Silver Dollar Circuit- The Daily Stride- Showing the Industry Some Love
Silver Dollar Circuit
The Daily Stride- 2/25/2019
There are many times when our horse show family pulls together to help in a pinch, whether that is as simple as borrowing a brush, holding your horse while you run to grab your number, or throwing your horses some hay. Today, we went hunting for some of these great stories of sportsmanship and found some selfless tales that show that the professionals in this industry really do have each others’ backs in a pinch.
Karen Graham got a helping hand from others in the industry when she had a scary incident occur last year on her way home from Vegas. She hit what the cops identified as an oily patch on the road during a rainstorm, and her trailer subsequently fishtailed, sending it into a guard rail and detaching it from the truck. Joe and Suzy Jeane and Scott Graham came to the rescue of her horses, taking care of everything as she was air-lifted away from the wreck. She woke up in the hospital, but her friends had been there to support the decisions that needed to be made on helping the injured horses and ensuring the rest were returned safely.
Leslie Lange avoided a similar fate with the help of the Wheelers. Just yesterday, Leslie says, “Justin Wheeler and his dad were kind enough to take the tire off my trailer and figure out why I have no breaks on my trailer. It’s so nice to have friends that can help fix you up so that you can roll on, mostly as a single woman in the industry.” Leslie will head on to Scottsdale after Vegas and back to Colorado after that, so safe travel is a constant must-have.
A couple of years ago, Dave Archer also had something go wrong with his truck one route to Arizona. He wasn’t left stranded as Alex Chavez lent David her truck to use for the duration of the trip and throughout the Arizona show. David recalls, “She didn’t charge me anything. She didn’t want anything out of it. She just wanted to help.”
Later on, David returned the favor to Liz and Will Knabenshue when he came across them broken down on the side of the road. “He turned around and made sure we were good to go, which was super nice of him,” Liz comments. Maybe it’s something big, like being there in scary times and during big incidents, or maybe it’s the smaller things, like when Carson Griggs found Will’s prized bit and returned it to him at the next horse show.
Little or big, what matters the most is the support we receive from each other. We may all be competitors; but, in the end, it’s the friendship that we make and the people we get to share our victories and losses with, our horse show family, that truly makes it all worthwhile.
