
It is with great pleasure that Mounted Eagles welcomes our fourth horse into the program! Jay is a nineteen-year-old Registered Rocky Mountain breed gelding. Here’s a little bit about the breed: The Rocky Mountain Horse exhibits a natural ambling gait, called the single-foot, which replaces the trot seen in a majority of horse breeds. The extra footfalls provide additional smoothness to a rider because the horse always has at least one foot on the ground. This minimizes movement of the horse’s topline and removes the bounce of a two-beat gait, caused by a moment of suspension followed by the jolt of two feet hitting the ground as the horse shifts from one pair of legs to the other. Jay has completed a 90-day trial period with the program where we found that the program is a fit for him and he is a fit for us. This is standard procedure when bringing a new horse in as a member of our equine staff. The Chiropractor indicated he is a “young 19-year-old” which is a good thing to hear! He has been dubbed “black beauty” by some of his riders. Expenses for Jay’s trial period were paid with funds from the Jeannine Hemmerich Memorial Fund. Jeannine, who is the mother of our Executive Director, Lynn Fairbanks, passed away in 2021. Jeannine was a strong supporter of Mounted Eagles. We are very grateful to Lynn’s father, Earl Hemmerich, for making Mounted Eagles the recipient of these funds. Please give the warmest welcome to Jay and a heartfelt “thank you” to Lynn to pass on to her family.