Jerry and his mule, Future Hope, prepare to enter the show ring.

Beyond his passion for teaching and writing, Jerry enjoys the company of his wife Cheryl and his many children...all of which are four-legged creatures. He is the caregiver to five horses, three mules, one donkey, one zorse, one dog and six cats.

Having grown up in urban neighborhoods in the Flint and Detroit areas, then Eastown in the Grand Rapids, Michigan area, he now enjoys the peace and serenity of his 15 acre equestrian farm 30 minutes from city life.

Jerry enjoys the teamwork with his equine partners and the challenge of perfecting every move and stride in the sport of dressage. He currently is the only person in Michigan to compete at Level 1 in dressage on a mule. His nine-year-old dressage mule, Future Hope, (shown in these photos) has another talent specific to some mules and donkeys.

The Coon Jump is a talent that hunters encouraged in their mules in order to navigate fences to track raccoons. Like deer, most mules can jump a high fence from a stand still. Hope's highest jump in competition has been 60 inches and because the competition stops once she has won, it's unknown how high she can really jump. It's an exercise that Jerry doesn't practice often with Hope as he doesn't want to encourage her to jump the property fencing.

Next year, Jerry will be showing the stripes of Zelda the Zorse, who came to the Johnson's On-A-Whim Farm in the summer of 2004. She is half Belgian Horse and half Grevy Zebra, and is a real show stopper. Jerry showed Zelda in Detroit this summer at the Michigan State Fair where she took Grand Champion in Halter. Jerry and Zelda competed in a number of classes including english and western pleasure, trail class, halter, and several games on horseback. Jerry now knows what Elvis must have felt like with all of the attention Zelda received.

After a long day on the farm, Jerry, Cheryl, and their dog Honey often relax on the back porch under the stars or in front of a warm bonfire.