One of my favorite features about Eventing Nation is that we are all united by a common love of the horse. We each learned to love horses in our own way--maybe we grew up next to a horse farm, or read a book about a horse--but at some point in our lives something clicked and we decided to make horses an integral part of our lives. Whether working in the barn or at an office, our readers spend their lives working for their horses.
LisaB, an Eventing Nation favorite, wrote to me describing the plight of the office-bound horse lover.
We work most of our waking hours and most of us work in a cubicle in the midst of a wide expanse of space. Therefore, we work in a cube farm. Usually, everything is monotone, right down the chairs. So in order to maintain sanity, most everyone 'decorates' their cubicle to make it habitable. You will mostly see pictures of folks' kids and other family members. There is also a requisite wall calendar of their choice. Some have plants too so the environment will be a little more livable. Indoor plants do well in this environment as we spew out lots and lots and lots of CO2, especially if management is walking around.
And then there are the crazy horsey people. I think the number of horse pictures you have in your cube coincides with how much you don't like your job, personally. The more horse stuff, the more you can't stand your job. And the reminders of why you keep this job are hanging on your wall.
I have one pic from Loudon, one from in front of The Fork's barn when we won the ATC's (Winston's first year competing), and a calendar. I usually get a Beth Collier calendar for Xmas but not this year (boo!) but did get a free fly predator one.
I even have this horse shoe that matches Winston's perfectly. It was our first prelim at VA and we nailed the water perfectly and the hubby was watching. He saw a shoe fly up on our landing from the first chevron and thought it was ours. So, he picked it up. It even had the same studs in. I would have turned it in but the hubby gave it to me Sunday afternoon. It wasn't mine but I kept it anyway, thinking the person has probably gotten by that point. Now it's in my drawer here at work. I do use it as a weapon when people are being buttheads ;o)
At least now I know that the shoe I lost at the VHT went to a good cause. At any rate, Lisa and all of our other readers working hard in an office today inspired our Ecogold "Horses in My Life" photo contest, as described below.
Horses at Work--Submit a photo of your workspace that showcases how horses help you get thought the day and include a short paragraph explaining the photo. Email your photo and the explanation to eventingnation@gmail.com, subject "PHOTO CONTEST" by noon ET July 20th. The photo should be high quality and in .jpeg format.
Of course, our readers who work at a barn are also welcome to enter the contest--just show us how horses help you get through the day at work. Either Theo and the rest of the EN Team will pick the best photo with the most entertaining explanation as an outright winner or winnow the entries down to a few finalists for a reader vote to choose a winner.
Now to the fun stuff--The winner of the contest gets a pair of front and back Ecogold XC boots valued at $250. You can read more about the boots at Ecogold's blog, but the moral of the story is that if someone dropped a nuclear bomb on Ecogold XC boots, only cockroaches and the boots would survive. I volunteered to make such a demonstration but Patricia and John at Ecogold decided to take this route instead:
I feel like I'm the only one of my circle who has an 8-5er and am insanely jealous of my friends that have horsey jobs. I left a horsey job for a great opportunity, and although I am making a lot more money and have a brilliant "career path", I often daydream about quitting my job and spending all day, every day with the ponies. I mean...half the pay, no benefits, no holidays (or days off really), and frost bitten fingers breaking ice in the middle of winter. Who could resist?? Until then, back to quickbooks and corp america...boo!