Team #644 Joyce Getrost and Roxey

Team #644: Joyce Getrost and Roxey
From: Las Cruces, New Mexico
Ages: 83 & 20
Combined Age: 103
Test: Introductory Level Test 2
Date: May 21, 2023

My story is like so many others. I rode as a kid and then life got in the way. My father was an Air Force officer. When I was 10 years old, we went to Peru where I took English riding lessons and jumped. As a teen, we went to a relative’s ranch in Wyoming in the summers for 30 days where I “played cowboy.” Then for 50 years I raised two daughters, had two husbands, and had a career at the National Geographic Society. My husband and I retired to Las Cruces, New Mexico, in 2002.

At 65, in preparation for a vacation to a dude ranch in Wyoming with my daughter, I took riding lessons to see if I could still get on a horse. It went well. I continued the lessons and after a trail ride with the Backcountry Horsemen on a borrowed horse, I won a horse brush during a raffle.

So, I felt obligated to buy the accessories to go with my horse brush. At age 67, I bought my first horse, Cisco, a Spotted Saddle Horse. Then came a saddle, bridle, tack equipment, vet visits, farrier work, a truck, a horse trailer, another horse, Roxey, a Rocky Mountain, another saddle, another bridle, another horse trailer, and so forth.

Along the way were training, clinics, and lessons. I learned from many - Pat Parelli, Larry Whitesell, a gaited horse guru, Mark Rashid, softness, Warwick Schiller, and Sandra Welch, dressage basics. I consider myself a trail rider first, with a love for obstacles (Actha), fun intro endurance rides, and the discipline of dressage. My ponies do what I ask (most of the time).

Thanks to my ponies, Cisco, and Roxey, it was a great ride! And thank you as well to the silent support from my husband Dick.