STARTING OVER...

Afer a break of six years (!) from horse shows, which has included a new career, business school, marriage and four step-children, I have finally returned to my passion of horse showing. Like many, I tried to fill this interim time with other activities to patch the important spot that horses had always possessed. A full time career, intense school schedule and new found city life consumed all of my time. Two marathons, a new road bike and new mountain bike later, I fully recognized that the void created from a life without show horses could not be filled. The shining benefit from pursuing these extra curricular endeavours is that I have a new found discipline that has beene applied to various aspects of my life. During this period of growth, I kept telling myself that one of the main the reasons I was returning to school was to reach financial independence of my horse showing activities. In reality, this dream seemed to grow more distant the longer I stayed away from this once familiar world. I never seemed truly complete without horses in my life. Eventually, it all fell back into place with the encouragement of a couple of my close horse show friends and long-time trainer, Shawn Deal.

Today I have finally returned to the sport that has gripped me since childhood, only now I have an an amazing support group of friends and a new husband that strongly encourages me to pursue this activity. It took a long time to fully immerse myself back into the world, but eventually all of the stars and moons aligned and we finally made the decision to purchase a prospect that has the potential to take me to the majors. The ironic thing is that we searched across the country, and after we found "Shiek" last October in Canada, we realized he was bred in our own backyard by a friend of mine that I used to travel to shows with. I faintly remember him as a longe-liner! Life has evolved full circle and I find myself surrounded with an incredible group of people that welcomed me back as if I had never dissappeared. I am not sure what I am getting myself into, but after working so hard to get to this point and learning valuable lessons along the way, my mantra has been to strive for my goals by applying discipline, humility, compassion and integrity, while not forgetting to enjoy the journey along the way!