About Jessi
Jessi Homan - Certified Equine Specialist through EAGALA
My love of horses started at the ripe age of four when my mom bought her first horse that I can remember, her name was Moki Bars. Since then, I have been infatuated with them. I absorbed everything horse related that I could get my hands on. By the time I was eight I started showing my mom’s horse in 4-H. At age 10 I trained that same horse for gymkhana events (games).
By the time Moki was 10 years old we had our first foal born, Sir Chance A Lot. (We had two other foals since, 1996, Moki Zan Dew, and 1998, Major Twist Moki.) I trained Chance for Western Pleasure and for games. We broke out Dew and sold her as a beginner’s horse for a neighbor. Major was broke out as a trail horse and is now enjoying retirement as a lesson horse and an EAGALA (Equine Assisted Guidance and Learning Association) horse.
When I lived with my parents, I rode horses daily. Once I moved out (2001) I took a small hiatus from riding on a regular basis. Fast forward about 12 years and Major was the only one left. It was at this time we bought a pony (JJ) for my kids in the spring of 2013.
In the fall of 2013, my family moved to River Falls so I could go to school for Equine Management at the University of Wisconsin River Falls (UWRF). During that first semester one of my assignments was to write a technical review of a peer reviewed article about horses. The article I chose was a clinical study on Equine Assisted Psychotherapy. That article still sits with me today. It is because of this article I changed my major from Equine Management to Psychology and minored in Animal Science.
In the spring of 2014, I moved JJ out to River Falls for my kids. It was at that time I started to really teach my kids (mainly my daughter) how to ride. In fall of 2014 I was in the Advanced Horsemanship class at UWRF where we used the school horses to learn with. I taught all four horses at the barn I was boarding at how to do half pass, side pass, and leg yields. I also worked with some of my classmates outside of class to help them understand the mechanics of the half pass, side pass and leg yields. In 2015 I moved Major out River Falls as well. During this time, I taught a few people how to ride trained some horses, and did some groundwork with a few young horses as well. Through the course of my bachelor’s degree, I studied Equine health and nutrition, animal behavior, and pasture management to name a few. I graduated in the spring of 2017 with my bachelor’s degree in Psychology and a minor in Animal Science.
In June of 2020 I quit my day job to pursue my passion of working with horses. I am now a certified Equine Specialist for EAGALA, trainer of Western Horsemanship, and owner of Horse Ways LLC.