09/10/2026
Well, hello there—and welcome to all the new faces! Since quite a few of you have recently found your way to this little corner of the internet, I suppose I should introduce myself. I’m Jenn Zeller: Oklahoma born, Texas raised, and somehow turned into The South Dakota Cowgirl.
I begged for a horse from the time I was four years old. When I finally got one, my dad gave me six weeks to get tired of feeding him—which may have been one of the larger miscalculations of his life. By the time I was a junior in high school, my family and I were going to roughly 75 rodeos a year, and horses have been rearranging my plans, emptying my bank account, humbling me, and shaping my life ever since.
I college rodeoed, earned a business degree, and briefly put on grown-up clothes to work in the investment world. That lasted until I finally admitted that horses were not a hobby I was going to outgrow. In 2007, I traded the business suit for boots and went back to riding and training full-time; in 2008, I moved to South Dakota and landed in the middle of the life I had always wanted.
The South Dakota Cowgirl began as a way to share ranch life through my camera lens. Along the way, I became a photographer, writer, marketer, chicken keeper, c**t starter, barrel racer, clinician, riding coach, and professional finder of jobs that apparently need doing. Most days, if I’m not riding a horse, I’m feeding one, photographing one, talking about one, teaching someone about one, or wondering what fresh and expensive idea one has come up with.
Some of you may know my alter ego, Outside the Turn. That is the horse-training and teaching side of my world, built around the belief that the horse is never wrong—and that better barrel horses are built through better horsemanship, not just more trips around three cans. I’ve trained horses for 30 years, won a few things, lost plenty of things, learned from all of it, and remain convinced that the horses are usually smarter than we are.
Around here you’ll find horses, ranch life, photography, barrel racing, grass-fed beef, blunt observations, too many dogs (according to my other half), questionable decisions, pretty sunsets, yoga mats, and probably the occasional glass of w**e. I’m glad you found me. Tell me where you’re following from—and whether you came for the horses, the ranch stories, the photographs, or the general chaos.
