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Champions
in dressage-a sport that favors neither children nor Paints-Jessica
Dworkin and "Jazzie" are pint-sized competitors with big-time
courage.
Leading
Ladies
Article by Breanne Hill
Photography by Breanne Hill, Cookie Originals & Carol South
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Jessica
Dworkin was a 7 years old, mourning the tragic death of her pony,
when a petite mare named Casanova Lady came into her life early last
summer. At 9 years old, Casanova Lady had been labeled a "throwaway
Paint" by her owners, but Jessica saw something else in the deep
chocolate of the mare's eyes.
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She saw a friend.
"From the first time I met her I thought she was really, really
pretty, and I wanted her a lot," says Jessica. "I knew she
would take care of me because she's sweet and kind. That's all. I
just knew it."
If Jessica could find happiness with the mare, then her parents, Lisa
and Jeff, were willing to go along for the ride. They had been through
a lot of tribulation in their short time as a family. If one horse
could make Jessica smile again, then the couple would welcome that
horse with open arms, even if she was a "throwaway."
Tough all over.
There comes a time in everyone's life when he or she needs to be rescued.
For Lisa and Jeff Dworkin, that time came in 1994. Married less than
one year, the New Jersey residents' future plans were shattered when
Jeff's spina bifida-a spinal defect with which he had been diagnosed
at birth-finally made its presence known, forcing the once avid soccer
player into the life of a bedridden invalid.
Jeff needed 24-hour care, so his new wife quit her job to tend to
him herself. The couple moved in with Jeff's parents, and Lisa, who
had ridden horses almost all of her life, sold her prized Thoroughbreds.
"That was hard," says Lisa. "We were like children
again. "Thank God for Jeff's parents."
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With the support of his parents and Lisa, Jeff was eventually able
to recuperate through physical therapy and sheer determination. The
next year he was walking, and even running, again.
But by that time, the Dworkins had nothing of value to their names.
Jeff and Lisa had to quickly rejoin the workforce, and save their
money.
Then, on September 27, 1996, Jessica was born.
To her parents, Jessica Lynn Dworkin was 9 pounds of pure miracle.
In "Jessie," Lisa saw a future full of family meals and
trips to Disney World. What she hadn't counted on, however, was that
Jessica would bring her back to her first love-horses.
Pony parade
When Jessica was 3 years old, the Dworkins took a tentative step back
into horse ownership by buying a pony named Minnie Mouse for their
preschooler.
Right away, Lisa was delighted by the fact that her daughter seemed
to be a natural in the saddle and began looking for a better-quality
pony for Jessica to show. The family went through a chain of such
ponies before settling on a docile gelding named Peter Pan.
With Peter Pan, Jessica began to show in lead-line and walk-trot classes.
As the little blonde's potential as a rider grew, so did Lisa's interest
in rejoining the horse show industry. Putting the skills she learned
when she was younger to good use, Lisa bought several horses and trained
them for dressage and sport horse events while Jessica was riding
ponies.
In 2001, Lisa trained Irish Hills Chyna, the year's Zone 2 Performance
Horse Registry (PHR) Hunter Breeding Horse of the Year. And in 2002,
while Irish Hills Chyna won Zone 4 United States Equestrian Federation
(USAE) and PHR Horse of the Year honors, Lisa also trained Irish Hills
Amber, who became Zone 4's USAE Hunter Breeding Horse of the Year
Reserve Champion.
The "Irish Hills" in the horses' names became the call name
for the Dworkins new farm, Irish Hills Farm, in Sumterville, Florida.
They moved to the farm in 2002.
Meanwhile, Jessica was growing tall for her 6 years-too tall, in Lisa's
opinion, for the 11-hand Peter Pan.
"A man named Jose Medera who worked for our vets [Peterson and
Smith] knew we were looking for a new horse for Jessica," says
Lisa, "and he had a Quarter Horse mare named Ellie. He gave Ellie
to Jessica."
In Ellie, whose show name became Show-N-Tell, Jessica found a kindred
spirit. The pair bonded as Jessica had with no other horse.
