Blog Hop: Horse Staff

These blog hops are really starting to grow on me!

From vets to farriers to instructors to the people who support you at home, it really takes a village to make this whole riding thing work.  So in honor of all the people who have kindled our love of horses... share the best story you've got about:

An instructor:
A barn manager:
An "unofficial" member of your equine staff:
A farrier (added by L. Williams)

And for a special bonus prize of 1000 unicorn sparkles, just keep adding people to the list so that we have the whole picture of what a horse staff looks like by the end of the hop.

An instructor: My current instructor is amazing, but because of that, I have few hilarious stories about her.  Instead, I'm going to talk about my first instructor who was a little more rough around the edges.  I'll never forget reading one of those horse magazines for kids when I was younger that had a checklist about whether or not you had a good instructor and being unable to check any of the boxes.  I make him sound like he was a bad person, when in fact, he really helped to kindle my love of horses.  He was easygoing, and if not 100% safe, at least helped encourage confidence around horses.  We went to horse camp there, mucked stalls, played around on horses whichever way we liked, and had a blast doing it.  It was exactly what I needed starting out riding.  My best story about him was the first time I learned to "jump".  I rode this old cantankerous paint named Casper who was the slowest creature on the planet.  I have no idea why my instructor wanted us to jump because we were all riding Western, and there wasn't even an English saddle in the barn.  He had never taught me anything about two-point, diagonals, distances, poles, whatever.  I remember that I trotted (or cantered, who knows) into the jump, the horse barely lifted his feet over the tiny rail, he landed, slammed on the breaks immediately afterwards, and I fell to the ground.  From what I understand, this was the most hilarious thing to watch on the planet because apparently Casper had come to a full stop before I slid off his back onto the ground.  The last thing I remember is looking down the arena towards where my instructor was literally doubled-over in laughter trying to come over to me to see if I was ok.  These were the types of first experiences I had with horses and instructors, but god bless him, he was fun!  I didn't actually jump a horse again for 15 years though.

A barn manager: At all the barns I've been at in the past, the barn owner was always the barn manager, and I never even knew people used this term until I started reading people's blogs.  At the current barn I'm at, my barn manager is also my trainer who happens to be the barn owner's daughter.  I know, I know.  I feel like I should have a diagram for these people.  My barn manager is a lot like most of the horse people I seem to attract to myself: hard-working, foolhardy and pretty rough around the edges.  She is currently pregnant and not allowed to ride, but she has still been known to get on the odd misbehaving horse from time to time.  I see her lead in four horses at a time, trying to fit them all through the barn door and down the aisle,  her belly leading the way, and needless to say, I both admire her determination and shake my head at her craziness.  My barn owner told me a story last night that apparently when she went into labour with her first daughter, she finished all the barn chores first (we have 30 horses and it takes probably 4 hours to do everything) before she went to the hospital.  She then only took a week off from work before coming back to the barn. I will tell you now that when I'm pregnant, I will probably become a couch potato for 9 months.

An "unofficial" member of your equine staff: My mom is my "unofficial" member of my equine staff as well as an important part of my life.  My parents don't really know much about horses, and everything  my mother has learned, she has learned from listening to my detailed rants every night or from reading this blog.  She makes such an effort to pay attention to me and goes out of her comfort zone to buy Walker things he needs (and doesn't need!) even though it can be quite overwhelming for a non-horse person to try and navigate their way through a tack shop.  My favorite story about my mother and Walker was at one of the last horse shows where I asked her to hold him for me while I went to talk to someone.  When I turned around, Walker had taken complete advantage of her and had led her all the way down the hill towards a gigantic patch of grass for him to graze, and I could hear my mother saying, "Stop, Walker!  Stop, Walker!" as he continued to pull her onwards.  Incidentally, that was also the show where my father met Walker for the first time.  Walker, in following tradition about misbehaving while people are watching, decided to bolt during warmup and buck the entire way down the rail while my cowboy hat (yes, cowboy hat, not helmet!) went flying back into the wind like a rodeo cowboy.  Then, to make matters more hilarious, H who is in my lesson and has never met my father before happened to be sitting behind him, not knowing who he was, and when my father gasped, she said, "Oh, don't worry.  He does that all the time!"  And yet, my parents remain supportive to this day!

A farrier: I haven't really had many dealings with my farrier, although he does a wonderful job on Walker's feet.  My barn owner always holds Walker for me, and apparently Walker is a doll about it so I have no real crazy stories on that front.

Added: A barn friend: I have a horse friend, A, who I'm very close to but unfortunately, she is in a different city in a different province at a different barn!  At my barn, I am the only adult who owns a horse, and there are only about 2 other adults who take lessons.  This means that I have become wildly attached to teenagers who have become my barn friends instead.  In particular, D is 14 years old, but I often forget how young she is.  She has been riding since she was 3 years old and is an amazing rider.  Her horse, Starr, is also one of Walker's girlfriends, so I particularly love riding with them because then Walker and I both have a friend!  The nice thing about riding with kids is that they remind you to have fun.  They are constantly doing crazy things at the barn, and I just get caught up in their enthusiasm.  One day, they all decided to ride sidesaddle (and no, we don't have proper sidesaddles at our barn...).  Another day, they were doing tricks on their horses (including standing up in the saddle, which just stressed me out), and their devotion to their horses always remind me what it was like to simply be a horse-crazed little girl.  D is also the person at the barn who seems to have the most faith in me.  Frankly, she thinks I'm a much better rider than I am, but it's nice to have someone believe in you like that!  I think a barn is definitely worth the community of people it creates.