From Organic Farm owner to Digital Nomad to Rock Climber to Endurance Rider to Podcast Host: Meet Jessica Isbrecht
by Merri Melde-Endurance.net
February 1 2020
Ride + Climb: Seeing the world, one trail or cliff at a time
The name of Jessica Isbrecht’s blog,
Ride+Climb,
tells you most of what you need to know about her: she’s a passionate
horse rider, bold rock climber, and intrepid traveler. Because as you
can imagine, it takes a bit of enterprising gumption to live as a
digital nomad, to venture onto unexplored trails, and to hang off a
cliff - which is how she and her partner Byron have lived for the last
year and a half.
The
nomadism started in the summer of 2018, following a very successful,
but ultimately stressful entrepreneurial career as an organic farm owner
in New Jersey. Green Duchess Farm was a way for Jess to be closer to
nature and farms and animals, and to honor the memory of her mother, who
had passed away too young and too suddenly from a rare form of
lymphoma. “I wanted to help people lead healthier lives and hopefully
not get sick,” Jessica said.
The
farm was so successful - she sold her products to restaurants all over
New Jersey, to clients in Manhattan and Philadelphia, and on Amazon
Fresh - that it wore her down physically and mentally. For those reasons
and other issues and pressures, she and her partner Byron decided to
close up, pull up stakes, and hit the road. “We decided that as long as I
could take my horse with me, we were going to become nomads and go
wherever there was good weather and good rock climbing.”
They
bought a travel trailer, loaded up her horse Mackenzie in a horse
trailer, and left New Jersey in June, heading north to Rumney, New
Hampshire, a world class rock climbing destination. What had to be a
good omen was that Jess happened to find a place to stay called
Buck-N-Horse campground, about 10 minutes from the rock climbing cliffs.
“We met some really wonderful, interesting characters at that
campground, and they kind of became our family for the summer.”
While in the Northeast, Jessica took Mackenzie to Maine for their first endurance ride, the Pine Tree.
Jess
had been in 4H for 12 years as a kid, and in New Jersey at the time,
she and her mom were part of a competitive trail riding team. “That was
my introduction to distance riding, and I absolutely loved it. And I
loved it so much, that after I graduated from the 4H program, both my
mom and I coached our county’s 4H distance riding program.
“I
always knew endurance existed, and I wanted to do it eventually, but my
young adulthood and trying to build a career got in the way. So I
didn’t pick up the idea of endurance riding again until the winter
before we were planning on leaving New Jersey and picking up this mobile
lifestyle. I was kind of looking for something to motivate me to get
out and ride more, because I was so obsessed with my farm and the
business, that I pretty much spent five years nearly ignoring my horse
and only riding occasionally.
“I
really wanted that thing to get me motivated to ride more, and I
stumbled onto the Green Bean program. I just latched onto that, and I
started going out in the snow and 19 degrees and conditioning and
getting out riding. And I was just super excited.” The Pine Tree ride
was hard and hot and humid and Jess was exhausted after they completed,
but by the end of the evening she was looking at the AERC ride calendar,
planning her next competition. “Am I crazy?” She wrote on her blog.
“Perhaps. Am I addicted? Most likely.”
Frosty
Oak Mackenzie, a 15-year-old Cleveland Bay Thoroughbred cross that had
belonged to Jess’s mom, traveled solo with Jess and Byron for six
months, from New Jersey up to Main, then south through the Appalachian
states to Louisiana, “where we hung a right and went West all the way to
Arizona.” Everywhere along their travels, Jess trail rode Mackenzie,
and she and Byron both climbed.
In
Arizona they looked for and bought a horse for Byron, so that he could
ride with Jess, instead of bike or hike. They ended up with 8-year-old
River, a Tennessee Walker mare. “She was nothing fancy to look at,” Jess
said, “and I honestly wasn’t thrilled at the idea of getting another
mare. She was the right price so we ended up taking a chance. And I’m so
happy that we did, because she is just absolutely wonderful. She has
carted Byron around as a beginner all over rocky steep trails, and he’s
learned a lot riding her, and she just has the sweetest personality.”
River
has joined the endurance world too; since that first Pine Tree ride in
Maine, Jess has now done endurance rides in Arizona, Utah, Wyoming,
Idaho, and California, aboard Mackenzie and River.
Jess
and Byron have also trail ridden all over the country, in such
beautiful and diverse areas, that it was almost a given that Jess would
come up with another innovative idea to create something wonderful from
their experiences.
“I’m
a dedicated fan of Horses in the Morning podcast. It has shows
dedicated to all different disciplines - there’s an endurance podcast
with Karen Chaton, there’s a dressage show, and eventing, and one for
off track thoroughbreds. It’s anything and everything horse related you
can think of.
“But
the one thing that they don’t have is a show for trail riding. So I
figured if I’m out here traveling all over the country and riding in
different places all the time and experiencing all these things and
meeting all these amazing people, what better fit is there.”
Even
though Jessica has spent most of her horse life focused on competition,
she’s always loved trail riding. “There’s just something about it,
being alone with your horse, surrounded by the beauty of Nature - it’s
just so special.”
In
the Happy Trails podcast Jessica and her special guests will share amazing places around the
country (and the world!) to ride and camp with your horse, how to travel
and camp with horses, navigation skills and first aid and preparedness
for riding in the wilderness, training your trail horse, horse packing,
trail riding etiquette, trail access, and tales from other riders.
“Everybody
has some kind of story, experiences to talk about, so I thought it
would be cool to have a virtual campfire and get everybody to talk about
it.”
Jessica Isbrecht photos
Idaho IronHorse Challenge
