Horses

November 14, 2021 johnadmin Comments 0 Comment

Nothing in this universe brings more joy to my wife than a horse. If she can raise them, ride them, bet on them, judge them or just watch them, she’s as close to heaven as she’ll ever be here on earth.

I love taking her to the horse races. Since we’ve been married, I don’t think we ever went to the track that after admission, drinks & dinner we didn’t walk out with more cash than we went in with. Of course, you have to have your running shoes on to keep up. In order for her to pick winners, she has to first watch them in the paddock area out behind the race track. Then, as the horses head for their post, we rush to the betting window and then out to watch the race. This process continues till either I wear out or the last race has run.

Then there’s Rodeo. PBR, NFR, PRCA, IPRA, and I’m sure there’s more. In-person or on tv, streaming live or last year’s re-runs, she’s there (and by default, so am I) She takes me to Las Vegas every other year for the national rodeo finals. Days of shopping at Cowboy Christmas, viewing parties at various hotels each night, and of course, one night in the nose bleed section to see the rodeo live. My guess is that since she no longer has the quilt shop, it may turn into an annual travel adventure.

And of course, draft horse shows; hours & hours of draft horse shows. She judges every class and usually has them placed long before the official judge does, and by her estimation, correctly. Once, after voicing her disapproval in a judge’s rankings, I watched her explain to a questioning mom why her child didn’t deserve the first place they received. The mom still blindly disagreed.

This weekend we spent a few days at the Louisville livestock show. I brought her here for all the reasons I explained above. First, there were two days of draft horse shows. As we were watching that first day, we both laughed out loud as she shared about the judge “that if he keeps this up, I’ll get vocal”. Then there’s shopping, and when it comes to cowboy clothes & jewelry shopping, she’s pretty good at it. Finally, we attended round 2 of the Great Lakes Finals for the Profession Rodeo Cowboys Association. This is the end of the year rodeo for our area and a number of the contestants have qualified for the National Finals the first week of December, so it was quite an exciting evening.

So now you know what brings her joy, and it’s pretty simple, a horse. So what brings me joy? At this point in our journey together, there’s nothing better than watching her in her element. Whether she’s judging a wagon hitch, picking a winner, or cheering on a bronc rider; while she enjoys watching her show, I’ll enjoy watching mine.