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-K. Beittel
After riding her first pony at a fair at the age of three, Jamie's desire to study horses became insatiable. It wasn't long after that her parents began looking for an instructor that would take on such a young pupil. Fortunately, they were successful and at the age of five Jamie began taking regular lessons on a small black Shetland pony named Renny. Weekly lessons grew into summer pony camps and small horse shows. However, for the newly acquainted horse family, it wasn't enough. Their riding instructor began looking for a pony for the family to lease and struck gold when she found the twelve year old mix breed pony, Scooter. At seven years old Jamie met the first love of her life and the entire family developed a long and lasting love for this wonderful pony - a pony they still have today, happily retired at thirty two years old.
In 1991 the Schmitt family purchased an 80 acre horse farm in Grass Lake, Michigan which they named The Mane Course Stables and where Jamie found her paradise. While learning the ups and downs of country life the family wanted to give their daughter a complete and diverse equestrian education. It was for this reason that Jamie became involved in the United States Pony Clubs, Inc and began studying the discipline of Combined Training or 3-Day Eventing. Learning to jump and do dressage were just a small part of the Pony Club education which consisted of horse management, competition and veterinary studies as well. By the age of eleven Jamie had successfully completed her Pony Club ratings or testings up to the C-1 level and took part in several of her first horse trials.
Also
during this time the family, in conjunction with their long-time
instructor Lyn Yenkel, purchased a sixteen year old retired international Grand
Prix dressage schoolmaster named Robert. Having traveled the
world competing, Robert became the star of the barn. Together,
Robert and Starman became the perfect stepping stone and inspiration
for a twelve year old girl and ignited a love of dressage that would
remain dominate throughout her young career. While learning on Robert at home, Jamie and Starman became a competitive force in the show ring. Together they won numerous jumper and combined training competitions and challenged top local professionals in dressage. In addition, Jamie completed her C-2 Pony Club rating and became one of the youngest members of her club to begin preparing for the C-3 regional rating. Unfortunately, their partnership was short lived and Starman had to go back to his owners just one year later. At thirteen years old Jamie spent the next few years studying aboard Robert and learning everything he had to teach. Robert and Jamie traveled around the midwest participating in clinics with top professionals such as Charlotte Bredahl, Betsy Steiner, Marina Genn, Roz Kintsler, Maryal Barnett, Max Gahwyler, and Jane Savoie. During
this time Robert introduced Jamie to the Grand Prix level and,
over time, she became well educated in all the upper-level movements
including piaffe, passage, pirouettes, half passes and tempi changes.
It was an incredible education for such a young rider. Robert
set the standard to which she would compare all her future horses
and, having successfully competed against horses such as Marzog
and Ahlerich, he set a very hight standard.
Progress was slow during the first couple years as Juliet adjusted to her new career and Jamie learned the patience required to train such a complicated horse. Over time things came together and by 1997 the pair had become competitive and successful in both dressage and combined training.
During her years with Juliet, Jamie began to develop a small teaching and training business in addition to her competitive career. Most of her after school hours were spent caring for the barn, teaching riding lessons and training horses. Specializing in starting young horses and retraining ex-racehorses, Jamie's clientele was both diverse and challenging. Her experience during these years laid a solid foundation for the future and gave her the strength needed to take the next big step in her career. That step was the difficult decision to sell Juliet and finally pursue her love of dressage. In 1999 Jamie took a loan from her grandfather and purchased her first warmblood, a KWPN gelding named Noteworthy (affectionately known as Hobbes). She had big hopes for Hobbes and, through him, learned another life lesson - the lesson of disappointment and loss. Unfortunately, Hobbes suffered from a rare immune deficiency and after three years of research and treatment Jamie made the heart-wrenching decision to have him humanely euthanized. Hobbes was only seven years old.