"We knew Ellie wasn't a forever show horse," says Lisa,
"but we knew she'd be our forever horse."
The Dworkins decided to breed Ellie in the spring of 2004. She was
in foal 16 days when Jeff and Lisa went out to feed and found her
lying listless in the barn.
"We rushed her to the vet and tried everything," says Lisa,
"but it was organ failure. There was nothing they could do."
It was recommended that Ellie be put down to end her suffering. Before
doing so, however, the veterinarians permitted Jessica to say goodbye
to her friend.
"How do you explain to your 7-year-old about death?" asks
Lisa. "It was so hard. I remember driving home from the vet's
with Jessica, and I noticed that her ponytail was down. I asked her,
'What happened to your ponytail holder?' She told me she had put it
in Ellie's forelock, so when Ellie was in heaven she wouldn't forget
her.
"I had nothing to say to that. I didn't know how to respond."
Both Jeff and Lisa became concerned for Jessica. Ellie died on a Tuesday
and Jessica's school was out for the summer the next Thursday. They
needed a distraction, and fast, to get Jessica through the next three
months. Lisa's solution was to "window shop" for a horse
to lease. Any horse would do-just something that would be safe and
would get Jessica out of the house and out of mourning.
All that Jazzie
Casanova Lady didn't have a lot going for her by the summer of 2004.
In her 9 years of life, the 14.1-hand bay tobiano mare had belonged
to three different families, none of whom completed her riding training.Her
latest family had received her as payment for a shipping bill and
were in the process of trying to find new owners for her when they
spotted Lisa's "looking for a pony" advertisement in the
newspaper.
"I got an e-mail from someone saying they had a cute Paint mare
for me to look at," says Lisa. "They said that she was a
throwaway off of a shipping bill, so I thought she wouldn't be too
expensive."
Lisa decided to visit the people's ranch and look at the Paint mare.
She was expecting the worst, but as she and Jessica turned into the
ranch's driveway, she noticed the attractive Paint out in the pasture.
"She was beautiful," says Lisa. "I thought, 'This is
a throwaway?' And, of course, Jessica was taken with her right away."
Lisa tacked up the flashy mare and took her for a ride around the
arena. At a walk, the Paint was excellent. At a trot, she was good.
But at a lope, she crow-hopped and bucked.
"I got off and said, 'Thank you very much, but no,' " says
Lisa. " 'This is not a kid's horse.' "
Despite Jessica's protests for the Paint, the search for an appropriate
horse continued.
"We looked at so many horses," says Jeff, "but Jessica
kept saying how much she liked the Paint mare, and how sweet the Paint
mare was.
"She even started calling her 'Jazzie.' We didn't even own the
horse, and Jessica had named her."
Lisa and Jeff realized that Jessica had formed some sort of attachment
to the Paint, and that her mind was made up.
"I decided that the crow-hopping lope was something we could
deal with later," says Lisa. "Jessica wasn't loping yet,
so it wasn't an immediate problem. And the mare was sweet-natured,
which was a big plus."
So, in June of 2004, Jessica got her Jazzie.
Almost immediately, Jessica and Jazzie clicked as horse and rider.
A naturally smooth mover, Jazzie learned quickly to walk and trot
with Jessica as if the pair had been together for years.
"I was surprised," said Lisa. "I wasn't expecting Jazzie
to be so talented. We began to suspect that we'd hit a little gold
mine with her."A kid and a Paint?
Although the United States Dressage Federation (USDF) says that every
kind of horse can benefit from the body control and discipline dressage
requires, traditional Western stock horses, such as Paints, are not
considered "ideal" competitors in the sport.
Dressage purists claim this is because stock horses don't look as
agile and elegant as warmblood-type horses do while performing a dressage
pattern.
Others, however, claim stock horses don't do well in dressage because
they generally aren't favored by the upper crust's horsey set.
Nevertheless, by 2004, Lisa, who was neither a member of the upper
crust nor wanted to be, was listed as one of USEF's top four owners
and top 10 breeders of dressage horses.
