Meet Into The Rush, “Lily”, a 13-year-old solid bay mare OTTB that is owned and adored by Jennifer. Lily lives at Jennifer’s house and the pair trailer to Little Bay Farm in Magnolia, TX to train with Laura Mendoza.
Jennifer’s favorite memory of this little horse is when she took her to a schooling show and did the 3’6″ Jumper class. “She was Champion of the division, winning 2 out of 3 rounds…she is a bit slow so we don’t usually win the speed round. Right after my last round, I ran to the trailer, pulled my saddle off, and put on the leadline saddle. She took my daughter to the leadline class less than 30 minutes after doing jumpers, cool as a cucumber.”
Jennifer found Lily on the “Canter” website and went to the backside of the Sam Houston Race Park…in her heels after work to pick her out, 5 days after her last race! She never even rode her and has had her now for 7 years.
Jennifer shares that Lily is an atypical thoroughbred mare, she is small (15:1hh), chunky, sweet, loves pets, and would rather spend the day napping in the sun. People think she is a Warmblood but she is just a little OTTB. She also competes in dressage and eventing showing 2nd level, and is now beginning to school 3rd level in dressage and has done training level eventing. She is very well-rounded! Six months after I bought her I almost sold her because she was too quiet.
Lily’s favorite treats are paddock cakes with peppermints in the middle. She will beg for treats and attention and loves people.
In February, she got 4 of her 6 scores for our Bronze Medal in Dressage. She qualified for the American Eventing Championships in Beginner Novice and Novice in the past. Lily has also been a Champion in the TB jumpers numerous times.
Jennifer started riding lessons at the age of 10. “My mom asked me if I wanted to take dance again or riding lessons, I’m sure you can guess which I picked. I was immediately hooked, this is my 30th year of horses. I started in western and was going to be a barrel racer. When we moved a year later, western was no longer an option but once I started jumping, it was way more thrilling than barrels. I was a C-3 pony clubber and have competed in Eventing, Dressage, Hunters, and Jumpers. Besides riding, my favorite thing is feeding time, that quiet after all the feed has been dropped.” says Jennifer.
