Horse trainer Jennifer Cunningham facing life’s challenges head-on

Jennifer Cunningham takes her joy from family, her passion from horses and her strength from her faith. But she takes her creed from a children’s film. "One simple motto I like to live by is from the movie ‘Nemo’ — ‘just keep swimming!’” Cunningham said. "I like to say that on tough days — just keep swimming — because that’s all any of us can do. Just keeping moving, just keep trying.” Cunningham has had her share of tough days. Between the births of 6-year-old Keaton and 6-month-old Falyn, Cunningham and husband Ty lost a set of twins and another baby. When Keaton was a toddler Jennifer Cunningham suffered a devastating leg injury while playing softball that required several surgeries. "That took me out for 21/2 years,” she said of the August 2004 injury and ensuing ordeal. "I wasn’t even walking normally again until the middle of 2006.” More than a bit inconvenient for the woman who with her husband supervises Oklahoma State University’s Spirit Riders team. They also are caretakers and trainers of Bullet, the American quarter horse gelding that charges onto the field at Boone Pickens Stadium with every Oklahoma State Cowboy touchdown...read more