After spending almost a year flying across the country, trying horses on a tight budget, and reviewing failed vet checks, Jill Mincks was ready to give up on finding her first dressage horse. But then she stumbled on an ad for Caminante Del Sol. 

“When we saw the ad for him, I was on the shuttle going back to the airport, having just looked at horse that I passed on. I was pretty discouraged and ready to quit, to be honest, because it just felt so frustrating that we couldn’t find one that was a good fit,” Mincks recalled. “And my coach Colleen Diamond just said, ‘You need to book this fight. You need to go see this horse.’ So I begrudgingly went.” 

Because the trip to try the then-5-year-old PRE gelding was rather last-minute, Diamond was unable to go with Mincks to see him. So the amateur rider, who works full-time in corporate risk management, took a risk of her own and went to try the young horse, bred by Leonardo and Maria Mandina of Hacienda del Sol Andalusians in Florida, by herself. 

That risk has since paid off in spades, as she and “Pepe” (Fandango Del Sol—Ilusa XXII, Caminante V) have enjoyed plenty of competitive success in their journey from third level to Grand Prix. Most recently, the pair earned top honors in the USDF Region 5 Grand Prix Adult Amateur Championship, held Sept. 19-22 at the Colorado Horse Park in Parker, with a 62.71%. 

The achievement exceeded all expectations Mincks had for their partnership, which started with a green horse and a green rider and progressed to Grand Prix in 2022.  

“When I got him, I never even dreamed of reaching the Grand Prix level,” she said. “I was a pretty inexperienced rider. I’d only ridden up to second level at that point, so we were both very, very green. At the time, my wildest dreams might have been hitting the Prix St. Georges. And even then, that seemed out of reach at the time given my job, but over the years, we just kept chipping away at it,” she said.  

Today, though, their list of accolades includes earning Mincks’ USDF silver and gold medals together.

Getting to the barn takes anywhere between 45 minutes to an hour for Mincks, who works full-time as the head of operational risk management at Empower, a financial services company in Denver. She makes it a priority to ride at least four days a week, but sometimes she’s had to give up time in the saddle for her job. 

“It’s an ebb and flow,” she said. “There’s certainly been times where my work has absolutely taken precedence over my horse. I’ve had to reduce the number of rides or cancel a ride. 

“But I try very hard not to ever let that happen unless it’s of the utmost importance. Frankly, I block my calendar for those days that I’m committed to riding during the week, and I do my best not to let anything or anybody take that time from me.” 

Learning how to stay physically and emotionally fulfilled is an important skill that extends beyond the horse industry, according to Mincks.   

“Blocking off that personal time is key for anyone that’s trying to get work/life balance, whether you’re a mother, someone who’s a caretaker for an elderly parent, or even if you’re just taking care of yourself. Otherwise, the job will easily take that time from you,” she said. 

In the times when her career prevented her from going to the barn, Mincks knew she could rely on Diamond’s tactful riding to keep Pepe in shape. The Parker, Colorado-based trainer has been a huge part of their success, Mincks said. 

“She has taught me everything I know,” she said. “There have been many times where I have felt like this has been an insurmountable task—to try to learn and teach my horse upper-level dressage at the same time I learn it—but she just continues to give us confidence and help us get there.” 

Mincks has been working with Diamond for more than a decade, and she said the trainer is particularly effective at teaching amateurs. 

“Dressage is all about feel, which is something you can’t really explain,” Mincks said. “You can demo it, certainly, but it’s also so much about feel, and her ability to translate that feel into something that I can understand and then try to replicate is an amazing talent that she has.” 

As Mincks and Pepe have learned together in their lessons with Diamond, they have had some hiccups. Mastering their flying changes, in particular, was a stumbling block for the dark bay gelding. Developing a green horse as a green rider is not for the faint of heart. 

“I had never ridden a flying change before. So [Diamond] was trying to, from the ground, teach me how to do the aid, and was trying to teach the horse, all at the same time. It was chaotic at times. He wanted to get fast and rush, and he was getting panicked, as was I. I just had to take a deep breath, take a pause, and go back to it. That seemed like such a big hurdle.”  

But dwelling in flying-change purgatory paid off for Mincks and Pepe, as the PRE gelding later learned tempi changes easily. One of the most rewarding aspects of developing a horse is seeing it shine in movements and settings where it once struggled, Mincks said. 

One of the most dramatic evolutions in Pepe and Mincks’ partnership has been their dynamic in the warm-up arena. It has totally reversed over time. 

“When we were younger and starting out in third level, at our first competitions, I felt like I had to do a lot of the comforting and giving him confidence,” she shared. “As we started to rise to the upper levels, I became a little more unsure of whether we could really do it. But he gave me that feeling of like, ‘Hey, I got you. We can do this.’ It’s been a really cool to experience that with him.”

“The blessing and the curse has always been his intelligence,” she added. “He’s a very smart horse, which means he’s always thinking, and he’s typically one step ahead of me. It can be a challenge, but his willingness and desire to please is just unimaginable. So I can understand now, when I got him, others would say to me, ‘Oh my gosh, once you have a Spanish horse, that’s all you’re ever going to want.’ I didn’t quite get it at the time, but now I understand.”