About Us
Jenni Johnson
JC Andalusians is a family owned and operated breeding and training facility. Our focus is on producing horses that will excel in FEI disciplines, trained with a solid foundation in classical horsemanship, with dispositions that will melt your heart. In short, Soulmates for Amateur Owners.
From an early age, horses have been a part of owner Jenni Coyle Johnson’s life. Growing up in Cleveland, OH, Jenni competed in dressage, hunters, jumpers, and eventing. Her first horse of her own, Recluta III, was bred by her aunt Carolyn – one of the first Andalusian breeders in the United States.
After college, Jenni moved to Virginia to follow her dream of being the second generation of Andalusian breeders in the USA. More than a decade later, the dream continues. With the help of her husband, Minnesota native Ben Johnson, they now stand multiple stallions and have several brood mares as the foundation of their farm. Jenni is now active in the driving community and is currently competing at the preliminary level in combined driving events with her homebred mare JC Viva!
Ben Johnson
Ben is a freelance video engineer, editor, and media consultant. While not really a horse person (he rides… the tractor) he is involved in management of the farm and shooting the photos and videos you’ll see here and around the web. He also volunteers with our regional and national breed organizations, and was the recipient of the IALHA Volunteer of the Year award in 2009. Ben is a high handicap golfer who thinks most pastures would make good fairways. Of course, Jenni thinks all golf courses should allow cross country driving.
Two of our lovely young rider’s include Hannah Pierucci and Julia Dandgridge.
Julia Dandridge
Julia comes from a riding background in hunters and is excellent at helping start the young horses under saddle and assisting with their progressive training. She has strong barn management skills and does evening chores at Waldron farm most nights.
Hannah’s background is in dressage and she just earned her USDF silver medal! You’ll likely see Hannah at most of the dressage shows we attend and she assists with the training of horses at home.
Desiree Moquin and Meaghan Massie are an integral part of our daily routine. The down and dirty day in and out grunt work of general horse care is expertly handled by one of these ladies or Jenni herself.
Hannah Pierucci
All of the horses at JC Andalusians are handled throughout the day. From conception on, our horses receive the best in nutrition, handling, and health. Because Jenni lives and works on the farm, she has the time to spend with the horses and the knowledge to do it right. JC Andalusian bred horses compete successfully in dressage, jumpers, hunters, eventing, and are consistent winners in breed shows under American A/L, USDF, and Spanish judges.
The training focus is on foals and young horses. Using many of the same ‘bombproofing’ techniques as mounted police, Jenni aims to build trust and manners that establish a foundation for successful training in any competitive discipline. She always listens to her horses, and they in turn listen to her. The goal is to create safe, mannerly, trusting companions.
Sasha
Head of rodent control
While the herd has grown, the passion remains the same: to breed and raise horses that are competitive in the ring, lifelong partners in the barn.
JC Andalusians provides foaling-out services at the home barn, giving your foal the same start given to JCA foals. This includes pre-natal care of your dam, monitoring, foaling, and initial training of the foal. Long term foal raising is also available for your adolescent equine partner. Your young horse will be handled daily with age appropriate activities while living in a pastured herd environment.
As we have grown, our operation has expanded to two farms separated by a short drive. Our home farm is our residence, and here we have our foaling facilities, quarantine paddocks, and an outdoor riding arena built by Tractor Works and Derek Trimingham. One of our paddocks also has some small cross country obstacles that are used for schooling under saddle, as well as to work with young horses in hand. Our other farm has larger paddocks and fields with rolling hills, and provides a herd environment best suited for young horses to grow up in.
Alan Spivey
Our farrier – hard at work
Both our farms are in Barboursville, VA, just north of Charlottesville, VA – home of Thomas Jefferson, James Monroe, and the University of Virginia. We are also located minutes away from Montpelier, the home of President James Madison and later home of the famed Marion duPont Scott racing farm, and in the heart of the Monticello AVA wine region. We drive past some of the best wineries in Virginia every day.
Visits are always welcome by appointment – but please don’t just drop in. We have a busy schedule every day of training our horses, and your appointments lets us give you our full attention and professionally show our horses and farm. We are 15 minutes from Charlottesville-Albemarle Airport (CHO), 1.5 hours from Richmond (RIC), and 2 hours from Washington Dulles (IAD). Amtrak serves Charlottesville (CVS) with several trains each day.
Contact Us to learn more or to schedule a farm visit.
Although the following individuals have their own businesses separate from JCA, our site wouldn’t be complete without mentioning them here.
Pati Pierucci
USDF Gold Medalist and grand prix rider Pati Pierucci (Pierucci Dressage) has had El Espiritu in full training for several years. She comes with a strong background in Spanish horses and was one of the first rider’s in the US to showcase the breed at the FEI level. Pati’s our dressage trainer, coach and very dear friend. You may have also guessed it, she’s Hannah’s mom! We have developed a relationship with Pati and her crew that far exceeds any working partnership. The Pierucci’s are nothing short of family to us, and she is, of course, “Stewie’s other mom”
Paul Maye
In the discipline of driving, Jenni works very closely with Paul Maye (Maye Show Ponies). Paul competes at the Advanced level in combined driving, regularly shows at ADS pleasure shows and competes on the welsh pony and USEF hunter breeding circuits. We are grateful for the opportunity to learn from this great. He is not only a fantastic driver, he is also a great coach.
Christine Smith
Christine Smith (Wildest Expectation Farms) has been showing our horses in hand at recognized USDF Dressage Sport Horse Breed shows since 2005! She started handling our stallion El Espiritu on the DSHB triangle when he was only 2 years old and over the years continues the tradition with our mares, their foals and young horses belonging to our clients.
