My name is Leslie Wylie, and I’m addicted to eventing. If you’re reading this, there’s a good chance you’re nursing a similar habit. I like to think of EN as an ongoing support meeting for people like you and I. I imagine us sitting around together in some giant church basement, drinking bad coffee and enabling one another.
It seems I’ve been handed the talking pillow, so here goes. Like a crack-baby, I’ve been hooked on horses for as long as I can remember. My eventing gateway drug was the 1993 Middle Tennessee Pony Club Horse Trials; I was 12 years old and mounted on a sadistic 4-year-old Arabian I’d “trained” all by myself. Hilarity ensued. Not to be deterred, I’ve persisted in my quest to conquer the sport of eventing ever since with wildly varying results–a few moments of glory, lots of trips to the emergency room. And I’m not going to lie: The pursuit has, more often than I’d like to admit, impaired my ability to function in the real world. So rather than quit eventing, about five years ago I decided to quit my day job (I was a newspaper editor). I’m now living large as an equestrian professional at Ridgemor Farm in Knoxville, TN, and the only thing I miss is my salary. Yeah, I miss that part a lot.
Like I said before, though, it takes one to know one, and you’ve clearly got it bad as well. One of the great things about EN is that it brings us all, with our many thousands of connections to the sport, together under one virtual roof. We don’t judge; we just listen, share and support. I’m honored that you’ve chosen me to help facilitate the discussion.
