Guest Expert
Jennifer Forsberg Meyer
Jennifer Forsberg Meyer, the editorial director at Horse&Rider magazine, is
with us today! As a longtime journalist in the equine field, she has lots of experience explaining horse-related info to a variety of audiences, so please get your questions ready. Jenny, a lifelong horse lover herself, has shown both in English and Western events, and along the way she’s ridden Quarter Horses, Paints, Thoroughbreds, Arabians, warmbloods, and even Tennessee Walkers.
Jenny has published equine coffee-table books with noted photographers David R. Stoecklein and Darrell Dodds, and recently collaborated with world champion horsewoman Sandy Collier on a training book–for which I provided the photos (Jenny’s also my sister!). 
The book, Reining Essentials: How to Excel in Western’s Hottest Sport, is just out now as we speak. As if that weren’t enough, you can find her bi-monthly column, “The Rural Life,” in Placerville’s Mountain Democrat newspaper, which serves El Dorado County and surrounding areas.
Jenny’s daughter Sophie , 14, participates in Pony Club on her Arabian/Mustang-cross pony and enjoys jumping, dressage, and plain old trail riding.
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Jenny, just reading your bio makes my head spin. You are so busy! With your editorial position with Horse&Rider magazine, and everything else, how do you still find time to ride? How do you fit everything in?
Often I don’t, actually. I think often of what dressage star Rachel Saavedra once said, and that’s that you have to take the long view of balance in your life. In other words, if you’re a busy person, you’re probably not going to be able balance every day of your life (or even every week and sometimes not even every month) evenly among all your interests/responsibilities—work, family, fitness, avocations such as riding, piano, whatever. But if you can arrange it so that your life balances out over the course of, say, several months (and sometimes even years), then that’s about the best you can do. 
When I can’t ride or do other things I love to do (because, of course, family and work tend to take precedence), I think about the long view and try to be patient. Right now I’m helping my daughter keep her large pony schooled and exercised, and that helps me keep involved with horses at a manageable level.
Knowing that you’re speaking mostly to writers who are looking for accurate, detailed information to put in their books, please give a description of something a real rider thinks about in the saddle.
I’d love to. In the movies, you see so much awful horsemanship. A real rider, someone who understands and loves his/her horse, and someone who wants to get the best from that horse and keep him happy and healthy…that rider doesn’t jab the horse’s sides with spurs or jerk on the reins or otherwise treat the horse harshly. The best riders, and I’ve had the opportunity to watch and talk to a lot of them, always use the most subtle rein and leg pressure possible to get the response they want; this keeps the horse light and willing—and happy. These riders also make use of their weight in the saddle—in other words, how they press their seatbones into the right or left side of the horse’s back. A horse is extremely sensitive—he can feel a fly land anywhere on his body, so he can feel these subtle cues given him by an accomplished rider, though no one else can even see them. That’s why the best riders almost look as if they’re doing nothing, and the horse seems to be reading their minds.
Jenny’s picture from her column, The Riding Family,
in Horse and Rider magazine.
I guess a lot depends on how well the horse and rider work together, and that can be influenced on how long they’ve been together. I know you’ve owned a variety of horses over different time periods; what’s been your most-loved mount, and why?
I suppose that would still have to be my first horse, the Thoroughbred mare Tigress. I grew up on her back, and as a result we had an incredible bond. I could just think “canter,” and off she’d go, light as a feather. But I’ve enjoyed every horse I’ve owned—more than a dozen–over the years, and each has taught me something. That last sounds clichéd, I know, but it’s true. Many of the top horsemen and women, of any time period, have credited their horses as their most influential “teachers.” And I’m no “top rider,” so the horses have even more to teach me!
Leave a Comment for Jenny
There will be a drawing from the names of everyone leaving a comment throughout the week for Jenny. From the winners of each weekly Guest Expert Interviews drawing (names will be posted), a grand prize drawing will be held on In The Nicker Of Time!’s one-year anniversary!!
