Why Do I ride on the Drill Team?

Marilynn

The interaction with other woman, the excitement of making the drill look perfect and the applause of the audience.  It is fun, challenging and exciting!   It gives you a reason to get out and ride your horse and want to be a better rider.  The fulfillment and joy that I get from a performances.  Seeing the happy, smiling faces of little girls, who one day dreams of riding a horse like the Rainbow Riders.  How riding drill and all the things our horses are exposed, which makes them a better horse.

Cindy

Hanging around with horsie girlfriends and horsie  events. Drill's a great horsemanship class, and inexpensive!!! I tend to be lazy, but not on drill  nights!!!!!  Cramps, headache, or just tired, drill gets you up and out on your horse which is where we all want to be,  keeping ourselves and our horse fit.

 

Lynette

I started 21 years ago to keep my horse in shape and it was the only thing he could do with out jigging or running away with me.  I work with kids all day and I like being able to take a couple of hours to have a hobby of my own that is mine not the kids or husbands.  I also like that I grew up with horses and rode Honey Bear until he was 36 years old on the Poway drill team and then on the Ramona drill team and it kept him young.  I really did not know how much fun riding could be until I got Ransom at three months old and had to go through the process of training him and found out all the great resources the drill team has offered me.  I would of told you three years ago that I do not like horses all that much, now I have learned so much from Marie and others on the team of how to ride and enjoy my horse. The team also came together to help with the fires that came through Ramona and we all worked together to help each other and friends evacuate horses.  Drill Team is the same as family and nice to be able to have great resources - every thing from Home Decorating to Child Care and every thing in between. 

 

Nancy

Riding drill gives me many tangible and intangible rewards. Most obviously, I can pursue a hobby I really love- riding- while enjoying the company and fun times with my friends. Our many moments of shared laughter, practicing, and performing bond us together as a team with a common goal. A sense of camaraderie, commitment and a shared passion for performing runs deep beneath us all. Attention to perfection and trying to achieve the elusive “perfect performance” keep us all practicing and prepping many hours, in all kinds of weather, and traveling long distances for that “Five Minutes of Perfection.” So it’s that sense of personal accomplishment, pride, the team spirit, and dedication to our performances that keep me coming back!! And riding drill certainly proves that old adage that “nothing good ever comes easy!!”

 

Marlene

 

It is a good way to keep our horses and ourselves active!

 

Sandra

It gives me an excuse to ride my horse. It gives me a chance to get out and have grown-up conversations, not baby ones with my 1 year old.  I like the attention we get at performances. I'm kind of an attention hog.  It's such a rush doing performances at the speed we do.  It's really cool to have people come up after a performance and tell us what a great job we do.  And it's even better when they say that they have seen us perform for years at many different places.  I love to see the expression on people's faces when we are in the arena.  This is not something they get to see everyday.

 

Marie

Hmmm, I love riding, I love my horses and the feeling that they give me that they love it too,  I love the speed and my horse's energy beneath me, I love riding to music, I love performing and making the crowd get excited, I love seeing the looks on little girls faces which reminds me of me when I was young and fascinated by horses.

 

Christine

Let see.... It gets my horses exercised one to two times a week. I feel I am becoming a better rider and my horses are become better all around horses. I enjoy getting together with the new friends I have made through the Drill Team doing the thing I like most riding my horses.  I enjoy the family get-togethers the Drill Team puts on. I love the thrill of doing a great job and hearing the praise from the crowd. Even though I get tired at the ending of a long weekend it is a good kind of tired! Marilynn put it to word very well!

 

Kitty

Because of the girls I kept coming to ride, even though I was scared to death because although I rode my horse I had no seat and didn't know how to ride. Also it was just another excuse to ride!

 

Jennifer

Hi my name is Jennifer. 

I have been practicing with the Rainbow riders for just over a year now.  While my horse and I were not ready to make line up last year I still very much feel part of a team.  I was able to attend the performances and help the girls with anything they or their horses might need and several occasions was able to bring my horse and ride in the arena allowing her and I to get used to these types of environments.  It has been a lot of fun.  I have made many new friends.  I have learned so much about being part of a team and horsemanship. I am so looking forward to making line up and being in the performances.  What an exciting feeling to be in the arena, having so many people smiling and clapping. Wow!  It just doesn't get much better.

Amber

 I can't wait for practice to start!!!!

Shelly

Well, I've only ridden drill once  :) but maybe someday I will be a regular!  I look at it like this.... any opportunity to spend time with your horse, whether it be feeding or grooming, to exercising or enjoying a lazy day trail ride, is a an awesome thing and with our busy lives, it is hard to consistently find that time.  When I decided to check the Rainbow Riders out, my main motivation was making time to spend with my horse..... much like making time to go on a date with my husband.... oh, and to meet new "horse people" and to learn something new, and to have fun!  I've attached a poem I saw on a website today.....  I thought I'd share.  I'm going to hang it in my trailer (see below).

 

 

"When We Are Old"

When we are old, we shall wear diamonds and wide brimmed straw hats with

Silver and leather trim on them.

And we shall spend our social security on white wine and carrots and sit in the alley of our barns

And listen to our horses breathe.

We will sneak out In the middle of a summer's night

And ride the chestnut colt across the moonstruck meadow

If our old bones will allow.

And when people come to call we will smile and nod

As we walk them past the gardens to the barn

And show, instead, the beauty growing here in stalls fresh-lined with straw.

We will learn to shovel and sweat

And wear hay in our hair as if it were a jewel.

And we will be an embarrassment to all who look down on us who have not found the peace

Of being free to love a horse as a friend

A friend who waits at midnight hour with muzzle, soft nicker and patient eyes

For the kind of woman we will be

When we are old.
 

 Author Unknown