Former nurse Kathi Jensen is riding high with East Tennessee horseback getaway.
Photos Courtesy of Kathi Jensen.
Just 9 years old at the time, Kathi Jensen was living in Guatemala in 1976 when she witnessed the devastation of the powerful earthquake that killed more than 30,000 people and destroyed countless homes. Three years later, when the Panama-born daughter of missionaries moved to the United States for the first time, she found herself unable to relate to the kids in her school.
“People were worried about whether they had the latest fashion,” she says. “They were talking about this movie or that song, and I didn’t know what they were talking about. But yet my best friend lived in a thatched-roof house with dirt floors.”
That international perspective has stayed with her all these years, even now as she and her husband run Hiwassee Acres, a beautiful 225-acre respite with a lodge, horseback riding and other outdoor adventures in Calhoun, Tennessee.
“I think you look at the world differently,” Jensen says of her global upbringing. “You’re very grateful for what you have. You just have a larger look at life because it’s not just the microcosm in which we live. You’re seeing it from a world view.”
The friendly, outgoing Jensen had always dreamed of owning a bed-and-breakfast, but the timing never seemed right. She and her spouse met in college and settled in Florida after teaching English in China for a year; he worked in hospital administration and healthcare consulting, she as a nurse, before the couple started their own home care franchise.
Nearing retirement age, they decided to relocate to East Tennessee to be near their grown children and started scouring the area for potential sites. But the type of place they wanted — a home with several acres — seemed out of reach.
In 2019, a friend told them about a former boarding school for troubled boys, about an hour north of Chattanooga. Neglected and on the market for five years, the sprawling complex included a dormitory, multiple houses and a huge school building. It still cost more than they could afford, but it was a steal, considering.
One day, Jensen’s husband, David, confided that he hadn’t been able to sleep since touring the property.
“Well, if you are literally being woken up at night, worried and thinking about this, let’s knock on that door and see what happens,” she told him. “That next week, we drove up [from Florida] and kind of crunched numbers, trying to figure out how in the world we could do this, and then we made an offer.”
The Jensens intended to rent out the houses, apartments and quadplex — 10 units altogether — and live on the land bordering the scenic Hiwassee River. Upon moving, they decided to go ahead and clean up the deteriorating, vandalized dormitory and, when one of their renters left at the start of the pandemic in early 2020, they advertised the house as an Airbnb.
“And then we did another one, and we saw that people were interested in coming out,” Jensen recalls. “We were like, ‘What in the world?’ But it was the perfect place for people to come out and just be.”
Hiwassee Acres now offers overnight stays with full breakfast, miles of hiking trails, water sports like kayaking and paddleboarding, disc golf, event space for weddings and corporate retreats, and plenty of chances to pet the goats, miniature donkey and other farm animals.
After the lodge was restored, the Jensens began recommending Ocoee Horseride, a ranch-based riding business owned by their new friend Knut Torpe, whose family had done the same thing in Norway. Early this year, Torpe began making plans to return to his native country. But who would take his 18 horses?
Jensen’s knowledge of equines was limited, and she certainly had no clue how to run an enterprise where visitors could saddle up. “David and I didn’t know anything about horses. I know it’s a beautiful creature, and we would love to have them on the property, but we knew that we couldn’t do it ourselves.” So they hired someone to handle the operation and continue Torpe’s popular horseback excursions.
“I told someone just the other day,” says Jensen, “‘If someone ever says you can’t teach an old dog new tricks, they need to come talk to me.’ I feel a thousand times more comfortable now than I did just even six weeks ago. I definitely feel like I know how to put on a saddle and ride and I am enjoying it. It’s been fun.”
During each outing, riders age 6 and up follow a one-hour loop along the river and the spring-fed creek. (Lodge guests who book two nights get one free ride.) The Jensens are currently waiting on a permit that will allow them to add full-day rides in the Cherokee and Chattahoochee national forests.
For Jensen, the greatest reward of realizing her hospitality dream after all these years is, hands down, interacting with visitors.
“We have met some amazing guests that have stayed with us, amazing people that have wonderful stories … That’s really been the best thing, and knowing that this place has been a blessing to so many people. We get comments all the time about how peaceful it is out here. We just are hoping that we can create a place where people feel at peace, and a respite from the crazy stress of life.”
She is grateful for a childhood that taught her how to relate to people of all backgrounds and appreciate their differences. “When you’re growing up and living in a place where you are the minority — I was taller than my third-grade teacher; I was the only Caucasian in the room — you are looking at things in a completely different way as far as judging, and expectations, and what you think of people. I think you become more open to understanding people and where they come from.”
Kathi Jensen’s Tips for First-Time Horse Riders
- “Hold tighter on the reins than you think. I was holding the reins way too far back, and you need to hold them close to the saddle horn.”
- “Be confident; you’re in charge.”
- “Have respect for the horse.”
The story above first appeared in our September / October 2025 issue.
