Our latest addition to the EN guest blogging team is starting at a tough time to be a guest blogger. Sharon was half way through writing her first guest blog post when news of the fire hit, which obviously changed things. It is a real pleasure to welcome Sharon, who is one of the nicest, toughest, and hardest working people in all of eventing to our team of summer guest bloggers. You can learn more about Sharon and her program at her website. Thanks for writing this Sharon and thank you for reading.
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Sharon and Rafferty’s Rules at The Fork
From Sharon:
Why do we event? Could there be a harder sport? In terms of labor intensiveness, hours spent training a horse, yourself, risk of injury to horse and rider, cost, the very small chance of the sun, moon and stars lining up at the appropriate time of your destination event, if you’ve evented at any level you know what I am speaking of. It can be described in no other way than a labor of love.
But when tragedy strikes, you know why you event. There is no better group of people to be with, to be associated with, than eventers. I ache for everyone who suffered in the fire at True Prospect. There are no words to make it better. Horrible things happen. It is a terrible, terrible tragedy. But these are the things I know from a distance…No people were killed. Lillian, Caitlin, and Ryan are all okay, and that is a true miracle and a blessing. Some horses were saved. Another miracle and blessing. And the thing I know about the horses that died, is that they had a great life.
I say this because I know the thousands of hours that go into the care of event horses, the attention to detail that goes into their daily care, the bond that we have with our horses that is unsurpassed in any other discipline. Event riders love their horses. As a fellow competitor, I truly enjoy watching Boyd and his crew and their horses eventing. The horses are always beautiful, well cared for, enjoying what they are doing.
But in the immortal words of Churchill, “Never, never, never give up.”
And this is what eventers do. We bond together, we support each other, we know how hard the sport is, and what it takes to get there. As terrible as this tragedy is, I bet it brings people closer together. I know at my lowest points, it has been the strength of the people around me that has completely overwhelmed me, and helped me pull through. All around the country people are helping, that is what eventing is about. Philip and Boyd are the best of the best, and they have raised the level of the sport in this country. To help them through this seems like a small way to give back to what they have given the sport.
In my neck of the woods- Northern Virginia/West Virginia, we are having a jumper show at Overlook Farm June 15
th all day (
overlookfarmequestriancenter.com), with all proceeds donated to the fire relief fund.
So come out and have a lemonade or a beer and salute our fellow eventers!
