II'm very lucky. Eric understands how much the horses mean to me and I don't have to defend owning them.

Unlike my ex-hubby (emphasis on the EX) to whom I had to defend every second and every cent spend on my horse. He never did get it.

It's funny how some significant others will resent a hobby or activity but then have an obsession or two of their own. I'm lucky, like I said, because my husband was into horses before we got together, but.... he's also a fanatic fan of his university team (I went to the other major state team...lol), and even though he doesn't get to golf as often as he'd like he still owns a couple of different sets of clubs, no idea why.

I have to say that even though Keven is a hotrod nut, he is VERY supportive and loving on the horsey front, too. He's the one who spent months learning to trim our horses, has learned to make/mend all types of tack, hauls hay to feed the brood, etc. When I brought home our first horse he was TOTALLY against it. He told me to go ahead and buy the horse, but never dreamed I would (whoopsie!). But he's turned completely around since then, and is actually a much naturally better rider than I. Most nights that he goes out to feed I have to hunt him up to eat dinner, and often find him draped over our young mustang - talking to him and rubbing him while he eats. Yup, he's come a long way, baby!

Why would anyone care what your hobby is? I guess there are acceptable hobbies, and unacceptable ones. If you were a bodybuilder, you'd spend all your time at a gym and all your money on supplements. If you were a gun collector, you'd be spending money on that. How about a skiier? They have tons of money and time wrapped up in their sport. Dog fanciers spend hours grooming and training their little fidos. Cat people, well, cat people are cat people and enough said. Don't defend what you do, deflect. Comment on golf or sports and change the subject. There are not too many people who are not horsepeople that will ever get it. I am fortunate that my family is very horsey -- we ride and campout as a family and care for our horses jointly (or out of jointly). Sometimes you just have to put up with other people who just want to bug you. You need this T-shirt: "Things not to say to a Horseowner:"
http://www.hoofprints.com/horseowner-gifts.html

ROFL at the t-shirt!

all you single women please take note. when you start dating a man, tell him in no uncertain terms, You love me, Love my horses, we ARE a package deal, and if you cannot deal with that, walk out now. tell him as many times as you need to in your relationship. don't ever give up your horse for a man. you'll regret it and resent him for it.

OMG I laughed soo hard - I even printed out a copy of it and taped it to my husband's golf bag and THEN I ordered the survival kit and my husband (shh!) payed for it - Thanks for the link - Way too funny

Colleent:

That says it all!

I've had a couple of non-horsey friends who didn't understand why I spend all the time/money I do on my horses. My family has been very supportive of my horsey habit. My dad even went with me to look at all of the horses I've owned and he helped a lot with Daisy as she was my first horse and I didn't really know much about horses then. He has kinda taken a backseat now because I know a lot more about them than he does now My family has learned a lot about them from just ME owning them... they learned about what kind of time/money they require. But they never question the money I spend on them or think of it as a "stupid" hobby. I'm lucky there.

As far as a BF goes, whenever I do get one, he's gonna know right from the start that the horses aren't going ANYWHERE. He's gonna get a package deal with me, the horses go where I go

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Cat people, well, cat people are cat people and enough said.

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Hey!!! That's not fair! LOL. Are you saying we're wierd? I'm a mixed breed I guess. I love my cat, and I love my horses. People think I'm crazy when they find out how much time I spend with just animals, between my 3 horses, and mt 2 kitties. Its a lot.

No, hehehe, that's only those people who are CAT people....like the 45 cats in the house and the other 195 they feed in the neighborhood! I love cats, and I have one, but I don't keep more than one because of all my birds.

YES! Whenever I have a friend over from school and they walk into my tack room they say, "What is all this stuff for!?" They think all you need is a the horse, fence, and a barn! And then they ask why I have 5 saddles and only 3 horses, so I have to explain to them that 2 of them are English saddles and the other 3 western saddles are for different purposes. I usually get a blank stare.

Most of my friends and family aren't horsey and there are times when it's just arghhh... so yes.

i'm still laughing at your post .. and so is my non.horsey hubby .. i think he gets the drift of it!!!

Collent ~ I TOTALLY agree with you and I absolutely did that with my hubby, almost verbatum. Actually, I didn't even HAVE a horse then, and wasn't taking lessons, but I knew that as soon as I got financially situated (I had just graduated from college) I would jump back into horse ownership, head first.

I made sure he was OK with it at the beginning, and I told him that I was going to spend in the 5 figures FOR my horse... and made sure he was OK with that too. While he does OCCASIONALLY grumble about how much my board costs (and my board IS ridiculously high), he NEVER claims that he didn't know what he was getting himself into!