Taking Time Away from the Show Ring

Isn't life great when you are a youth and you go ride every day after school and hit up horse shows every other weekend and all you care about is that new showmanship outfit? Oh how I wish I could go back to the days when life was that simple. My parents provided such a wonderful youth show career for me; I got to travel the country, chase my dreams and have my life revolve 100% around horses. Next was college. I stayed in my hometown so I still showed, I still rode almost every day and I competed as a college equestrian. My life was a bit more busy and diverse; now I had to worry more about classes, a part time job and working towards Law School but horses and horse shows still mostly drove my life. 

Then came 2016. I graduated college, married to the love of my life, we bought a house, we moved an hour away from home and I started Law School. I was able to compete in one horse show in May before life just got too busy. This is the longest I have gone in my entire life without competing in a horse show. This is also the least regular riding I have ever done. It is a strange time in my life where goals and focus has completely changed from horses all the time to making sure I keep my head above water in Law School, dealing with the upkeep of a home and loving every minute of newlywed life. Charlie is spending his says of semi-retirement turned out and my dad rides him as a demo horse for teaching. Ella is at home pregnant with her first baby and enjoying the broodmare life. We sold the 2 and 3 year olds and several of my show clothes. The trailer is frozen in time waiting for another adventure.... whenever that may be. 

I am not going to lie; I love where my life is right now. Things are going great and I am truly happy. I knew this was coming all along; I knew that when I got married and started Law School, horses would move to the backburner. It was not a surprise and I was honestly looking forward to a bit of a break. But then reality starts to hit.... the stall reservations for my favorite show were due last week and it broke my heart to not be sending them in. Knowing that I will not be eating candy and showing my horse the last weekend in October at Fall Color Classic is really sad. Seeing all of my friends pictures from shows throughout the summer while sitting at home surrounded by casebooks makes me very homesick for a weekend spent in my horse trailer, eating junk food and getting no sleep all to get the thrill of being in that show arena with my best friend. 

I miss horses as the center of my life more than I thought I would. Only getting to ride Charlie every other weekend is rough. So many days I get done with school and all I want to do is go see my pony but he is an hour away and I have 100 pages to read that night. Seeing my facebook memories of heading off to another horse show almost every Friday makes me sad as I prepare for another weekend of learning the Law and trying to make sense of a new city. I would give anything to be loading up the trailer and heading off to a fairgrounds in the middle of nowhere right now. 

As much as I miss my old lifestyle, one thing keeps me going: when I finish Law School, horses and horse shows will still be there waiting for me. My English boots will still zip, Charlie can be tuned up and ready to show in no time, Ella can shed the baby weight and be back to loping like a boss and I know my horse show family will welcome me back with open arms. This is a part of me that I can always return to, no matter what else happens in the between now and then. Law School will come and go, we may move and we may have kids.... and no matter what I can always get back to the show ring. 

Time away is sad and hard and I miss being at horse shows more than I ever thought I would. Thankfully I still have Charlie and can ride when I fee the urge and have the time. I have not had to remove horses fully from my life and I am so thankful for that. But when I get back to a show for the first time in a long while, I know it will be all the sweeter for my time away. That first showmanship pattern will feel so good; it will be so worth the wait. Zipping up those black pig suede chaps will make me smile for the first time maybe ever. I will appreciate the opportunity to show horses just that much more and will enjoy the shows more for having spent some time away. I will hug my friends I have not seen in a while, triple check my patterns, polish the long unused show saddle and probably have some serious butterflies when I enter the ring that first time back.... but once I am there, I will be back on my stage, doing what I love with the most amazing animals as if no time has passed and that will be a moment worth waiting for. 

Social Media and the Horse Industry: Why the cruelty???

You see it all the time on social media: people bashing western pleasure horses, people bashing people who trail ride instead of showing, Hunter Jumpers sticking up their noses at the western "cowboys" and twitter personalities who gain followers from making fun of random people they may not even know. This is cyber bullying. I get so sick of looking at it day in and day out on social media. Since when did the horse industry become a place of cruelty and cutting absolutely everyone who is a touch different from yourself down from the safety and anonymity of a computer screen?

On the subject of the crazy western pleasure debates all I have to say is everyone has their own opinions and preferences. Just because you do not agree does not give you the right to cut them down and call it cruelty or call the horses "crippled" when they are just doing what they are bred to naturally do. I personally love a good western pleasure horse like no other; however, I want them forward with a natural, level headset and not overcanted; I want them to look like they were born doing this and want to do it. I have a mare that can lope all day long just as slow and simple as could be; it is natural to her and that is a thing of beauty. What bugs me to see the horses SO shut down, TOO low in the neck and loping at a 90 degree angle down the rail and winning that way. I ask that judges take a closer look at the rulebook, what standards the associations have laid out and reward the horses and riders that are riding to that standard. I applaud Jaime Dowdy and Its A Southern Thing for taking a stand at the AQHA World Show and riding off the rail, forward and looking like a rockstar; thank you for taking steps to improve that part of our industry.

On the subject of hating those who ride a different style than yourself; who flipping cares???? We all love the same glorious, four-legged animal that I believe is a gift from God himself. Whether they trail ride, jump, do western pleasure or just stand in a pasture looking pretty, they are all horses and we are all horse lovers. I personally have ridden paints my whole life but find it very fun to get on a Hunter Jumper or Dressage horse every once in a while just for a change of pace. Horses are horses and I find each and every one of them beautiful and magical because I just love horses. Respect everyone no matter what discipline or style because it is their choice and what they enjoy and there is nothing wrong with that.

