From Guest Blogger Jadie Jones: The IEA Helps Coaches' Dreams Come True Too
I became involved in the IEA by accident. I was driving a new way home and saw a sign for a boarding facility. I called them to see if they had anything to lease. They asked about my background and riding experience. Instead of offering me a lease on a horse, they offered me a job. I started teaching there as an IEA coach three days later.
At home, I was mom to a one year old girl by day and an aspiring writer by night. I kept the writing aspect of my life mostly to myself. When people find out someone writes, the first question they often ask is what you’ve published, and I hadn’t published anything yet. Two months after I started coaching, the email landed in my inbox: a publishing house wanted my book. I taught in the afternoons and then toiled at my laptop into pre-dawn hours, racing through a series of editing deadlines while trying to juggle the rest of my life. The day we hosted our IEA show, I received the next big email, which revealed the cover for my book, the title: Moonlit, and a release date: April 14th, 2013.
My managing editor told me to find horse-industry professionals willing to read and review pre-release copies of Moonlit. Since I chose to use a pen name, I would need to contact them in person to eliminate confusion. I was intimidated to say the least. I reached out to Amanda Garner, who had stewarded several of the shows I’d been to that year. She seemed friendly, and I figured if she turned me down, she’d probably smile while she did it. I walked up to her at a horse show, my shaking hands stuffed inside my pockets, and introduced myself. Then I asked her if she liked to read. She lit up at the question, and we had a ten-minute conversation about our favorite books. At a pause in the conversation, I took a breath and a chance, and told her about Moonlit. She immediately agreed to review it, and she had a surprise for me: she liked to write, too. Amanda then pointed me in the direction of another IEA coach, Simon Towns, an avid reader and encourager of the arts, and the snowball of support began its roll. Roxanne Lawrence, founder and director of the IEA, invited me to come to the IEA hunt-seat championship in New York, which I agreed to as fast as I could.
I saw the trip to New York as a finish line – some kind of culmination, when in actuality, it was a launch pad. Within three days, forty copies of Moonlit were given away as prizes, and I was interviewed for IEA’s Take the Reins magazine, which served to spread my first book all over the country. Robin Alden, youth manager of the AQHA, bought a copy of Moonlit and invited me to appear in the college showcase at the AQHYA “Built Ford Tough” world championships in Oklahoma City that August. Before I left for home, I purchased my plane ticket to Oklahoma. I also sold out of Moonlit.
The best aspect about being involved in the IEA is this: you are surrounded by doers, movers, shakers, entrepreneurs, hard-working, I-dare-you-to-tell-me-no type people who change the minds of twelve-hundred pound animals on a daily basis. Equestrians are tough, stubborn, fierce, patient, compassionate, decisive, persistent, and supportive. We learn how to decide when it’s time to use muscle versus when it’s best to finesse. We cultivate a sense of humor for landing in the dirt instead of on the other side of the jump. And we dust ourselves off and keep going. These skills and this network help create habits and traits that serve its members well no matter what you decide to do with your life, no matter what dream tugs you into each new day.
About Jadie Jones
Georgia native Jadie Jones first began working for a horse farm at twelve years old, her love of horses matched only by her love of books. She went on to acquire a B.A. in equine business management, and worked for competitive horse farms along the east coast. The need to write followed wherever she went.
She lives with her family in the foothills of north Georgia. When she's not working on the next installment of the Moonlit series, she is either in the saddle or exploring the great outdoors with her daughters.
Jones is the author of the Moolit trilogy. Books one and two, Moonlit and Windswept are currently available. Book three, Wildwood, is set for release in 2015.
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