Jen Koval coaches a soft ride to success at Stellar Moon Hunter Jumpers.
 
Jen Koval is one of the new kids on the Northern California hunter/jumper block who is quickly gaining notice because of her effective training techniques, positive attitude and successful sales business.
Stellar Moon stands out for the forward, light style of riding Jen teaches to her students. Jen grew up competing on the Southern California hunter/jumper circuit and began working as a trainer in Sun Valley and Boise, Idaho. “There is definitely a hunter/jumper scene there,” Jen relays. “But it was tough because everything was so far away. We’d go to Oregon, the Midwest or Los Angeles if we wanted to compete.”
Today, Stellar Moon is based in Hollister, California, at a private training facility, which Jen describes as a “premiere facility for training and selling hunter/jumper horses and ponies.” The barn is currently accepting horses in training and looks forward to expanding its clientele of juniors and amateurs in 2010. Whether riding a hunter, jumper or equitation horse, Jen firmly believes that "a really soft, easy, forward ride is better than the sit down and ‘gun it’ ride.” Jen is especially proud of developing a highly effective system geared towards timid and nervous riders known at Stellar Moon as “the magic ride.”
Jen also believes that a riding education must be progressive. “We see too many kids that are jumping too big and have no eye for a distance,” Jen observes. “It’s important to us that our students are really progressing, not just jumping higher.” That means doing hunters before equitation and then equitation before jumpers, and it sometimes means taking a new client backwards a little in their riding, before moving forward.
Stellar Moon Hunter Jumpers
Hollister, CA
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