story by Siri Stevens
Khloe and Lilly Jess are 9-year-old twins from Illinois. “We always dress different,” said Khloe, the youngest by two minutes.
Her sister agreed. “We don’t have the same interest in stuff like that,” said Lilly. They like being twins. “We try to trick Mom – but it hasn’t worked yet. And I like that we both love horses.”
The girls got on their first horse when they were three months old, and started riding when they were 11 months old. Riding was important to their dad, Leon Jess, who grew up in Arthur, Illinois, on an Amish draft horse farm. “We raised and trained draft horses. My dad was a farrier all his life, and that’s what I do now.” Leon went to his first rodeo when he was 12. “I worked with a lot of people that weren’t Amish and I knew there was a way bigger world that I wanted to experience.” When he was sixteen, he changed. “Amish are not allowed to compete in anything, and I was out of school at 13 working full time.” Leon rode bulls for two years. “I started breaking things, and finally quit,” he said. He concentrated on tie down roping after that. He met his wife, Katie, at a rodeo.
“I was 19 and he was all banged up from a team roping accident. It was love at first sight – we were inseparable,” she said. “He has taught all of us not to quit until the job is done, and he taught us some Amish language.” Leon does everything to get the girls ready to rodeo and stands there for hours and takes care of them.
Khloe and Lilly traveled with their dad to rodeos when they were young and decided a year ago that they wanted to compete. They went to their first winter series this past year and were determined to practice until they got it figured out. “One of the reasons that I liked to start doing it big, was because we watched rodeos and Fallon Taylor was in it,” said Lilly, who with the help of her grandmother, Ruth, wears clothes that are embellished with fringe, beads, and bling.
They both compete in goat untying, barrel racing, and pole bending, sharing horses. They are home schooled which gives them more time to practice. Lilly’s favorite subject is language because she loves to write. She loves being home schooled. “Mom gets to teach us instead of a stranger and I can talk about God whenever I want to.”
Khloe’s favorite subject is history. “I think it’s interesting how people lived a long time ago. I like that part of school and learning more about Jesus every day. And Mom knows we don’t want to be in school for too long, so we get off early and save the rest,” said Khloe, who wants to be a horse rescuer. “I don’t like it when people are mean to horses. I’m going to rescue them and Lilly will train them to do stuff and we are going to sell them to people.” She competes on her dad’s old tie down roping horse, Malachi.
Lilly is working on a horse now that she is hoping to become an all-around champion. “I got Levi when I was five and he was a rescue horse. I’m training Levi to do barrels, poles, and goat tying,” she said. Both girls also ride jumping horses, something they have been working on for a year and a half. When they aren’t on a horse, they like to tame their practice goats and calves and try to teach them tricks.
They both like where they live. “It’s really calm and quiet and all of our neighbors are nice. We see more buggies than cars.”
