hit me, I disliked the idea of having a boss… so why not start writing up a business plan. It took a few years of research and courage. The more I thought about it, the more I talked myself out of it. I kept telling myself that there is no way a 20 year old can run a business or that the timing couldn’t be worse. I talked myself out of it every chance it came to my mind because I didn’t have the support that I have now.

When I moved back closer to home, I met Joseph. A few months after he and I started dating, it kept coming to me that I wanted to work with horses again. So, I posted again on Facebook and I got a message from someone named Holly Schindler. She said that she was interested in having me come out and work with her horses that she used for therapy and riding lessons at her farm Holly’s Place Equestrian and Therapeutic Center. So Joesph and I drove down to Chippewa Falls, WI and I worked with one of her more difficult horses, sort of as an interview. After I put the horse away, she told me that she wanted me to keep working with her horses if it’s something that I was interested in. Obviously, I said yes because I had been waiting for an opportunity like this for a while.

About a month after I started working with Holly’s horses, Joesph and I were sitting on his sofa and I turned and looked at him and said, “I want to start my own business.” He asked what I wanted my business to be, and I said, “I want to start a business and exercise people’s horses for them.” Joseph looked at me and said “Okay, do it.” That’s when I realized that it wasn’t just bad timing before, but I had too much negativity in my life then. I started planning T&J Equine Training. My mom and stepdad helped me get my LLC set up and almost everything else ready to go. I had my website up and running and I wanted a second opinion on it so I decided to talk with my uncle, Ben Dryden, since he has his own business DrydenWire. He helped me make some changes and gave me his advice and support on my new adventure. He told me that it takes guts to start a business, the first step is always the hardest and he was right. If I wouldn’t’ve had the courage to take that first step, I don’t think I ever would have. As I type this, I can’t help but think how grateful I am to have the support from my family and friends that I have.

I want to say thank you to my family for everything they have done for me. I would also like to thank Jenny Arnes for helping me with Liberty and teaching me how to retrain her. A big thank you to Holly for giving me the opportunity to work with her horses and allow me to share my knowledge with her and young girls that have a passion for horses like I do. I want to thank Stephanie Gramberg (may she rest in peace) for everything she did for me when I was younger, she lit the fire in my heart and my love for horses burns brighter than it would have without her. In my heart, I know she would be proud of how far I’ve come.