The Story of Jen Johnson & Guardian's Farm
The Guardian's Farm started out as a dream in a little girls mind who first sat on the back of a horse at the age of 3. Broomsticks would soon fill a hole created by a desire to ride all the time. In her bedroom her Bryer model horses and Barbies would live out the life she one day wanted to have of her own. Ask her what she wanted for her birthday and Christmas and the reply would definitely be a horse or something horse related. By the time she was 10 she was working part time at a local stable to earn riding lessons in hunter/jumper activities. Having a horse of her own seemed to be an endless want and she imagined that every horse she rode was hers. On the school bus she would picture herself riding bareback and bridleless racing the bus. If her imaginary horse needed to, she would picture it with
wings. At 14 her horse dreams came true when her grandparents bought her a horse named Eryal. It was then that she fell in love with the Arabian breed. She did everything she knew to make Eryal her best friend. She could go everywhere and do everything with her. Eryal was more than tolerant of a young girl who knew much about riding, but looking back knew little about horse psychology. Being able to be the friend for Eryal that Eryal was for her seemed to always elude her. From Hunter/Jumper she went to Dressage, Saddleseat then to Western Pleasure, and finally Gymkhana events. She grew up and married, had 2 children and life got in the way of her horse dreams. She took any job she could on the side riding other peoples horses and training for free just to be able to be around horses. Money was tight and a horse of her own was still out of the question. Her husband knowing her passion bought her a gift certificate for a local tack shop. While there she picked up a copy of the Horse and Pony publication. There was an ad for a free 2 hour demonstration on natural horsemanship at the fair grounds in Tampa. Curiosity got the best of her. Her husband and children loaded up with her and headed for the fair. She was not prepared to have her life turned upsidedown when Pat Parelli raced into the arena and in full gallop pulled off his horses bridle continueing to run, jump, turn, stop, go, slide and spin. It was at that very moment that she knew this was what she waited her whole life for. Without even owning a horse at the time, she committed to learning and teaching the art of natural horsemanship. She studied numerous names in natural horsemanship over the next few years and settled on the Parelli system. She is now a Parelli Level 3 graduate having come through the program to this point studying with several dozen horses. She returns to the Parelli International Study Center every year for a minimum of 2 weeks to continue her education in the program. She also aspires to become a certified Parelli professional. Owning and operating Guardian's Farm is only scratching the surface. Her dreams continue to grow into areas such as educating people prior to horse ownership, matching the right horse with the right owner and in doing so helping horses who would be homeless or slaughtered. All of her family, friends and customers will tell you that teaching people about horse psychology is Jens' passion. She is truly living her dream and it's better than she ever could have imagined.
