Who is The Sweaty Equestrian?

With any luck...you are! This site is for anyone interested in health, horses, and the synergy between them. Want to explore food, fitness, horse training, competition, and the mental game that holds it all together? Come be a sweaty equestrian with me!

I’m an endurance rider in the northwest region of the United States. I’m also forty-something, short, fitness-obsessed, and a pretty good home cook.
 
A few of you might remember my blog, The Barb Wire, which had its heyday between 2007 and 2014. It chronicled my journey with a small herd of Barb horses and one Arabian. Maybe you followed along as I studied horse training and made my initial forays into endurance. Maybe you even read my companion blog about fitness and nutrition.

I was very determined, in those days. 
 
Since then, I completed my first two hundred-mile rides. I tried canyoneering and ride-and-tie and learned to ski and ran a few trail races and got my first pull-up.

I also burned my house down and broke my back in a fall. I walked away from a big job that wasn’t worth it anymore. I struggled to stay in the endurance game for a variety of frustrating reasons.

I broke up with a partner whose path didn’t match mine, and fell in love with another whose did. I lost faith. I gained wisdom. In the long, dark winter, I rested.

​When spring came and the smoke cleared, I found myself still here. Still revolving around the same suns: horses, fitness, words. And so, The Sweaty Equestrian was born.

This site is a labor of love for a sport and community that mean the world to me. If you have ideas for features that would be useful to you, or just want to say hello, please feel free to drop me an email at TheSweatyEquestrian@gmail.com.

Don't be a stranger.

~ Tamara Baysinger (AERC #M38090, Northwest Region)

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