Aston’s showing debut

I have no words.

 

That’s a lie. I have too many words.

But mostly, I have lots of feelings. How do you describe these feelings?

 

When a horse you have raised and trained yourself goes to his first horse show and places 5^th in his first class and 1^st in his second class, to applause from all the spectators.

 

 

When the In-Hand Trail class shows that you have improved in every area of your training, and your Freestyle performance to No Tengo Dinero makes the audience laugh when they hear the song’s title translated.

When you hug your horse in the middle of an arena that was all yours, and you truly forget all the tears, all the frustration and anger, all the stress, because you did something with your horse and he did so much better than you could have expected.

When you go camp at the showgrounds, and see the stains from the last time you used the tent – which was two years earlier when your horse was an infant and needed to eat every four hours.

When you are going through the familiar exhilarating phases of a horse show that you have missed so much – from braiding his mane to picking up your number to cleaning a stall to memorizing the course – only now you are doing it with your own horse.

 

When you hear your horse’s name and number called over the loudspeaker, and you have to shake your head to see if you are dreaming.

 

When your horse does everything you ask of him, every in-hand trail maneuver, every command, on the first try and with a perfect attitude, such that no one would guess that he was a stallion.

When you had such extreme doubts about how he would do, you just had to run the mantras “participation is perfection” and “we are doing this for experience” through your head and resign yourself to surviving… and your horse blew even your expectations out of the water.

When you’re holding your trophy and ribbons in your hands, thinking that while you have asked and gotten advice from over 20 different trainers and breeders, you have done all the work with the same hands that hold those prizes.

When you are overwhelmed with texts and congratulations from your friends from around the world who have been telling you all weekend that they are cheering for you and believe in you, even when you didn’t believe in yourself.

 

When you are having a quiet moment with your horse on the grass as a reward, and you remember the comments that have stung the most over the last two years:

 

She must not really have financial problems, if she can afford a horse.

 

Oh… he’s cute. His legs are bad though.

 

That horse looks awful… before you think about showing you should learn how to feed a horse.

 

Oh my gosh, you need to get a vet out. my horse is your horse’s age and look how much bigger, healthier, and fatter he looks.

 

Have you ever dewormed him before? Do you know anything about taking care of a young horse?

 

Well, he will be a nice horse to take on walks in the woods.

 

He still has so many unknowns in his future, and I have no idea where he will end up. He may still “only” be a trail horse (by the way, I would trust “only a trail horse” more than I would trust a banker with my family fortune). But if that’s the case, he’ll go to the woods with a first place ribbon on his bridle and the most proud and loving human mom on his back.

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