I have always loved horse shows, and I find them to be extremely exciting places to go. Part of it is the grace of the show jumping horses, but there is a lot more to it than that. Horse shows are a link to the past for me. You see, I grew up loving all things medieval. I would read folktales about knights and fair maidens, construct model castles, and even fire a toy catapult to my sister. Although horse shows have a more cowboy feel than a medieval one, there is something that is much older about them. The link between man and horse goes way back in European history. The same man in a cowboy hat jumping over an obstacle at a horse show would have been a knight in another place and time. That is why horse shows excite my imagination so much.
At one point, I was even thinking about buying show horses for sale. It was a pipe dream to be honest – I know nothing about the care and feeding of horses, but I have always wanted to own one. One time, I was so dismayed by the way some of the horses at the horse shows were treated that I wanted to take them off their owners hands. There is a lot of animal cruelty that goes on in horse training. Some owners are fair and just, but other ones are completely vicious. They don't just want to tame the horses, but to completely break their spirit. At horse shows, you see many people who operate under this philosophy. Although their horses rarely win, they often do well enough to encourage the others to continue to act cruelly.
Because of this, I have begun to volunteer at horse shows to watch over the welfare of horses. In recent years, many of the horse shows have adopted more stringent guidelines about how the horses need to be taken care of. Anyone found in violation of these rules can be kicked out of the Pennsylvania horse show Association – or so they tell me. Although some of the people at the horse shows view me with suspicion, other ones take a more friendly attitude towards me. They understand that shows horse are about love of and respect for horses. All the horse show ribbons in the world do not alleviate someone of the responsibility to care for his animals.
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