We had the good fortune of connecting with Jenessa Sapp and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Jenessa, how did you come up with the idea for your business?
When I was just a little girl, my favorite toys were dinosaur action figures- its only ironic that I quickly switched over to something more realistic, horses! My obsession with horses grew, and before I knew it I was the class “horse girl” who drew pictures of horses all over anything I could find. This continued to escalate, and my dad evetually grew tired of hearing, “Daddy! Daddy! Daddy! Can we PLEASE have a horse?” One day he gave up, and purchased our first family horse when I was just 9 years old. I joined Westernaires, an equine mounted drill organization based out of Golden, Colorado when I was just 10 years old. That is where I truly learned to ride- and my dad fell victim to purchasing us 2 more horses. He was willing to make that financial sacrifice just to see his kids happy, and I also have him to thank and his continued support of my equine career well into adulthood. At 11 years old, my heart horse named Quazar joined our family. I still have him and trick ride on him to this day.

A couple years into my participation in Westernaires, the opportunity opened up to join the trick riding specialty group. I was, pun intended, chomping at the bit to get involved in trick riding. I ran with it! My horse at the time, Eclipse, wasn’t the most pleased being a trick riding horse. We had several scary moments, but with the encouragement of my dad and instructors, I pressed through- but, I still felt unsafe trick riding on Eclipse. That is when I began trick riding on Quazar- he was fast! He absolutely loved it as much as me, and trick riding became my everything. It was my passion, and both Westernaires and trick riding kept me grounded through my teenage years. Ahead of my graduation from Westernaires in 2018, Quazar and I had nearly a dozen tricks we could do and almost never took a misstep together.

After I graduated Westernaires, I wasn’t ready to give up trick riding. Both Quazar and myself loved it too much to step away from it, so I spent some time on a different trick riding team for the remainder of 2018. In April of 2018, I had a fall off of a different horse while attempting a trick called Shoulder Stand and sustained a traumatic brain injury. I recovered well, but then in July of 2018, I was kicked in the head by my dearest Quazar while putting on one of his leg boots as he attempted to shoo a fly off of himself. While I finished out the trick riding season, I took a couple months to go to the doctor, go to therapy, and heal the damage that resulted from my head injuries.

I knew I always had a vision of how I wanted to run a trick riding team, and I wanted to share that vision with others. There are other Westernaires Alumni like me who are not ready to retire their trick riding days. In January of 2019, 5280 Trick & Fancy Riding Team, LLC was born. We started small with five riders, and performed just three times in 2019. Over the next two years, things grew exponentially! We now had eight riders and were performing consistently each weekend throughout the months of June to August. In late 2021, we rebranded as Shockwave Trick Riders, LLC. We continued to grow, and we are now a team of eighteen trick riders in 2025. They asked me to expand our horizons and include roman riding in our resume a couple years ago, and we also have eight roman riders. We perform over 20 times throughout the summer, traveling west to east to north to south in Colorado, and sometimes even out of state!

Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more?
I am so proud of how much my team has grown in the past six years, and all of these eighteen talented trick riders for being a part of it. My number one goal with my team has been to give trick riders a safe place to continue to practice their passion, and also to express themselves as trick riders with each having their own unique style. Each and every rider has a different personal upbringing, different personality traits, and different habits in life. Shockwave Trick Riders, LLC is where all of those different riders come together to share their common passion of trick riding.

Building a team of this caliper certainly has not been easy! Alongside managing the team, I also have a full-time job. When we are in the thick of rodeo season, I have become incredibly list based. Do we have the shirts, are the flags charged, are the horses clean, are the costumes packed, is the line-up ready, has the agenda gone out to everyone, and most importantly (for the riders) has the glitter been restocked? Forgetting any of these things, could be a catastophe!

I have learned so many lessons along the way. I have seen so many of my riders push themselves outside of their comfort zones, and its motivated me to work even harder in the arena myself. I also have been able to develop my management style over the course of these past several years. I thank my riders for being patient with me while I’ve grown into this role!

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Red Rocks is a big one! For food and drinks, Breadwinner’s Cafe in Arvada is beyond delicious. The Fort Restaurant in Morrison is just incredible for dinner! And, of course I would take them to the barn to visit my two horses, Quazar & Valkyrie.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
There are several!

The first being Westernaires, where myself and my entire team got our start in trick riding and our love of horses.
The second being my dad, who sacrificed so much to keep us in Westernaires, allowed us to have horses, and has supported me every step of the way.
The third being my wonderful husband who has taken this life all in stride, and is just as involved with the team as I am.
And the forth being our incredible sponsors- Mobile Veterinary Services, Ramos Law Firm, Applewood Heating, Plumbing, & Electric, Buckskin Beads, and Tonoffun Stable. We couldn’t do what we do without them.

Instagram: @shockwavetrickriders

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shockwavetrickriders/

Image Credits
David Kirstein

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