Page 30 - The Hunt - Spring 2024

“Just because you’ve been selected, doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll go. Something can still happen to you or your horse.”
—Phillip Dutton
By all rights, Jennie Brannigan should’ve never become a world-class rider. But her mother wanted to get away from Chicago, introducing her daughter to the Illinois countryside—and horses. Years later, when Brannigan alerted friends and acquaintances to a new cell phone number, one of them quickly called back
and offered her a job. That eventually led
to the horse barns of Pennsylvania. “I’m
not training for the Olympics,” Brannigan insists, though she admits it’s a possibility. “People who set goals too far in advance
can mess up their horses trying to keep on schedule. I’ve never made long-term goals,
28 THE HUNT MAGAZINE spring 2024