Amateur Profile- Barbara Gonzalez
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By Erica Greathouse
When Barbara and Tom Gonzalez married and began to raise their kids, the thought of being a horse show family was never on their radar. “We weren’t raised around horses and didn’t know anything about horse shows,” explains Barbara. Barbara and Tom with their three daughters, Meagan, Molly, and Melissa, enjoyed taking family vacations to various parts of Colorado and New Mexico. On their vacations, riding horses was one of their favorite family activities, and they discovered their love for horses together. “One memory that stands out is when we were on vacation in Colorado and our youngest daughter, Melissa, instantly fell in love with riding when she took a ride on a pony named Pete. She was three at the time and was smiling from ear to ear. After that ride, she never stopped talking about horses and has been horse crazy ever since,” Barbara says.
It wasn’t long after her first ride that Melissa traded her dolls for Breyer Horses and began pushing her parents to take her for riding lessons. “I tried to figure out how to get our family started riding horses at home, but I didn’t know the first thing about where to start,” Barbara laughs. A self-proclaimed animal lover, Barbara knew that integrating time with horses into the family schedule would be beneficial for everyone. That belief drove her to continue to search until she finally found a local stable where the girls could take riding lessons.
All three girls enrolled in lessons; but ultimately, Molly and Melissa realized that riding horses was their true passion, whereas their oldest daughter, Meagan, preferred ballet. The girls started off riding English; however, Melissa eventually decided to switch to riding Western while Molly stuck with English. The girls progressed from riding lessons and eventually tried the local show scene. Once they outgrew showing at local shows, they expressed a desire to progress and started learning more about the AQHA show circuit. “We worked with a lot of talented trainers. We showed with Brad Jewett, Sharon Wellman, Bruce and Cindy Walquist, and hauled our own horses to shows all over the nation,” Barbara explains. The family boarded their show horses at a facility near their home and hauled to their trainers’ facilities for lessons. Having the horses at home allowed the girls to spend more time with them and learn about all that goes into proper care. “The girls were responsible for caring for their horses. I would pick them up from school, and we would go home, get a snack, change into riding clothes, and head out to the barn,” she says.
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