The Secret Life of McKenna & Dorito: Growing pains

Realizing that you’ve outgrown the abilities of the horse you love is a painful experience. Junior blogger McKenna Oxenden reflects on the journey that has led her to this fork in the road.

From McKenna:

Growing up, every birthday I would cry. I would say “I don’t want to grow up!!” and every birthday, my mom would explain that growing up was a good thing; that if I didn’t get older, I would never be able to go that one extra bar on the monkey bars, or go shopping all by myself. And then with a bit of convincing, I would wipe my tears away, put my big girl panties on, smile and embrace growing up.

Sometimes growing up isn’t easy. It requires you to face your fears, make hard descisions, and live your life to its fullest. Most importantly, it pushes you out of your comfort zone to make descisions that you know you must make, but are extremely difficult.

Ever since I’ve gotten Dorito, it’s been a constant battle of hearing about how I needed a new horse because he was taking me nowhere. Six years later, he’s taken me to my first training level event and is still going strong. Together we have proved everyone wrong, defied the odds, and conquered the world.

However, it has become apparent that our compatibility is beginning to come to a close. I am needing something a bit more than “a pony” and something that can hopefully take me to preliminary down the road. Through working with Emily, I have discovered that there is still a whole, whole lot to learn and Dorito just can’t teach me those things.

I can tell you it’s one of the hardest decisions I have had to make, and maybe even more so difficult, is facing the reality that it will soon be time to move on.

As much as I wish I could keep Dorito forever, it wouldn’t be fair to him, or to me. He deserves to go make another little girl as happy as he has made me.

So Horse Nation, it’s time for me to put my big girl panties on, and reach for that next monkey bar….

Until next time, I’ll be figuring out a lot of things and have lots of news, and changes coming your way.

Love,

The dynamic duo, McKenna & Dorito