It’s kind of hard to hide who I am (not that I’d want to!)
Holly Clanahan
OK, so the headline may be a bit misleading. A clothes horse, in the conventional definition of the phrase, I am not. An embarassingly high percentage of my wardrobe could be politely described as “barn chic.” But even the dressier articles of clothing have a certain je na sais equi – usually embellished with a horse-pendant necklace or a horseshoe-nail ring.
The casual clothing, well, it’s not nearly so subtle. AQHA-logoed apparel (Hey, I like it; what can I say?) is pretty darned plentiful in my closet, and I’ve been teased about being a walking billboard for the Association. (There are worse things to advertise, right?)
But what’s interesting is the comments it generates from total strangers – both horse people who recognize a kindred soul and non-horse people who have – or wish they had – a connection with our magnificent animal.
Just yesterday, I was asked, “Are you a cowgirl?” I grinned, since that’s not how I’d normally describe myself. A dressage saddle and tall boots are actually my preferred accoutrements, but to most people, that’s splitting hairs. Horse girls are cowgirls. “Yeah, I guess so,” I answered, still smiling. My new friend went on to tell me about his past as a custom bootmaker and then later as a boot store owner in western Oklahoma. We’d made a connection.
Another query came yesterday: “Are you into horses?” That one was an easy answer: “Yep!” She went on to talk about going to the National Finals Rodeo as a child when it was held in Oklahoma City. My parents had taken me there, too, so we had a shared experience, and we commiserated about the rodeo’s move to Las Vegas, out of our reach, in 1985. She had tales, too, of seeing Roy Rogers and Dale Evans perform with their horses, Trigger and Buttermilk. She wasn’t a horse person, but she felt the same pull I do.
There have been countless other conversations started by a horse shirt here, a belt buckle there, but those two were of special importance. They occurred in my dad’s hospital room, a place normally populated by competent-but-impersonal medical professionals. Horses had broken down the barriers and given both me and my dad a much-missed taste of home.
The former boot-store owner went on to talk about growing up on his family’s farm, where he had to clean out hog pens with a Bobcat, instead of the hands-off methods that are used on big hog farms now. My dad, who grew up in the Depression era caring for his family’s livestock, chuckled. “The only difference between you and me,” he said, “is that I didn’t have a Bobcat.”
Today, I’m wearing a long-sleeved T-shirt from the AQHA World Show. We’ll see what dialogues that opens up …
Happy riding!
Holly Clanahan
Editor, America’s Horse magazine
Don’t miss the fun, educational and heart-warming stories in the print version of America’s Horse! It goes to all members of the American Quarter Horse Association, and it’ll also keep you in the loop on Association news. We want you to belong!
