It's Not The Ribbon
I’m one of the lucky ones who got to grow up as a horse girl. I started taking lessons just before I turned 8 and bought my first horse when I was 12. This horse, Zoee, is my pride and joy. When I bought her, she was a 14 year old Arabian mare who foaled several times and had barrel racing training (read about barrel racing here ). Zoee and I worked very hard at turning her into a horse that could run barrels and do well in pleasure (slow) classes. A few years ago we were in a discipline rail class with over 30 other horses (read about discipline rail here ). Many of these horses were obviously show horses, not middle-aged-barrel-Arabian-turned-pleasure-horses. I rode in the first group of about 10 horses and Zoee was great. She listened to my commands without delay and was actually slow , in a good way! To my surprise, our performance stood out enough to make the cut and perform in the final group of horses. That class was one of the most nerve-wra...