Today, my #mondaymotivation with Equitas Equitas is dedicated to what I’m going to call “The Rise of the Equestriennes” or as one of my friends calls us “the galloping housewives” after the wonderful blog of the same name – you can follow it here The galloping housewife
Yesterday, at Marlton, a woman offered me her boots because I forgot my own. Well, I didn’t forget, worse – I grabbed two boots only to find upon arrival they didn’t match and were for the same leg!! So she offered me her boots and when I protested that she was about to go home she told me I could bring them to the next show. By boots, I mean her custom made mock crock patent Petries that I drool over in the warmup. As luck had it (because I would have been shaking in fear of damaging these divine boots) my pupil Georgia has the same size feet as me and was shoving me into hers so that I wouldn’t be late .
Lynn and Georgia had waited for me after her tests to help me up (literally).
In the warmup we met Sarah. Sarah Elebert Eventing – Equicoach Online Sarah my Equitas pal, Sarah who always has a smile for everyone, Sarah who catches your eye when your nervous and says “hey, that looked great”. I asked her when I realised I’d thought the wrong test was the first test. She helped me learn it. I helped her learn the second one. She offered to call my second for me. She checked my horse was active enough. I collected her sheets. To anyone looking up the entries we were competing in the same classes against each other but in reality it felt like we were on the same team.
Louise made Oisins day by stroking his face between taking photos as we watched Helen ride her test buoyed on by her daughters. Louise O’Brien Equestrian Photography doesn’t just take photos. She takes memories, she catches smiles. She captures the essence of rider and horse and gives it back to us so that we can remember how it feels to achieve, to elevate, to be at one with an animal and block out the rest of the world.
The competition ring often brings us together rather than dividing us. When we arrive we shed the labels that we have worn all week – mother / wife / daughter / girlfriend / carer/ career woman / stay at home mom / housewife and we embrace the equality of being competitor number 52 in class 7 on our halo horse.
We are the equestriennes.
We live for the weekends.
We voice note each other on the way to and from the show cheering each other on from different locations
We celebrate
We commiserate
We share victories and sympathies.
We understand the joy of a horse who stands and loads quietly as we are often our own groom and our own support team.
We catch each other’s eye in the warmup and we raise a smile or an eyebrow in a mutual respect.
We throw our hearts over fences and hope our horses follow.
We leave all our non horse worries at A as we head up the centreline.
We know we are not going to the Olympics but we aim for and smash our own goals.
We go to sleep after a Sunday adventure and re jump fences and re ride movements in our dreams.
We are the equestriennes
We don’t know how to be anything else 
Equestrian Reality 