Jaen Black to Participate in Re-enactment of the Pony Express Trail

Jaen Black and Coal on Orcas

An Adventure – Love Story

Jaen Black and her horse Coal are leaving Orcas Island for the recreation of a great adventure: riding the historic Pony Express Trail from St. Joe, Missouri to Virginia City, California in May of 2011.

The equestrian re-enactment event, called the XP 2011, is “not a race; it’s about being with your horse and riding historic trails,” says Jaen. Participants will ride 50 miles a day, 5 days a week and then rest for two days on the 2,000-mile equestrian endurance event.

This ride will be a very low-key event “designed to enhance personal relationships between riders and horses in addition to reliving a significant part of the equine related history of the American West. This will not be an extravaganza. Our mission has always been to do it first and brag about it later. We expect to continue with that tradition.” (From the XP Rides website: https://xprides.com/2011-xp/ )

Although the ride will follow the original Pony Express Trail as closely as possible,  some detours will be made to provide a better horse/rider experience. The early pioneers left Missouri in April but they were traveling much slower and needed more time to get to through the western mountains by snowfall, according to event organizers.

The first step in Jaen and Coal’s part of this adventure is training through the winter in Arlington with the woman who will actually ride the trail on horseback: Patty, a 54-year-old dialysis nurse, who has participated in and produced endurance equestrian events.

Jaen will help train Patty and will provide the support as Patty rides Fly-By, a 5-year old Arabian gelding, and Shiny, a leopard Appaloosa about 6 years old, along the trail.

Before the event begins, Jaen will be a strength and fitness coach and riding partner as Patty trains on dedicated horse trails on the Pilchuk Tree Farm and the Centennial Trail. Early in February, 2011, the two women will take part in a training event for several days in the Mohave Desert in California. “It will be a good chance to see how we all do,” says Jaen.

Her own horse, Coal, whom she calls the “love-of-her-life horse,” will remain in the Northwest.  “Coal is really a sturdy horse. He probably could do the XP, but he doesn’t want to,” says Jaen.  The hardest part about the adventure will be leaving him back home in Arlington for about 10 weeks, she says.

A writer, competitive Olympic strength-lifter, and now personal trainer, Jaen’s work on Orcas Island has included stints as rock-etcher, caregiver, entertainer at the Lower and Orcas Center and weight-trainer for the Lady Vikings’ State Champion soccer team.

While on Orcas, Coal and Jaen have lived in two locations —  by Boone’s Pond and off Pinneo Road. She has owned Coal “completely” for the past three years, but when she first met him eight years ago, “I was terrified of horses, having nearly been killed by my pet Shetland pony many times as a child.”

As in much of  Jaen’s conversation, there’s a intriguing and profound story behind her casual statement.

She hails originally from Waco, Texas,  where Jaen says, “’you could put a cowboy hat on just about any kid born there. I was never drawn to cats or dogs… but I loved horses.”

Then in Alabama, her dream of owning her own horse came true when Jaen was just seven years old. Her first writing was published — an advertising jingle which she and her father had written in a contest for Hazedell Milk Company:  “Hazedell Milk is the best for me….”

The writing contest prize was a Shetland pony. The pony, who appeared to Jaen then to be “a fire-breathing dragon,” arrived in a trailer at her home on a hot August day. “That pony was so wild! And my Daddy was more scared of him than anybody.”

Jaen’s family had other concerns though, as her mother was to die within the next two weeks, after a long illness. So Jaen was left to train herself to ride the pony. “I never remember one pleasant moment with him. But I just kept getting on him, until one time he threw me so high, it was like a cartoon moment, where I could see myself launched into outer space…”

Soon thereafter, Jaen had a very serious accident on another horse. She and her uncle were riding on a college campus, near a baseball field. A fly ball spooked her horse and he ran into a tree at a “pretty good clip.”

“I was strong enough to hold on but I couldn’t stop him.”  Hanging on for dear life underneath the horse’s belly, Jaen recalls seeing his back hooves galloping. It ran into another tree, and she fell into the road and just missed being hit by a car.

Still, she says, “I continued to try to engage with horses, but I got no help, and left childhood thinking, ‘That’s it with horses.’”

Recovering from those painful experiences, Jaen says, “I needed to heal; and so to now have Coal is an incredibly powerful thing. It’s one of the most important things I’ve worked through in my life.”

In 2002, Jaen met Coal at a party in Arlington. Her partner at the time owned both Coal, a no-spot Appaloosa, and his brother, a leopard Appaloosa. “Although I never saw myself as part of that life, I continued to fall in love with Coal – from outside the fence. Both Coal and I lost our mothers at a very young age… Coal was only three months old when his mother died of colic. He had to make his own way in the world.

“And so he has abandonment issues. It’s just fate we ended up together. I’ve done the legwork – the feeding, the sheltering, the veterinary care – and it’s been a joy, not a chore. “

When Jaen was finally ready to ride Coal, “He acted exactly how I needed him to act that day – like an old nag.

“I respect his animal nature; because I felt guilty to love somebody I was so afraid of, I’ve done a lot of study. I now understand the psychology of horses; my fears have calmed, and it’s like he’s gotten smaller.”

She’s learned that horses are “flight” animals: their weapons are their hooves, to run away from enemies.  “No matter how old or experienced horses are, flight is their innate emergency plan for survival. Ask questions later. So you don’t want to ‘sneak up’ on a horse, like a predatory animal would.”

Jaen also appreciates the way her horse goes through the seasons of the year; to watch how he takes on weather. “Coal’s not a barn horse; he’d rather stand in the trees. It’s beautiful to watch how, in bad weather, he almost goes into a trance, turning into the wind, with his head and neck down.”

Jaen and Coal "smile"

“He has a great sense of humor and is very smart.” Jaen recalls Coal’s encounters with rabbits and deer, from whom he “takes notes.” She works on tricks with Coal, among them coaxing a gigantic “smile” that may well strike fear into the heart of the uninitiated.  “He gets a kick out of  doing tricks, and likes to make me laugh,” Jaen says.

It’s a unique horse that can live alone, not in the eyesight of another horse, says Jaen. But  she could not afford to care for another horse, and says, “I  have to be where my horse is. He knows I’ve got his back and it’s meant something to him. He knows he’s in trusted hands.”

“Of all the horse people I know, none has said they found their ‘love of their life’  horse. There’s something about trusting this gigantic animal – it would make a fascinating psychological study how much this horse means to me.”