PRAIRIE GROVE -- When it comes to riding lessons, instructor Jandji-Lynn Campbell of Morning Star Equestrian has found she teaches her students as much about thinking as riding.
"Students coming out today lack focus and thinking skills," said Campbell. "I'm thinking they need to know how to focus and be responsible."
Deon Birkes, assistant principal with Lincoln High School, said he likes Campbell's philosophy for riding instructions. His daughter, Layni Birkes, 7, received lessons as a Christmas present.
"I think it's great," said Birkes as he watched his daughter taking her second lesson. "She is being attentive and is like a sponge and wanting to learn it. That says a lot right there."
Layni said she wants to continue to take lessons. Her favorite part, she said, is trotting. For now, Campbell leads Layni's pony, Eva, during the lessons.
Campbell, 35, grew up in the riding world in Colorado under the tutelage of her mother, a professional rider. She began learning to ride at the age of 2, cantering and riding on her own at 4 and showing on the A circuit at 5 1/2 years old. She's been training horses since she was 7 and the past three years, her focus has been to develop riders.
Her parents bought the farm near Prairie Grove in 1999, with her mother giving lessons and Campbell training horses. Her parents have since moved and Campbell has been operating Morning Star for the past 4 1/2 years. The equestrian center is located off Viney Grove Road outside Prairie Grove, at 11637 Doc Hall Road.
Campbell has 18 students, ranging in age from 4 years old to a 68-year-old man, who is a law professor at the University of Arkansas. Her farm has 12 horses and two ponies, including Eva. A few of her students keep their own horses at her farm.
Five of her students are competitive riders on the show jumping circuit. Most, however, are there for pleasure but even then she said she tells parents to make sure their children are there for the right reasons.
"I want them to come out and be serious and want to learn and be diligent for 45 minutes or they are not in the right place," Campbell said.
Her equestrian center is faith-based and she has rules for music, language and dress code for her students. She said that is an important part of her program and it became even more important after her son, Dominick, now 4, was born.
"I saw stuff and I didn't want it coming in here," Campbell said.
She earned a degree in psychology from University of Arkansas at Fayetteville and is a licensed education therapist. Campbell also served in the military for six years.
She uses her educational training with her riding students, encouraging and demanding that they use thinking skills during their lessons.
"I find myself teaching them how to use their brain," Campbell said. "Even my 65-year-old professor."
Riding horses is a hard sport and only a small percentage will stay with it. For one, Campbell noted, it can be dangerous. It is expensive and progress is slow the first year.
Even as a hobby, it requires time and discipline. It is not just going out to ride a horse, Campbell said, pointing out students work 50 percent of the time. They learn how to care for and tack a horse. Other work involved can be cleaning out stalls, moving hay and other needs for a horse.
"It's a more wealthy-type sport and sometimes students don't want to do things on their own," Campbell added.
She's had students ask when they will have their own groomer to take care of a horse and she said her reply is that it will not happen at her center.
At Layni's lessons, for example, Campbell teaches the young student how to correctly brush the pony and check its hooves. Layni learns how to tack the animal. She is learning the correct terms for all the equipment. She learns how to mount Eva and how to hold the reins. One important lesson, Campbell emphasizes, is that riders are to sit tall.
"Everything you do around horses, they size you up," Campbell tells Layni. "You want your pony to love you."
Emma Claire Casey, 8, of Siloam Springs, has been taking lessons at Morning Star for three years and is a competitive rider.
Her father, Mark Casey, said they have been pleased with Campbell.
"Jandji-Lynn is very strict but very praise giving," Casey said. "We like her style. She also is very safety conscious and that is one of the main things we like about her. She keeps girls on a very good discipline."
Another competitive student, Sydney Winborn, 16, of Fayetteville, started lessons 10 years ago with Campbell's mother. She has her own horse at Morning Star, Bimini Bay, and rides three to four times a week.
Her mother, Laura Winborn, equates horse riding to the discipline of gymnastics.
"For teenage girls, whatever is going on at school is forgotten on the horse," Winborn said. "You can't think about anything but riding."
Eventually, Campbell said she wants to return full-time to educational therapy.
"With educational therapy, you work with children and adults who have learning differences and it really works. I'm so excited about it."
For now, though, her passion is teaching riding lessons with the primary focus to get her students riding on their own and thinking at the same time.
"I do this here because I love it," she said.
For more information, go to the website, morningstareq.com.
General News on 01/28/2015