Exciting

The most frustrating thing about my job is that not everyone understands it. Some people look at what I do and say "You're nuts" ... some people think it's cool, others think it's amazing and some don't think anything of it. I love my job and thus I love to talk about my job and the horses that I train. This my friends, is a very hard thing to do. Some days I get so excited about some thing one of my horses did - and I'll tell someone and they will be like "ok" ... AH!!! It drives me nuts... they don't understand why I'm so excited. A horse is a horse to them and horses do what horses do ... big deal? No, really - to me it is a big deal. I don't have a lot of people to talk horses with, I have a few but not very many. So I try to talk horses with non-horse people and it doesn't go over so well. They don't share my enthusiasm when it comes to horses. The only time I can get a spark out of people is when I fall off. "it's all fun and games until some one gets hurt... then it's a blast" Why though? Why can't it be a blast without me hitting the ground? I think it is a blast. Today is an excellent example - I came home so excited about this new horse that I have in training. The horses name is Shamrock and she is absolutely beautiful. I can see this horse going far and I'm excited about the prospect of it. Needless to say when I tried to express this to my family - the response was dull. Here I am about to explode with excitement and they are more concerned about my little sister falling off. OK, so maybe the fall off was more exciting but she didn't get hurt so really it wasn't that big of a deal. When I get married it will have to be to someone who shares my excitement in horses. I can't wait to go to school where everyone is all about horses. I will not be excited alone. It will be me and 70 other girls being excited about horses. And that my friends, is how it should be. I love the sport, I love the animal - and it excites me to be involved with it. It excites me to be able to teach a horse to be ridden and to do things. When you start out with a horse who only knows how to be a horse and you turn it into an animal that you can ride and jump - that's exciting. You start out with nothing and you end up with something - the end result to you may be 'just another horse' but to me it's like WOW!!!! It's great... it's a wonderful feeling... it's exciting. I know, I know - you probably don't get excited when you see a horse jump a 5'ft jump... but I do!! You probably don't get excited when you hear the sounds of hooves... but I do. My sport.. my job - is exciting to me. I know you probably don't understand how the heck a horse being ridden around the ring is exciting... but trust me it is. Now I didn't say that it's impressive because I've seen horses being ridden around that aren't impressive or anywhere near it. But what I'm saying is a horse undersaddle with it's rider - working as a team together - in rhythm with each other... THAT is exciting. Going to a show to show off your horse is exciting... going out to the barn on an everyday basis ... that is exciting. Being with your horse, riding off into the sunset - that is exciting. Getting bucked off every now and then - that is exciting. From chasing the fox, to running the Kentucky Derby, to going on a trail ride, to riding the Rolex, to loping around a show ring - it's exciting. Horses are exciting. Being with them... You just don't understand - because to you "a horse is a horse". To some of you horses are smelly, or maybe they are intimidating, or maybe they are just nice to look at, or maybe they are just horses and not anything to you - but to me ... they are exciting. From the saddlebreds, to quarter horses and everything in between... they're exciting. Never a dull moment. Ask any equestrian.