Not to be cheesy, but I didn’t know what else to name this and my inspiration is solely based off this quote by Taylor Swift.

I get tired a lot, but I never get tired of it

I feel like this really encapsulates what it’s like to have a deep love for horses and the sport and know what it feels like to work for it, but no matter how tired you are or how bad of a horse show it was, you still aren’t tired of IT.

I enjoy grooming at horse shows. I find it not only satisfying, but rewarding to be there from am to pm, being the first and last person to clean my horses’ stall. I acknowledge that most people showing at the A circuit level have full time grooms that at least do stalls and horse care, but I genuinely enjoy that I do those things myself and for others when I’m not showing. There’s nothing wrong with having grooms AT ALL, this is just my personal journey. for me it’s a bigger picture and this is what works for us! We have a hell of a well oiled machine. That being said,

You are never too good to clean a stall.

You are never too good to carry (and inevitably spill) and dump then fill your own horses water.

You’re never too good to wash the sh** off their legs when they get an upset stomach at the horse show.

More than wanting to do these things for my own love of the horses, I do genuinely hope to set an example for kids with big dreams that want to work for it, whether they need to, or just want to pick up the slack and contribute to the heavy financial expense that horses are to an average family.

Even being able to go to a horse show is a huge ask of anyone financially responsible and this is something we forget. It’s easy to get caught up once this becomes the norm. Especially when we start comparing ourselves to others who seem to ‘have it all’… I promise, they have problems too.

Comparison is the thief of joy.

I too am guilty of constantly comparing myself to others. I am a grateful person, and well aware of how lucky I am. But sometimes that feeling creeps in, and you wonder how you’ll ever even compare to the others in your division with 3 horses that are probably worth the average suburban home. it’s hard, and it’s natural, but that doesn’t deter the feeling.

This is where you have to go back to the root of the love for horses.

Recall the days where you would die for the chance to jump 3 inches higher, or half lease your favorite school horse. When you wished you had your own saddle, and hoped it wasn’t being used when you arrived to have a lesson and then had to adjust your stirrup leathers, which never had numbers or weren’t even matching.

Sometimes you have to think back to the root. And realize that yes, working hard is tiring, but you are just tired. And not tired of it. That’s the beauty of our sport.