You knew you were an Equestrian when.....?

I have often wondered and pondered about when I would consider myself an Equestrian, and I think I have finally come up with the answer for me. I will be an Equestrian when I feel that I can ride the Canter with competence! So pretty soon!! Yay!!! Riding all gaits is, to me, the test of an Equestrian, as it shows a level of competency and skill. I will not stop learning, obviously, as my goal is to jump fences. How high? I don't know, guess we will see how I like it and how good I am at it.

But there are more "subtle" signs of becoming an Equestrian, and here are a few of mine:

That is the space between my steering wheel and the dashboard of my car. Clearly I need to vacuum my car, and clean it,(the fact that I have a filthy car may be another sign) but that is not the point. I have a huge aversion to having my car filled with junk, but as you can see I don't have any problem with the fact that I have not vacuumed it out the for several months.That stuff way down in that crevice, is HAY!!! Hay!  Hay? How in the world do I get hay all over my car? To the point that it is now stuck in crevices.

This is the only thing in the back of my car. My schooling helmet! You know for those days when a riding emergency arrises. Sometime I may be driving to check on one of the properties I manage, when I stumble across a horse that must be ridden right away. Actually I keep it in the car so that I always have it for my riding lessons with Kay.

(Again, I need to vacuum out the car. I see that now.)

These are the shoes I slip on to go to the barn where I change into boots, either muck boots or riding boots. And the rubber mats did not come standard with the Prius, I bought them due to all the muck we drag into the car every day.  Four seasons of mucking stalls, and sloshing through rain, snow and mud sure has taken a toll on the little Hybrid, but 134,000 miles later and we are still puttering along (Prius drivers putter because we are always watching the Mpg gauge to see how high we can go.)

I could have taken a picture of the callous in my hands from mucking stalls, the smattering of sawdust and hay on my office floor, or a picture of all the picture files on my computer that would show that a good 70% ,at least, are horse related. Then there is the fact that my hubby just takes it for granted that I will be spend my evening partially (hah!) at the barn. Etc etc.............

What are the signs that you are an Equestrian? And what happened to make you feel that you were in fact an Equestrian?