On the belief that AQHA horses are far superior to APHA horses I have one statement: APHA horses are cropout AQHA horses that were born with too much white. When they could not be shown AQHA, they formed their own association for the cropout horses with too much white, APHA. Therefore paints=quarter horses from the basis and the lineage. They are the same horses, just different hair and skin patterns.

My last and biggest pet peeve is the Equine Twitter "anons" and all others who hide behind a keyboard and bash people for fun without knowing them. As for the twitter accounts, these are young, generally high school/college age girls who make an Equine twitter account anonymously and use it as a platform to air their views, make fun of people and their horses and spew opinions that can often be hurtful to others. As a victim of this very intense form of bullying, I find it disgraceful and disgusting. I had people hiding behind a keyboard telling me that because I chose to leave my geldings mane long and be different I should go "jump off a cliff" to quote their exact verbiage in a tweet (and this was tweeted by someone I considered a friend until that point). What is the purpose of this??? What good is this doing other than building up some pathetic people's self-esteem??? I just don't understand the need to sit around and bash people just for some laughs. Something else I saw regularly was taking pictures off peoples social media account without permission and posting them around and making fun of any number of things: outfits that weren't deemed stylish enough, Equitation that wasn't perfect, a horse that was still a bit furry.... what if those kids could only afford that out of date outfit and had paid for it with their own hard earned money and were proud as punch? Why tear that down? What if that girl has a leg injury that prevents her heels from going any lower but she loves to show the class regardless? What if that is an older gelding with Cushings that is teaching someone the ropes and hasn't been body clipped yet? What is so wrong with all of these scenarios that gives you the right to tear these people down? The answer is nothing. All it does is hurt innocent people's feelings and drive people away from the horse industry. (I will say that not all can be judged by the actions of a few and not everyone on twitter is a part of what I described and many are perfectly nice and build people up instead of tearing them down. Sadly in my experience these lovely people were the minority.)

I will get down off my soapbox now. I just can't stand to sit here and watch social media be used as a vehicle for cruelty and cyber bullying inside this relatively close-knit horse industry. We are all bound together by one common bond: a love for all things equine. We can either join together and be a big family who supports and respects one another; as most of my equine "family" and friends are. This is the situation where social media is used as a tool to keep in touch with friends from other states, share photos and stories about our precious ponies, to sell horses and tack, exchange ideas, educate and keep up with all the news; in that form, social media is amazing and a wonderful addition to the horse industry. I much prefer this use of social media to the unnecessary bashing cruelty that happens all too often. All I have to ask those pathetic people is why? What good is this doing? What is the purpose? All this does is make you feel bigger and better than others and that is not good enough reason to cut people down through a computer. It does NO GOOD. Instead of sitting around on a computer bashing people and talking big; get your booty out to the barn and put in some blood, sweat and tears so that your showing and riding does the talking and you won't have to hide behind a computer screen and cut other people down to make yourself feel cooler and better. If you do your homework and leave it all out in the arena, chances are your results will make you feel so good that you won't need to bash others in order to make yourself feel cool.

Let's remember that we are all together for a common reason and that is we love horses.... is it too much to ask to treat each other with respect and common courtesy over the internet and not purposefully harm each other?

If you agree with my message and want to help spread this positive movement please share this post on social media and use the tag: 

Prepping for Show Season

The days are getting longer, the horses are shedding and I am starting to pencil shows in on my calendar.... horse show season is coming right up! Prepping for horse show season is never an easy task and is one that can be overwhelming at times but I enjoy it nonetheless. It means another year of showing the most beautiful animals on earth with my extended horse show family and doing what I love. Here is my list (in no particular order) to help me prep for another great year of showing.

·         Wash your fake tales,

·         Clean your tack

·         Oil your tack

·         Iron and prepare show clothes and make sure they still fit

·         Clean the horse trailer

·         Wash sheets and sleazy’s and make sure they fit the horses and do not need repairs

·         Make sure you have all your health papers ready for the first show and horse is up to date on shots, worming, Coggins

·         Renew association memberships and review any rule changes

·         Make sure your grooming and bathing products are no longer outdated and possibly invest in some new ones including my favorite, EquiFUSE

·         Pack ringside bag with all the necessities

·         Clip the horses and start washing stains out of the white ones

·         Trim mane and tail and pull the mane if needed

·         If you've bought new tack or new horse make sure everything fits correctly and safely

·         If you have a young horse make sure that they are accepting and quiet in the new show tack, chaps and fake tails

·         If they've never been hauled also make sure that they load and stand on the trailer quietly and unload safely

·          Make sure they're accepting of whatever you choose to ship them in including shipping boots, shipping halters, soft ride boots or standing wraps

·         Get in one last Farrier appointment

·         Possibly consider injections a chiropractor or a glucosamine joint shot

·         Make sure you know what you're taking as water bucket, hay, grain, supplements, etc. Smartpaks are a great option for show season hauling and my supplement provider of choice

·         If you're anything like me you'll tend to over pack so make sure that you're not taking a lot of unnecessary things but also be prepared for surprises

·         Make a horse  first-aid kit so that you have options if an accident occurs

·         Also make sure that you have other necessities if an accident does occur including automobile and trailer repair items

·         Stock up on the little things like electrical tape, zip ties and duct tape in large supply

There you go! My list of things to remember when prepping for a new show season. 

Any things you would add? What helps you get ready for a new show season?