The Lord your God is with you, a Powerful One Who wins the battle. He will have much joy over you. With His love He will give you new life. He will have joy over you with loud singing.
Zephaniah 3:17 {NLV}

Soooo … I mentioned recently that Wynter’s got the riding bug … badly! And last weekend she had her first show!

I am so proud of this girl. Not for the ribbons she won, but for the fear she conquered.

This performer of a girl wasn’t afraid of riding in the show. And her fears didn’t play out fully until we arrived at our accommodations for the night.

The show grounds were about 1.5 or so hours away, and Wynt needed to be there Friday afternoon for a training ride before the shows began on Saturday and Sunday. That said, I needed to pull the girls out of school a few hours early on Friday and we headed out of town from there.

I’d had an important call I needed to be on and figured the car ride would be the perfect time, so scheduled it for then.

Weeelllllll … I was so intent on my call, I missed our main exit, which threw us 45 minutes to an hour off course.

I finally got back on course, but when locating the show grounds, ended up in the middle of nowhere and couldn’t find my way back to the Interstate.

FYI … sometimes Siri doesn’t really know where she’s going!

I could see the anxiety starting to rise in my girl and she’d ask questions if we were going to make it on time, and find our way, etc., etc.. I assured her we would and with calls to her trainer, we’d be there soon and she’d still get her ride in for the day.

She did get her ride in and all went well. But as we left the show grounds and headed to our hotel, which ended up being a bit of a deserted motel … Wynt was a mess. The woman at the front desk was NOT nice. I had reserved two rooms, which I thought would connect, but did not, so wanted to cancel one of them and the woman would not {because I booked online}. Wynter’s the kid who takes those types of stresses on herself.

And as we made our way into our room, my girl was in a puddle of tears. She wanted to go home. She doesn’t like to travel and feels safest when she’s “safe and sound” at home.

I’ve only recently realized how deep and real her fears and anxieties are, and I’ve been doing what I can to guide and counsel her through them.

Hold that thought … let me first bombard you with photos! :)

{here she is heading out for her first class}

{in the show ring}

{her very first show as a three year old in comparison to her nine year old self}

{who’s that babygirl in there!?}

{typically in a show you want to stay a good horse length away from the rider in front of you. with kids, probably even more so! wynt and her pal kept ending up next to each other and wynter thought it was “so much fun!” “we would would just ride and talk to each other, it made it so fun!” i didn’t have the heart to tell her not to pair up next time!}

{piper and wynter circa 2006ish}

{the first day she took a 1st, two 2nd’s, and grand champion. the second day, she took the exact same ribbons! consistent she is!}

{little & big}

{taylor at one of her first shows. wynter at hers.}

{representin’}

Still with me?

Finishing where I left off … when we walked into our motel room that Friday night, Wynter broke down into a hot nine-year-old mess! Real fears and real anxieties, and this momma didn’t know what to do.

Knowing how real her anxieties are, do I tell her we can go home? Or do I encourage her to push through it and we stay?

Those two questions up there sound real easy to answer. They sound easy enough just typing them out at least, but oh how my momma-heart was a hot mess all itself that night in our little motel room!

After some of my own private tears over her pain, I decided to sit with her, pray with her, hold her, and let her know I’d walk through the next two days with her. I poured blessing into my girl and she came out a winner.

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