Welcoming Jessica Thompson to Camp Tonkawa's Horse programs.

Jessica may look young but she has over 10 years of horse experiences, which does not include pony rides at the state fair at two years of age.

She is right here in Cooke County, and is all excited about volunteering to help improve and expand our horse program.  Jessica was in FFA and 4-H all through school. She has compeated in showmanship, halter, hunter in hand, English showmanship, English hunt seat, English equation, western pleasure, western equation, trail, barrel racing, poles, and figure 8. 

Currently she works with training horses, and will be setting up times to work with our horse helpers to train our younger horses while teaching them to be better horse riders themselves.  It’s all about communication between the person and the horse so that they understand each other.   She is also working with us to add days to our calendar for the Trot Horsemanship Day Camps, which anyone who has taken the Horsemanship Day Camp can attend. She will also be coordinating "Play Days" for the Intermediate/Advance level riders, and trail rides.

 “My main thing is getting people confidence on the ground with there horse and giving them the knowledge they need to be confident in themselves to get on and ride. Riding is fun but it's not something you take lightly, you want to be able to get your horse to be your partner! Once we can build that confidence then the fun of learning begins with walking, trotting, turning and stopping. I can go on but the main thing is I want the kids to learn is some showmanship but also to command their horses on the ground, these commands are then used in the saddle.  Ground work is a confidence builder and allows me to see each person’s abilities with horses, so that I can better help them”

Jessica was counselor for the Teen Horse Summer Camp 2010 and everyone enjoyed her good natured spirit.