A small, undermuscled, Dutch Warmblood stallion, Silverado was not what Jamie was looking for when she set out to purchase a new horse. However, he had lofty gaits and had done very well in his keurings so she took a chance. Despite the fact that he was every bit the stallion, Silverado began to show his potential very quickly and, although he didn't stay a stallion, Silverado has turned out to be more than Jamie could have ever hoped for. In 2004 Silverado skyrocketed Jamie's career when he qualified for the USEF/Markel Young Horse Dressage National Championships. The pair went on to compete and finish sixth out of a field of twenty top five year olds. Several weeks later they made the trip out to Pennsylvania to compete in the NABF Championship at the legendary Dressage at Devon. Jamie and Silverado finished second with an incredible 80.2% out of a very competitive field. The highs of 2004 kept coming when Silverado brought home two year end awards from the Midwest Dressage Association - Reserve Champion at First Level Open and Grand Champion at Second Level Open. In addition Jamie received the great honor of being selected to participate in the first ever Young Dressage Horse Trainer's Symposium at Hilltop Farm. One of twenty participants selected out of over 230 applicants, Jamie had firmly made her place in the world of young horses.
Today Jamie is looking toward the future. A future that she hopes will include Silverado for many years to come. Also excited about Expressions Dressage, Jamie is looking forward to sharing her love of dressage with others as she brings her talent for training into her teaching. Specializing in training young horses, Jamie hopes to give more horses the start they need to fulfill their potential and, with her experience through Grand Prix, give their riders the tools they need to achieve their dreams. Jamie
Schmitt and Expressions Dressage would like to invite riders
and horses of all levels to join the team and start working toward
achieving their goals today!!
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"For the Love of the Horse" |
After
spending six months leasing Scooter, the Schmitt family was hooked
and promptly purchased two more horses. A P.O.A. pony
named B.J. and a Morgan named Wolfe. Now they were boarding
three horses near a suburb of Detroit, Michigan and decided it was
time to purchase a farm of their own.
Even
at such a young age Jamie's talent and dedication were becoming
very apparent - and her legs were becoming too long for Scooter.
Through Pony Club, the Schmitt family found a new horse for
Jamie to ride, a seven year old Arabian gelding named Starman.
While
gaining this wonderful knowledge from Robert, Jamie still found the
desire to pursue her Pony Club studies and decided that she needed
to find a horse that would enable her to finish her Pony Club ratings.
In the spring of 1995 she found this new partner. The four year old thoroughbred mare, Juliet, was a challenge
over and above any she had ridden to date. She had been
a competitive racehorse who then went on to begin training for combined
training. Skinny, unbalanced and HOT, Juliet became nothing
less than an intriguing prospect promising to make Jamie a skilled,
compassionate and sensitive young rider.
The
next year Jamie and Juliet qualified to represent the Great Lakes
Region at the USPC National Championships in Lexington, Kentucky
in the discipline of combined training. Still young and inexperienced,
it was a big job for Juliet but their partnership held strong and
the pair put in a solid dressage ride and a clean cross country
round. They finished the competition as the highest scoring
member of their team and placed in the top ten percent overall.
Topping off an already outstanding summer, Jamie went on to complete
her C-3 Pony Club rating - achieving the highest regional rating
possible.
The
loss was devastating to Jamie not only because Hobbes had embodied
her dreams for a new direction in her life but also because he had
become such a dear friend. Fortunately, fate had not forgotten
her and in August, 2002 Jamie met her most influential partner to
date, Silverado.
However,
poised to start 2005 off with a bang, fate had something else in
store. In early May a severe leg injury from a freak
fall off a young horse put her on the sidelines for nearly four
months. She was once again faced with a life-changing period
of frustration and disappointment. However, as strong
competitors do, she pulled herself together just in time to
compete at the USDF Region 2 Finals where she and Silverado brought
home an incredible Reserve Champion finish at Second Level Open.
Topping off the year of ups and downs the pair also took the MDA
Second Level Grand Champion year end award...again!