05/31/2024
If You Give A Girl A Lead
Attributed to Jane Graham
If you give a girl a lead she will want a puppy to go with it.
You will get her the very best puppy that you can find her otherwise she will talk you or your friends out of theirs....and she will probably want a bait bag, and handling classes and a field to train in.
Then, she will probably spend hours begging you to let her in the ring...even just to take them back in for winners. You will be busy trying to keep her face clean and her pantyhose up....she will insist. And her insistence will win.
And when she gets a new show lead, she will need a new suit and new tights and matching mary-janes to go with it....and on her desk in her room will be a stack of premiums.
AND THEN LIFE AS YOU KNOW IT WILL END
There will be no more lazy weekends watching TV. You will see more sunrises than you ever thought possible. Every spare minute will be spent braiding her hair, putting on a too-big armband number, volunteering to hold dogs ringside, hauling dogs, grooming coats and starching suits.
THE SHOWS
And your house will be a mess. And your truck...that was traded in long ago for a transport van...it's dirty with a weeks worth of clothes in the back seat.
Because you gave a girl a lead.
Your weekends will be spent freezing or burning to death in a fold-up chair. Videoing each class, taking pictures of every down-and-back. Walking dogs and picking up poo....so so much poo.
And her weekends are spent gaining confidence and friends, and learning new skills and having fun and getting dirty. So dirty in fact you will need to learn how to do laundry in a whole new way...maybe with a pressure washer.
And you will be there the day she gets her first win, her first ribbon...the day she first wins breed, she handles that lead with absolute precision, she will win the rosette and the points and she will make you SO proud. The other exhibitors will congratulate you....but you feel weird saying ' thank you' because its not you out there in the line up working nonstop for the perfect gait, the ultimate free stack in 2 seconds flat....its HER!
She did this!
And right before your eyes, your little girl will be transformed from the baby begging to take a dog back in and just stand there for winners...to a girl driving you to the show. She will trade dirty tears for running mascara.
When you give a girl a lead. You give her the world with no limits. You give her a sport, and a talent, and hope, and dreams, and friends, and a new family, a place to learn about life, room to grow as a person, where she can push her limits, and bravery and courage and LIFE, and memories. And she will learn how to be humble with a win and grateful for every single dog in every single ring ...even finding beauty in the big losses and NQs (there will be a LOT)
Because you gave a girl a lead, you too will develop lifelong friendships solely from the same passion for the sport and your friends. You will root together, hurry to ring times, and you will WORRY. Because you gave a girl a lead.
All because you gave a girl a lead and you bought her that puppy and you let them in the ring!!!
Author Jane Graham
