Keeping Your Horse Husband Happy- and other Impossible Tasks

Just kidding, horse husbands are the best! But we do want to keep them happy. After all, they can either make our hobbies possible or interfere.

Are you the type of equestrian that yearns to share horses with your partner?

I’m not.

I think it is great to have a hobby to share. However, I am a pretty independent person and crave my alone time. For me, my self care involves going to the barn and grooming, spending time in the paddock, or riding. I don’t really want to do that with my husband. In fact, I’m happy to never do that with my husband.

He drives me crazy. I love him but I’m not the type of person that wants to be with my partner all the time. I love having something for myself. He is into different outdoor sports and hobbies, and it works for us. While it does mean that we have to coordinate our free time on the weekends, and generally both want to be outside in good weather, we tend to go in opposite directions.

Horse husbands, or partners in general, tend to fall in three categories:

• All in and super horsey.
• Like to participate in your hobby but not passionate about them.
• Not really interested at all.

Of course, there can be variations of these categories. My husband is in the latter headspace but has been known to jump on a horse while on vacation a time or two. Definitely not his favorite way to spend his time and he may show up to the barn once a year to support his children at a horse show.

That works for us. Eventually, he may like it more when we have horses on the property but here is my trick to keeping him happy. Are you ready?

I don’t talk about horses constantly… anymore. Plus, I pay for everything related to horses myself so it helps that he doesn’t have to pay for my expensive hobby.

Okay, confession time- I used to drive him crazy talking about them. But now I have you all to share my stories with either here on the blog or in the Adulting with Horses podcast. See, you’ve saved my marriage!

I have some friends who are the opposite and have recruited their husbands or wives into our world. I think it’s wonderful!

The trick is to do what makes you both happy. If they aren’t interested in horses, keep the stories to a minimum and don’t expect them to sit at the barn and watch you groom or ride for hours. If your partner is interested, take lessons together and let things progress naturally. Or, in a unicorn scenario- perhaps you are both already equestrians and fell in love over horses?

Every relationship is different!

Do you want to listen to Natalie and I talk with America’s Favorite Horse Husband, Glenn the Geek from Horses in the Morning? Listen to Episode 8 of the Adulting with Horses podcast for a real laugh.