Always a Horse Crazy Girl

I won my bronze on Mother’s Day, three months after my mom passed away.

I always tell everyone that once a horse crazy girl, always a horse crazy girl. That was my mom. Horses were my mom’s passion until the day she passed away two years ago at age 77.

I started my riding in the womb. And then growing up, my mom would take us to the barn every day after she got off work, as well as on the weekends. Amazingly, two of my sisters, my mom and I managed to share two horses between us. When I moved to Florida in my early 20’s, I purchased my first horse and would call my mom for horse advice. This became our common bond throughout my life.

I was fortunate to marry a great horse-husband who encouraged me to buy a horse on his 50th birthday! He tries to tell people that I decided to buy myself a horse on his birthday but that wasn’t the case! So, after eighteen horseless years, I was back in the saddle.

About that time, we started our long tradition of going to the Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event in Lexington, KY with my mom. She would call me a week before tickets would go on sale just to remind me that I needed to get everyone organized to order the tickets. She had a special suitcase that she packed as soon as she arrived home from Rolex so it would be packed and ready to go for the next year. I think this year would have been our 20th year!

My mom lived in Pennsylvania so she rarely got to see me ride. Each year, for the last eight years, we would try to schedule a dressage show either the week before or after RK3DE and arrange her trip down to Atlanta so she could attend the show. At a minimum, I would take the week off and she would watch me take lessons every day with my trainer, Julie Cochran. I called it boot camp!

My mom loved to watch Julie ride my horse, Coraçáo de Leáo HM! She watched Julie train him up through the levels and loved to see how much Coraçáo had progressed in the year that had passed since her previous visit. My mom would have been so proud to have seen Julie compete him in his first Grand Prix test!

I miss calling my mom on my long drive back into downtown Atlanta from the barn to tell her about my lesson, or to call her after a show. I was so excited to call and tell my mom that I received a wild card invitation to the US Dressage Finals in the fall of 2016. She was so excited! She rode vicariously through my riding.

My mom wasn’t doing very well that January 2017 but I was able to travel to Pennsylvania and share the professional photos from the US Dressage Finals. She was so proud of how far we had come! Sadly, that February, my mom passed away.

A few months later, I rode my first Third Level tests and earned my Bronze rider medal…..on Mother’s Day.

I will forever be grateful for all of the sacrifices my mom made in those early years so that I could ride, for the encouragement, and the love of horses that we shared throughout her life.

Happy Mother’s Day, Mom!