A champion of equines in need (she regularly takes in ex-racehorses
with problems and rehabilitates them), Lisa believed she was prepared
for anything the equine world threw at her. That is, until Jessica
made a strange request.
"She wanted to compete in dressage with Jazzie," says Lisa.
"I said, 'Honey, it's a dressage show. A little 14.1-hand Paint
probably isn't going to be so great.'"
Jessica cared little about the odds she was given. She and Jazzie
had won every walk-trot show they entered. The 7-year-old looked at
dressage as simply another hurdle to leap over with flying colors.
"Jessica was so insistent about showing Jazzie in dressage that
I finally gave in," says Lisa. "We started practicing for
the in-hand class."
An in-hand dressage class is judged on movement and how well a horse
responds to the commands of its handler. The problem for Jessica and
Jazzie was that they would be competing against adults and larger
horses.
"So, we had this kid and this Paint," says Lisa. "Dressage
just doesn't revolve around kids.
"Add into that the fact that Jazzie is a pony as far as USDF
is concerned, showing against 17-hand horses, and you've got a real
recipe for disaster."
The disaster never took place. As it turned out, Jessica had a sparkle
about her and a professionalism that belied her young age, and Jazzie,
under the show name Kodachrome, had a sweet expression and grace that
overcame any preconceived ideas the judges might have harbored.
The pair began their winning streak with three blue ribbons at their
first show, and went on to win Dressage Sport Horse Breeding classes
with the Sunshine Sport Horse Association and at Pennock Point sport
horse shows. They won every Sport Horses of Color class in which they
competed and even beat Lisa and her champion Trakehner filly, Keep
The Faith, at one competition.
By the end of the awards season, on September 30, 2004, Jazzie and
Jessica had an average annual score of 66. As a result, Jazzie was
named the 2004 USDF All-Breeds Mature APHA Horse of the Year.
It was a huge victory for a little horse that no one had believed
in or wanted only five months earlier.
"We were really proud," says Lisa. "So much for the
throwaway Paint."
The only one who wasn't surprised by Jazzie's success was Jessica.
"Jazzie takes care of me," explains Jessica. "When
I get nervous, she lets
me know it's OK, and I shouldn't worry. She just helps me, and I love
her."
For the Dworkins, life is about second chances and flying in the face
of the odds. Every person and animal at Irish Hills Farm has been
rescued in some way and is now living a better life because of the
love that exists in the Dworkin family.
Jessica and Jazzie are the ultimate advertisement for this love. They
are also proof that even the littlest among us can do mighty things
if only given a chance.
For additional information on Irish Hills Farm, visit their website
at www.irishhillsfarm.com. |
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Swearing
By Seminole
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"I'm
very particular about what I feed my horses," says Lisa Dworkin.
"I'm a label reader and a researcher."
"When
we moved to Florida, I did my research and switched to Seminole Feed.
Seminole just makes good, quality products." All of Irish Hills
Farm's horses eat Seminole feed.
Jazzie is fed Seminole Gold Chance 10, while Lisa's open mares eat
Gold Chance 12 + Lysine, and her pregnant mares get Gold Chance 14.
"I
love these feeds because they're so clean," says Lisa. "They're
not dusty, and they have the right number of vitamins and minerals.
That's very important to me."
Lisa says Seminole feeds are the reason her horses remain an ideal
weight and have shiny coats-even the ex-racehorses she rehabilitates."
"I
got one mare off the track who was a bag of bones," says Lisa.
"I put three buckets with different feeds in her stall for her
to choose because I knew she was a picky eater.
"She went right for the Gold Chance 14. Now, she looks healthy
and happy." Lisa feels that she gets both great feed and service
from her local Seminole Feed dealer TomKat Feed and Supply. Lisa also
includes Seminole alfalfa cubes in her horses' diets and gives Seminole
alfalfa pellets to her younger horses.
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Breanne
Hill is associate editor of the Paint Horse Journal in Fort
Worth, Texas. An equine enthusiast since the age of 4, she
is the proudowner of four Paint Horses.
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