it all started with Horses.

For a lot of people I know, before there were dogs in their lives, they were addicted to horses. I was one of them.

My dad got me into horses, I started by riding western, I did lots of Gymkanas, started Barrel Racing and Western Pleasure classes. I was the Urban Cowgirl, I'll have to find some pics of me in Wranglers and a Cowboy Hat!!!

Then I had a friend I met in High School and we had similar interests in Horses, but she rode english. I went to the barn with her one night, and that was that. I got to try out the english saddle and I loved how much bigger the horses were, and this stable was impressive to me. So my mom signed me up for Pony Club, and so began the days of Show Jumping and Equitation. I was always so lucky to have people let me use their horses. We had School horses at our stable, but they were never yours, you came you rode and left. My first horse was Shane, a beautiful, 2 year Old, Black, Morgan, who was immature, but smart and pushy (sound like anyone you know), a young family had him and needed someone to take the challenge and spend some extra time with him, that was me! I'm not sure why they picked me to ride him, but I always felt honoured. In my first year of Pony Club, I got the "Most Improved Rider" Award, mostly because I was riding Shane, the young full of him self horse, but still managed to also beat the other more experienced riders and Horses to get the "Excellence Award" that year.

Funny that this is the first time I am writing about this, but I can now see why and how I am now with the dogs, is a direct result of my early horse years, I always like a challenge, interesting.

Blogging is therapy!

So Shane's family moved to Alberta, and I was horse-less. Until a nice girl who was in University saw me riding and saw how much I loved it, and knew that my mom wasn't in the position to be able to buy a horse let alone afford the $400 month stall. Most of the girls out there had horses that were 20K +, and some had more than one, and I won't even go into the cars some drove.

Enter, BJ, a 16.3 Chestnut Thoroughbred, who was never a racehorse - his big days as a Grand Prix Jumper were over and now was coming into a retirement, he was 15 at the time. So since I did Hunter (lower Jumps, based on form of the rider and horse, not speed) he was perfect!!!! It was like owning my own horse!! I also worked at the Stable to pay for my lessons, and my mom only had to pay half of the stall fee as our cost to let me ride him. I got full use of all of his gear and him. We did Pony Club together and local shows, clinics, schooling Shows and Pony Club. I also got into teaching Pony Club to the first year kids, and I taught riding camp too in the summer. Its interesting the things you can do when someone gives you an opportunity and you take it and appreciate it. We had some really nice wins, and unlike dog sports, we actually would win money which sometimes covered my fees, or some of my coaching fees which I had to pay each show!!!! I found out through a friend that BJ went to the big corral in the sky last year, he was in his late 20s. I still miss him to this day.

So that is my horse rant and a little insight to why and how I am like I am today, funny I've never thought that deep into it until now!