Show jumping

I grew up on a hog farm. I loved hearing the oinks, watching their tails wag and petting their floppy ears. My sister and I would frequently try to name all of the hogs in the barn. As much as I loved pigs, I loved horses too.

I thought horses were so pretty and I wanted one. I was mad when I found out that long before I was born there was a horse on our farm. My older brother and sisters remember the horse. His name was Gray and they said he was mean. I would always get mad that they got to have a horse and I didn't. The closest I ever got to a horse was at the county fair, my huge collection of horse toys and watching show jumping on TV.

There wouldn't be too much to watch on TV on Saturday afternoons. We didn't have cable or satellite and our TV only had about 8-10 channels. My brothers, sisters and I would end up watching equestrian show jumping on CBC. I loved watching the horses jumping over the barriers. I thought it would be fun to do. When playing with my toy horses, I would have them jumping over something.

My toy horse collection over the years has gotten smaller, but my love of horses hasn't. I have four toys horses on my desk at home. My husband and I have decorative horse figurines and horse wall art adoring our home. And lastly as a 33 year old, I have stuffed toy horse named Clip Clop. Clip Clop travels with me on long road trips.

When I was watching the Olympics last week, I was so excited to see that show jumping was being broadcasted. I forgot that equestrian was even an Olympic sport. I was so happy to see it again on TV. It made me remember how much I loved watching it when I was younger.

I did a search of local stables while poking around on the Internet. I found two close locations that host show jumping events. I will be driving about 30 minutes up the road to watch a show jumping event this weekend. I'm so thrilled that I will be watching in person and taking photographs. It should be a fun time.

Photo Credit: Richard Fellers, of the United States, rides his horse Flexible during the equestrian individual show jumping competition at the 2012 Summer Olympics, August 8, in London. (Associated Press/David Goldman)