1) You become a hoarder. Because gradually, bit by bit (no pun intended), your spare room becomes a storage space for bridles, saddles rugs, boots, show gear, normal gear, yard clothes, lesson clothes, spare saddlecloths and various other pieces of horsey equipment. It never gets thrown out or sold because you “might need it” sometime in the future, so its best just to hang on to it.
2) Straw in your hair is not unusual or problematic. It fits in with the current boho chic trend, right?
3) You find yourself clucking at slow walkers in the streets. And you only just stop yourself from tapping them gently, followed by a huge kick if they don’t immediately respond by walking faster.
4) “Eau de Horse” becomes an acceptable scent. All horse people are familiar with the scent of sweat and horse hair intermingled with grass and damp.
5) You’ve slipped up and told your overweight uncle that he should think about ‘changing his feed.’ You know, to keep the weight off. Hard feed does cause problems, and sometimes a bit of strict monitoring of food intake is necessary.
6) All expenses are now thought of relative to horses. That night out is at least a week’s livery, that holiday you’re booking could almost buy you another project pony and the winter coat you so desperately need is always weighed up against the lovely Pikeur breeches you saw on sale last week.
7) Assertiveness is now second nature. No more “wallflower” after the horses make their way into your life. If you can get an animal weighing half a ton to do what you want, even when it clearly has other ideas about what it should be doing at that precise moment, you can definitely stand up to that pushy colleague.
8) Holidays take on a new meaning. What’s a holiday without a trip to an FEI World Cup? A polo adventure in Argentina, a stay at a ranch in Colorado, or a dressage lesson on a Lusitano stallion in Portugal? If there isn’t some kind of equine drawcard, you’re not interested.
