About Jill Dutkowski

I grew up in Flushing, in a nice little subdivision for living, but not for owning horses. Although my love for animals had always encompassed horses, even at a young age I was made to understand that owning a horse would be unrealistic for my family. Then when I was in 7th grade, I stumbled upon an opportunity for extremely affordable horse riding lessons. The $25/hr fee I worked off weekly doing chores around my house. I took to it immediately, and at the end of the summer, with school starting and the weather chilling, lessons stopped. When I tried to call the lesson instructor the following summer, the phone number I had no longer worked for her. One day the following summer, I randomly decided to go to a high school rodeo with a friend. At the rodeo, I saw a man I recognized as the father-in-law of the lesson instructor who also owned the barn where I had been taking lessons at. I got his phone number and was notified his daughter-in-law had moved to Alabama, but that there was another young woman that would be giving lessons that summer. It turns out her specialty was barrel racing, and the barn owners (who had a bull riding son my age) offered to let me use one of their own horses to use in rodeos. The rest was history! For the next 2 years I was in the NLBRA competing in rodeos monthly on "my horse" Flash, who I trained for barrels and poles myself. After the first season, I "upgraded" to a horse named Joe who had been deemed "unrideable" due to his "hot" personality and constant desire to run. Well, wouldn't you know, that combination made him the most competitive rodeo horse I used. However, after taming his wild streak, he was sold right from underneath me with no warning, and from there I went on to train several more horses. Another of which was sold, one that eventually developed arthritis, and the last one that has been lame for over 6 months due to running through a fence while in the pasture.         The summer of 2008 I have been making sure all the horses have been getting worked on a regular basis either by myself, friends, or students. But the horse exclusively used my me has been my palomino paint, Bingo we acquired in the fall of 2007. The wife barn owner has had a back injury all year and the husband comes and goes while he continues to work on their newly acquired ranch in Oklahoma. That leaves me (their "adopted" daughter) to use the horses as I please for lessons and pleasure. Of the 6 horses we own, Zach the appaloosa is still lame from the fence injury, Bingo is still only used by me, and the other 4 (Flash, Flurry, Splash, and Susie) can be used for lessons and taking friends on rides.        I leave for college in Kalamazoo on August 25th. Until then, I am finishing up my part-time job at YaYa's, my part-time job giving lessons, and I was also recently hired to drive carriage horses at the Frankenmuth Carriage Company by the Bavarian Inn. I will be a certified driver before I leave for college and will then return on holidays and some weekends to work there. Next summer I plan on driving horses exclusively, along with giving a select few lessons. While I am in Kalamazoo, I will be searching for a horse farm to work part-time on or perhaps a veterinarian to job shadow with. This is because my career aspirations involve me becoming a veterinarian. I will be at undergrad at Western Michigan University, double majoring in the honors college in Biological Sciences and Spanish. After that I will apply to vet school, and hopefully begin studying to become a large animal and/or equine veterinarian.       Some of you may know I was a 2 time first-team All-State soccer player at Flint Powers Catholic and was offered scholarships at several colleges. I contemplated it for a while, and then realized that although I've enjoyed playing soccer, it is not my passion. I realized to attain my goal of becoming a veterinarian, I will need to put all my energies into my academics and animal/vet experiences. I am now  job shadowing at both small animal and farm animal clinics on a regular basis. And even though I don't always get paid for my services, it makes it worth it because I am constantly learning. And learning is what will eventually get me to where I want to be. If you know of anyone in the Kalamazoo area that might have some use for me, please let me know. My next goals will be to work on a dude ranch over a summer and to job shadow with a zoo veterinarian. Thank you all for visiting my website, and if there's anything you need, feel free to contact me night or day. (810)-569-2653 or thedrumrunner@yahoo.com

Joe, who may always be my favorite

Flash, where it all began

My best friends, Taylor and Hannah: Summer '07    Going to different colleges won't stop us!

Splash, the first horse determined to buck me off Once he realized he couldn't, he became a  real sweetheart!

And of course, my Bingo boy!