May 17, 2012 I The Lovell Chronicle I 13
Dressage event held at Crooked Creek Ranch
of dressage because she en-
joys training horses and she
wanted to be the best rider
she could be.
After moving to the
ranch, she immersed her-
self in learning everything
she could about training,
riding, breeding and caring
for horses. After some ex-
perimentation with various
ways of working with hors-
es, including moving cattle
a few times, she settled on
dressage as her discipline
of choice. She describes
dressage as a "dance with a
horse."
"The idea is to get the
horse to carry more weight
on the hindquarters," ex-
plained Kennedy. "Normal-
ly, the horse carries about
60 percent of its weight on
the front. Once you can free
up that weight on the front
the horse can move in a
graceful manner."
The horse Aeroplay she
rides in dressage events
was bred from a mare in her
own breeding program. She
raised him from a colt and
has performed much of his
training herself with the ex-
ception of his early saddle
work.
Kennedy grew up in
Philadelphia. She went
to college in Boston and
stayed there after landing
a job. Her father enjoyed
fox hunting as a hobby. He
learned to ride by training
polo ponies in New Jersey.
Although the family lived
in an apartment, Kenne-
dy's father always owned
his own horse, loved to ride
and shared his love of hors-
es with his daughter.
"We lived in an apart-
ment my whole childhood,"
said Kennedy. "It was in
a beautiful area that had
woods and fields around
it, but it was still an apart-
ment."
Kennedy enjoyed riding
with her father whenever
he could borrow a horse for
her to ride.
"I just couldn't get
enough of it," she said. "I al-
ways wanted my own pony."
After vacationing on
a dude ranch in Sheridan
with family when she was
about 8" years old, she fell
in love with horses and
Wyoming and already had
thoughts of coming back
someday.
"In 1990, a friend and I
took a vacation here and did
the dude ranch thing again.
I hadn't ridden in about 30
years," said Kennedy, "but
we had a great vacation
when we were out here vis-
BY PATTI CARPENTER
Lou Kennedy hosted a
dressage competition at her
Crooked Creek Ranch locat-
ed near Horseshoe Bend on
Saturday. Approximately
20 riders participated in 50
English style dressage rides
that were performed before
a team of judges. In some
cases a "reader" called out
the routine for the rider in
an otherwise hushed envi-
ronment.
Many of the partici-
pants were part of the Heart
Mountain Dressage Club
from Cody and Powell,. but
some traveled from Mon-
tana to participate in the
tests, which are specific
routines designated by the
United States Dressage and
Equestrian Foundation. The
event offered competition at
all levels but most partici-
pated in the First level.
Kennedy took up the
sport of dressage about 12
years ago when she was in
her early 50s. She moved to
Wyoming from Boston after
setting aside a successful
career as an editor/graphic
designer in the book pub-
lishing industry, to fulfill
her dream of owning and
living on a ranch and work-
ing with horses. She was
attracted to the discipline
iting Cody and Jackson, and
I told my friend, 'you know
when I retire, I'm going to
come back and live here be-
cause I could just work with
horses all of the time.' So, I
did, and when I was 50 and
had a chance to retire and
devote myself to horses, I
got my own place and my
own horses and that's how
I got here."
Kennedy lives her
dream of working with hors-
es on a daily basis at her
ranch, which is located in
a remote area near Horse-
shoe Bend. She built a large
indoor arena on her proper-
ty so that she could practice
dressage year round. She
owns several horses. She
works with her horse "Aero"
about two hours a day and
hosts events for the dres-
sage club on her property a
couple of times a year.
Right, Lou
Kennedy performs
a dressage
routine on her
horse named
Aeroplay at a
dressage event
held at Crooked
Creek Ranch on
Saturday.
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