Strong Like Bull

About back to myself brain-wise, although not quite ambulatory yet.  Think twice before having anything done to your feet, is all I've got to say.

When I was a kid, I had this trainer named Denna.  She was fantastic.  Young (11 years older than me) and fun and had lots of ponies and would let us do things like jump BIG.  I started riding with her on a bet.  Someone told me this pretty little grey pony she had wouldn't jump more than a cross rail.  Being a girl who (at the ripe old age of 13) you could not tell could NOT do something, I rode the piss out of that pony.  She had the imaginative name of Grey, and I showed her in short stirrup as Dress Grey.

Denna Johnson with Amanda on Stolen Kisses (Nikki) in 1986.  Grey is in the background giving someone else a lesson.

I have one good picture of Grey, but it is in a photo album and I'm too lazy to dig it out for now.  One day, we were doing raise a rail competition in the ring.  You know, you each go over a fence and it gets raised until everyone knocks it down and the highest wins.  We didn't really win anything other than bragging rights. That day, I got that little pony that wouldn't do cross rails for others over 4' before we knocked it over.  I was scared of nothing.  And Denna just let us do what kids wanted to do.  It was great.  Eventually, I moved on, and found out that when I left, Grey quit jumping altogether.  She just wouldn't do anything for people who told her she had to.  We had a bond.

Anyway, that's how I met Denna.  I quit riding when I was 14 and got a job.  She moved to Tallahassee.  Fast forward 25 years, and I'm looking for somewhere to ride.  I found a local barn and went with the kids to a show to watch and groom, and thought I heard her, but wasn't sure.  I then found where she was selling a horse online and contacted her.  She remembered me and told me about a show that she had on her farm that was done in the draw format.  In other words, you didn't bring a horse.  You brought yourself and drew your horse from a hat, very similar to IHSA format.  She used to coach the UF equestrian team when they had one, and had put together something called the College Bound Invitational that got kids in middle and high school in front of college coaches in a show format, as well as had seminars and such on getting scholarships.  The one thing Denna really wanted to do was to help kids.  

Denna and some of the weekend crew (myself second to left) 2009

Anyway, she had this show, my trainer thought it would be a great opportunity for everyone, but then our barn shut down and the trainer moved back home to NY, and I was on my own.  So I showed up at Denna's anyway.  I rode in walk-trot, walk-trot-canter, and 2' hunter.  Unfortunately, while I tried to do the course 3 times, I never actually completed it.  When the judge came around, she called me a "solid citizen" which was probably the only nice thing she could say, lol.  

Denna teaching in GA 2009

After that, I started driving the 2+ hours to Newberry Florida to Full Partners Farm to take lessons every weekend.  Over the next two and a half years, I spent every weekend there, and every holiday.  Denna became my best friend.  I drove with her to Saugerties NY for the Marshall & Sterling finals as groom and tail braider.  It was a tough week, but cemented our friendship.  She was talking about slowing down, downsizing the farm, keeping only a few kids and horses.  I bought Violet from her, although she didn't think she would amount to anything other than a 2' local hunter.  I often joked that FPF stood for Full Partners Family.

Denna and her Charlie

Denna was a trainer that pushed her students.  She called all horses ponies, and would tell us to go get our "wee beasties".  She was also a big gymnastics and Bela Karolyi fan.  At least one lesson a week, she would insist on everyone dropping their stirrups.  When they whined about it, she would shout out that she would make us all "Strong Like Bull"!  It became a rallying cry.  She was also known to say things like "Grow some ovaries and get over the damned fence" and "there is no crying in equestrian sports".  She loved every kid as if they were her own.  She had bunk beds in her living room and would sleep there with all the girls and her Jack Russels while watching NCIS on DVD.  The girls would spend weekends and holidays at the farm, riding 4 or 5 horses a day.  She even got me riding multiple a day.

Denna and Herbie, the horse whose mane she was pulling when she collapsed

The last weekend was Memorial Day weekend 2010.  I had gone to her house on Saturday morning, had a lesson on Violet, stayed the night talking until all hours.  Then Sunday I took a jump lesson on Violet and a flat lesson on another horse named Duchess.  Duchess was young, but was not conformationally able to jump.  Most kids didn't like her because she was not symmetrical and had a weird canter.  She was big with a huge stride, and a beautiful red bay.  I got along well with her.  The plan was that I would start showing her in the flat classes, maybe doing some dressage to help her out.  After my lesson, Denna was heading to Macon Georgia to teach at a barn up there that she had started training at weekly.  She posted on her FB page that it was a beautiful weekend, she was heading to GA after teaching at FPF and that I had ridden Duchess the best she had ever gone.  That night, I saw a posting from the mother of one of the kids in GA about praying for Denna.  I contacted them to find out that she had had a brain aneurysm while pulling the mane of a horse after teaching and was in a coma.  She held on for a week, and ultimately passed on June 10, 2010.  It was her 49th birthday, and she gave what she could.  Because she was an organ donor, she helped 7 people live fuller lives.  That was the Denna that I knew.  She was my friend, my trainer, my confidant.  

Myself acting as groom with Denna and one of her students September 2009 M&S Finals

After that, we kept the barn going for the summer, bringing in someone to teach because the College Bound Invitational (CBI) was the end of the summer, and we all knew she would be upset if we didn't host it.  So I spent every weekend there feeding, watering, grooming, cleaning stalls, anything really other than riding.  And the last day of the CBI, I loaded Violet up and moved her to Jacksonville.  I still keep in touch with a lot of the kids from FPF, because no matter how old we get, we will all be "Denna's Kids".

Denna and I before heading home from NY 9/11/2009

Denna in her teaching position

So, if you ever hear someone talking about how riding without stirrups will make you "Strong Like Bull", chances are, they came from Denna's program.  There are many of us out there, and we often repeat it like a mantra.