PHOTO: After a great week at The National Western Stock Show, Julie Hanson and her daughter take a picture with their champion ribbons from the week.

By TPH Intern Mackenzie Shuman

You did it, you won that big class you’ve always been dreaming about. But did you think about the other dreamer in the situation? Did you take a second to stop and hug the one person who has been with you the entire time to get you to this goal? Did you stop to smile at your mom, who is diligently sitting in the stands or waiting by the ingate?

Horse show moms are legendary creatures. They do it all, from cleaning tack to cheering you on to simply just being a shoulder to cry on. Show moms, no matter where you are, are there not only financially (thank goodness) but also emotionally.

“It’s worse to be a spectator than it is to be a rider, sometimes I would rather do a Grand Prix than watch my daughter {Devon} do an equitation class,” said Debbie Weigers, a horse show mom from Evergreen, Colorado. Mrs. Weigers is different than a lot of show moms in the fact that she also rides and competes, so she knows the ropes when it comes to showing. However, “I still get nervous whenever she goes in. I’m not in control of the situation so it’s just hard not to get nervous, really,” she said.

“I get nervous every single time each of my daughters goes into the arena or gets up on a horse,” said Diana Johns, a horse show mom from Monument, Colorado. Her daughters, Katie, Kamryn, and Kennedy, all have ridden extensively and competed in the hunter and jumper show circuits around Colorado and the West Coast. However, Mrs. Johns grew up in the Saddlebred industry, so she was a little heartbroken when her daughters chose the hunter and jumper route.

“They got lessons about three times a week from Lorelei Cudney, their trainer now, and they decided they would rather do that than the Saddlebreds, so we sold my nice, big Saddlebred so the kids could start getting into the hunters more,” she said.

No show mom is the same, each finding their niche in the horse world as their daughters or sons go on to earn ribbons and jump bigger and bigger fences. Show mom Kirstine Valencia, of Parker, Colorado, says with a laugh that, “I can trailer a horse, write a check, and I can videotape, and those are my gifted areas.”

Other show moms like Lisa McReynolds of Colorado Springs, Colorado, says she’s simply “been there for all the tears, all the glory, all the winning, and all the losing.”

Whether their daughters have won or lost, every show mom knows that riding has changed their daughter’s life for the better. “Riding has given Jenna multitudes of confidence that I don’t know if she would have if she hadn’t gotten into riding, and I know that she is happiest on her horse and with her horse,” said show mom Julie Hanson of Colorado Springs, Colorado.

So next time you get up on that horse, next time you win that big ribbon, make sure to thank a special someone in your life who has made it all possible. Without show moms, the show circuits around the world simply would not go on.