It’s not unheard of for a person to attend a baby shower and leave with a touch of baby fever. But attending a baby shower and going home with horse fever? Dr. Jesse Akers Reagin did just that.

In late 2019, Reagin, a dentist and co-owner of Dental Creations in Daytona Beach, Florida, attended a baby shower for a mutual friend at the farm of Dr. Katie Malensek, DVM, an upper-level eventing competitor who represented Canada at the FEI Eventing Nations Cup in Arville, Belgium, in August 2023. While at the baby shower, Malensek showed Reagin around her 20-acre Longboard Farm in Ormond Beach, Florida. While Reagin and her family live close to Malensek’s farm, and the two women had mutual friends, they were merely acquaintances at that point.

“I asked her if I could get a tour, and then I got the bug,” said Reagin, 44, recalling the moment she was struck with horse fever for the second time in her life. “It took me by surprise. But as I left there, I thought, ‘I’m going to see if I can remember how to post and see if horses will fit into my life with kids and family and practice ownership.’ ”

Reagin returned to the saddle with the full support of her husband, Brett Reagin, and the couple’s two boys, Wyatt and Lane, now 12 and 10. She partnered with RCA Society Law (Birkhof’s Grafenstolz—Menace To Society, Criminal Law), a now-12-year-old British Sport Horse mare. She actually had owned “Lucy” for more than a year at that point, because she’d periodically purchased investment horses in coordination with Ruth and Joe Meyer, who would then develop and sell them. As fate would have it, Jesse had purchased Lucy, but the mare hadn’t sold.

“I already owned her, but I’d never seen her or touched her. She was just one that didn’t sell,” she said. “It’s weird how life works.”

Last month, the duo won the intermediate rider division at the Rocking Horse Winter II Horse Trials, Feb. 8-11, in Altoona, Florida. They were sitting in third after dressage with a score of 34.3, had 4 faults in stadium jumping, and then posted a conservative, clear cross-country round with 17.2 time faults to win the division with a 55.5. 

“She’s been getting better and better with dressage, and she’s always been pretty good at stadium,” Jesse said of Lucy. “But as we’ve been trying to move up, we’ve encountered some cross-country problems, which we hadn’t had before. Rocking Horse was our first clean intermediate.

“I took an 18-year hiatus from the sport, and I never really intended to get back to the intermediate level, but it always just depends what you’re sitting on,” she added. “It’s exciting to find I’m riding around at the upper level now.”

Jesse and Malensek, a veterinarian who specializes in reptiles and other exotic animals, became fast friends. Jesse now keeps Lucy at Malensek’s farm and Malensek introduced her to championship rider Karl Slezak, who’s represented Canada at two Pan American Games and the 2022 FEI World Championship in Pratoni, Italy. Both train with Slezak and support each other as they face the demands of amateurs who are shooting for the upper echelons of their sport.

“There are amateurs who have a lot of time [to spend at the barn], but Jesse and I are always in and out,” Malenek, 41, said. “I appreciate what she does, and to add kids to the mix, you know she’s got a lot on her plate. We’re both always trying to juggle the business stuff and horses. We love those one-day events where we can get in and get out.”

Jesse first got struck with the horse bug at the age of 5. Her mother, Jennifer Akers, had always dreamed of riding and owning horses, but hadn’t had opportunities to do so as a youngster. 

“I was a city girl and couldn’t make it happen, so I was really excited when she showed interest,” said Akers, 75, who grew up in Newport News, Virginia. Akers was thrilled when Jesse asked if she could ride and take lessons. “I was ready to let her fly.”

And fly she did. Jesse did U.S. Pony Club and competed in eventing from childhood through her undergraduate years at the University of Florida, training with veteran five-star rider Ralph Hill. She competed successfully through the advanced level, notably at the Kentucky and Foxhall (Georgia) three-day events, and made several trips to the FEI North American Young Riders Championships representing Area III. Through it all, her mom was her “super groom,” Jesse said. “She was huge in getting me going and keeping me going.”

After graduating from college with a bachelor’s degree in animal science, Jesse took a year off to compete. At the end of that year, though, she thought she was done with competitive riding, possibly forever, as she headed to dental school.

“There was definitely no way to ride in dental school,” said Jesse, who kept in touch with her horsey friends and would occasionally “go pet a horse or sit on one.” But her primary focus was on getting her doctor of medicine in dentistry degree, completing her residency and founding her dental practice, as well as getting married and starting a family. But horses were never far from her mind.

“I would piddle and play with horses, here and there. But I knew I couldn’t go back to upper-level competition, and I didn’t know if I’d be happy going beginner novice,” she said. “I didn’t know if I could be happy doing it as a hobby two or three days a week, coming from such a competitive background.”

And then she attended that fateful baby shower at Malensek’s.

“I got the bug,” Jesse said. “I thought, ‘Let me see if I can actually work an animal into my life and not steal anything from my kids and my family and work.’ “ 

She started riding and competing with Lucy, but then had to pause for six months after breaking her leg while on a family ski trip in 2022. Once healed, she was back in the saddle full time, while also ensuring she was able to support her boys as they participate in “every sport imaginable,” including baseball, mountain biking and dirt biking. While the boys aren’t keen to ride, they’re excited to watch their mom compete, as are her husband, her mom and her dad, Dr. John Akers (also a dentist), and her brother and his family, who also live in Florida. 

Although Jesse’s mother, a recipient of the U.S. Eventing Association’s Governor’s Cup in 2005 for her work with the USEA Area III Young Rider’s program and the sport in general, doesn’t get to as many events as she used to, she’s helping her daughter fulfill her horse dreams in other ways. These days, rather than being Jesse’s groom, Jennifer is on grandma duty. She helps Brett with ferrying the couple’s boys to school and sports when Jesse travels. However, she said she’s always there in spirit when her daughter competes.

“She’s living the dream I had for myself,” said Jennifer, who’s relished watching her daughter step back into the competitive realm and continue to grow as a rider. “She’s carried all that knowledge from her past with her, and she’s so wise and smart. She’s really clever about working around obstacles, and she’s a wiser rider because of her past. I’m really proud of her.”