Profiling Jenis

This is the easiest MOST fun mare to profile. She is for sure everyone's favorite Friesian mare of Horsemeister. She is the most well trained and of course the most fun to ride. We had owned Raven for 3 years and decided we needed a purebred Friesian mare to breed to him. We bought Jenis in 2005. She was a young 2 year old owned by a lady from Decatur, IL who was moving to California. I saw her ad, made an offer which was quickly, flatly refused. A couple weeks went by with no other response then one day an email came that if I was still offering, she would accept my offer. Amy Koch came with me to pick her up. What we didn't know about Jenis until we got her home is that she had a strong dose of male hormones making her act like a stallion. We took her to Ruth's where a bunch of our mares were including then 3 year old Lily who was there to be bred to Raven except when Jenis was unloaded she went right over and tried to mount Lily. Now that scared me, I'm thinking what kind of horse did we buy? Now the next part of this post should probably not be read aloud to young children unless you are prepared to start explaining the birds and the bees. Jenis' clitoris would come out quite far almost looking like a penis.  Of course the thought then was we ended up with a hermaphrodite and usually those are infertile. Oh NO did we just spend all that money on a mare that could not get pregnant? Dr. Hoerr was called to check this strange filly out. We showed him her behavior then he too was confused. He brought out his ultrasound machine and sonagrammed her giving us the good news that everything was normal inside but small and immature, typical for a Friesian of that age.  Then he went home to research why Jenis would look and act like a stallion. He called later with what seemed to be the answer. If an older mare cannot hold a pregnancy, regumate is given and if a double dose of regumate is given throughout the pregnancy it can result in a foal with exactly what Jenis was showing. The good thing about all of this is Jenis has the gorgeous stallion like looks. Below she is checking out another mare. Notice the stallion like neck. The picture below was taken shortly after we moved them to the Hanna City farm.

Another very interesting thing was that the other mares would show to her.

She was bred to Raven at age 3 and produced a beautiful filly 10 days early and quickly abandoned her. We were still living at Baer, the night before she delivered Jenis was bugging me as I was cleaning the paddock. I should have realized she was worried about something but when I checked her udder it didn't seem she was ready at all to deliver. The next morning I went out to feed and there was a beautiful little filly all by herself standing in the paddock and the mares were all down in the field. Jenis was called, tied up and the filly taken over to her and she promptly kicked her away when she tried to nurse. I yelled, brought the filly up again and Jenis kicked me. At that point I called for help but even with Mike's help we could not get Jenis to allow the filly any where near. We loaded them both up in the trailer and hauled them to UofI where for the next 5 days they had to have 24 hour surveillance so she would not try to kill the foal. When we were finally able to bring them home we still didn't 100 percent trust her but by this time the filly had learned to grab a meal when she could and how to get out of the way if her mom threatened her. Diane named the filly Abby (for Abandoned).

  She produced another filly in 2007 (sold) was bred in 2008 back to Raven and produced Valiant in 2009.

Jenis produced 5 beautiful foals for us, 2 colts and 3 fillies of which we just kept 1, Valiant. When she produced her very last foal in 2012 we knew Raven wasn't going to be with us much longer and thought we probably should keep her but Dee made us an offer we just couldn't refuse.

 Above she is a couple weeks old and below about 5 months old

With Raven gone Jenis was bred to Evan but she did not get pregnant. If we breed her again it would need to be to an outside stallion and frankly we would prefer not to send her away. She does not enjoy being a mom, just too many male hormones and is the perfect performance mare, perfect beginner mare and yet perfect for the advanced rider. 

Rhoda taught Jenis to rear, always an impressive trick and below is the first time this was documented on film. A big group of trail riders went out to the castle.

Of course lots of pictures were taken at each performance of this impressive mare. Below are just a few.

Now in case you think that rearing on demand is ALL she does check out the pictures below:

 Above is a photo shoot and the next 5 pictures below are during some of the IL Horse Fairs

 Above and below Jenis is the mare with the leg wraps.

 Below Jenis is on the far left.

Below Jenis is the horse dressed in gold.

 Above is during the cowboy mounted shooting clinic and below is Jenis's jumping form. She jumps very well, perfect striding and nothing worries her. 

 Above she is giving sled rides and below she has helped Emily win another blue ribbon at the PRC show. She is wonderful at shows, winning pretty much every class she is entered.  She is just so impressive the judges can't take their eyes off her. 

 Above is during a jousting demonstration and below she is walking a bride down the aisle at a wedding. The only thing Jenis did wrong is try to snack on the garland around her neck.

To say we are thrilled with this mare is probably an understatement. Jenis is another mare we consider a gift from God. She was also the beginning of our purebred Friesian program and the first purebred Friesian mare we ever purchased. She has paid for herself over and over with her gorgeous offspring and her many performances. She brings publicity to the Horsemeister farm that just cannot be bought with money. This is an amazing Friesian mare! We will have Jenis down at the IL Horse Fair March 4th, 5th and 6th. Jenis would love to meet you so please come on down to the IL State Fairgrounds during the IL Horse Fair and visit us in Barn 14. This is the barn next to the coliseum. Our stalls will be in aisle E.