Enjoying the ride, While Still Being a Mom

By Leslie O’Neal Olsen

I have worn a lot of hats in my life.

Instructor, trainer, " R" dressage judge, Bronze- Silver medalist, competitor thru Grand Prix and Mother. Of all the hats I've worn in my life being a Mother has been the hardest for me. I was not prepared for Motherhood....Ladies that has to be the hardest job in the world!!! I tip my hat to each and every Mom out there.

Now days there are apps available to support and help all Mothers who feel overwhelmed trying to balance out work and being a Mom. When the boys were born, we had land lines there were no computers or cell phones. However, there were 15 to 20 horses that needed to be fed, 16 stalls to clean, repairing fence boards and busted water pipes was an everyday task. My boys literally grew up in a barn!

We all worked at Willowbrook including my late brother Terry. I also had the best working students who helped with all the chores including picking the boys up from Oak Mountain school and babysitting. We had horse shows or clinics on the weekends something was always going on at Willowbrook!

We played hard and we worked hard!

They rode 4 wheelers, had roping horses and were both on the High School Rodeo Team. They are both grown now; Drew has a farm in Roopville and trains horses while Christopher works and lives in Texas. He loves Texas... I wish he would move back home! I think they are both healthy and happy and that's about all a mother can ask for at the end of the day.

Looking back on the early days nothing was easy.... Drew was born in 1985 and he cried all night long until 1986. I don't know why but the only thing we could do was drive him around all night!

The next morning the horses needed feeding and my day started all over again teaching, riding and cleaning the barn.

It's a tough job and you can't do everything. My problem was I thought I could handle it all!! Even remember saying I will never make the same mistakes with my boys that my Mother made with me. How stupid and how funny!! My Mother did the best she could...we all do the best we can.

Happy Mother's Day everyone!!

Leslie

Enjoy Your Ride!