Motherhood & Horses, by Jess Costa

Motherhood and horses. Where do you even start? At the beginning I suppose. First you find a stud prospect. Then…I’ll spare you the details and skip ahead. The foal, I mean baby is here. I don’t know about anyone else, but I had no clue what I was doing, and I still don’t and my filly is eight years old.

Horsewomen are a different breed, we’re independent and strong. We’ll hook up our trailer, load our horses and disappear for the weekend. Driving for hours running on nothing but caffeine and dreams.

It’s hard, like hard hard. Soon as I became a mother everything changed, now I had a dependent and found myself at my weakest.  Wanted to go to the barn to ride? Baby is sleeping, horse is tacked up and just as you swing your leg over…you hear it. Tears, not from you this time but those will come, don’t worry. You dismount and try again another time.

But I stop trying. My husband was great. Even after working a long day he would come and offer to relieve me so I could ride. But I just couldn’t find it in me to do it. I sold horses, some I regretted. My bald horse mare named Gracie I raised since she was a yearling was one of them. The baby blues were there or do we call it a cowgirl colic? Anyways, I wasn’t me anymore.

That’s when a bay mare enters stage left. But you’ll have to wait for that part of this story.

Does it get easier? No. New challenges come up everyday. But it’ll feel easier, you’ll adjust, you’ll adapt, you’ll find a way. Just like the leather saddle we ride in, you’ll bend but you won’t break. You’ll learn new tricks, new tools. You just like you grew as a horseman you’ll grow as a mom.

Don’t hang up that bridle just yet momma. Sit back and ride it out.