Describe why riding is so important to you?
Riding creates the space in which I am happiest - it always has created this space. I truly believe staying connected with the happiness benefits my family life, my health, my friendships, my marriage and my career.
I love the whole horse experience. I haul my own horses. I had the chance to handle my two mares for the RPSI Inspection last fall. I show my husband’s quarter horse in the local AzQHA schooling shows. I have pursued training off the track thoroughbreds and I am very interested in breeding in the future. The list is never ending and I am always adding to it! I love it all. It’s an addiction that started as a toddler and has not let up.
What advice would you like tor provide to others that are balancing riding with work and/or family commitments?
- The most important thing I have that makes it all work is a supportive spouse. Bobby rode cutting and reining horses in his past so he loves the animals, especially our grey jumper, Landis. Those two have a special bond and I have been told in no uncertain terms not to interfere. He enjoys being at the shows, which is important since we often spend our vacation time and money to go to horse shows. There are not a lot of guys that are willing to spend their vacation at the Pima County Fairgrounds in a travel trailer.
- My next piece of advice would be to find the program that is a good fit for your budget, your riding goals, and your availability. There is a spot where those three intersect; that’s your program.
- Finally, scale up and scale back your riding as your career and finances allows. I have had chapters of my life where I had no budget to ride, where I took lessons once a week, where I did half leases, where I bought horses for $1800 off the track, and now where I have something of a full house and I am back to showing. If you are a new mom and only have time for one lesson a month, take that one lesson a month. It will keep you connected with the sport and position you to increase your involvement in the future when time or finances allow.
What is your biggest struggle in your family-work-horse-life balance?
Part of sales leadership is taking responsibility for larger geographies as your career progresses, which naturally leads to increased business travel. It’s terribly difficult to practice when I am not in the same state as my horses most of the week. I am a believer in Malcom Gladwell’s ‘10,000 hours’ rule as described in his 2008 book, “Outliers”. He clarified in a Business Insider article, “The point is simple that natural ability requires a huge investment of time in order to be made manifest”*
I am committed to investing this time to bring out what natural I may have, but participate in a sport I can’t take with me while I am traveling to support it. Gladwell discusses computer programming at length in his book and makes a persuasive argument that a lot of brilliant programmers came about because they had better or unique access to computer labs in which to practice. Think of being an adult amateur like an aspiring computer programmer with access to a computer lab for just a few hours on the weekends. Getting 10,000 hours in at the rate is slow going! Adult amateurs have to play the long game.
We have to be patient with ourselves and have a great support system at the barn to keep our horses going when we are managing other commitments.
*Bear, Drake. “Malcom Gladwell Explains What Everyone Gets Wrong About his Famous ’10,000 hour’ Rule”, Business Insider, June 2, 2014.
Other information you would like to share with the Street to Stable community?
I returned to the show ring in late 2015 after a 25-year hiatus. I have since received some accolades from AHJA, HITS Arizona and USHJA that I sincerely appreciate. The awards and recognition tell me that when it comes together it is a nice picture, as my trainer says. A high point for me was by being recognized by Halo Horses as a “Featured Amateur.” Halo makes meaningful contributions to the Arizona equestrian community and to be recognized by them meant a lot to me.
That said, when I think of riding I see my friendships with our barn rats at Crossroads Farm. I see my hilarious adventure to show the quarter horse in a breed show halter class. I see my husband and the barn dads sneaking off to watch college football and drink beer in the RV during the fall shows. I see my 8-hour drive back from LAX with the excitement of my new import in the trailer behind me and my dog in the seat next to me. I see a funny text pop on my phone from a barn friend in the middle of the work when I need it most. I see the pumpkin chunkin’ contest during the Tucson Fall Shows for yearlong bragging rights between barns. The whole fabric of my life is more colorful with the horses and horse people in it and for that I am very grateful.
MORE ABOUT ALLISON WEST HUGHES
Allison is a Southern California native. She grew up riding a Rancho Palos Verdes and Del Mar and did most of her junior shows on her off-the-track thoroughbred, Scooter, at Showpark Equestrian Center. Allison took a break from riding to focus on college athletics and academics at UCLA, where she was Captain of the Division soccer team. After college she started her career in technology sales, living in San Francisco.
Alison moved to Arizona in 2002 and started riding again and buying and rehabbing 3 off-the-track thoroughbreds directly from Turf Paradise, an Arizona Thoroughbred racetrack. Allison and her husband, Bobby Hughes, have 4 very spoiled dogs and have recently grown their family to include 4 horses. The have a coming 5-year-old KWPN mare by Apiro. They hope this horse will be a star in the hunter ring. Allison and Bobby also have a jumper prospect from Europe and a coming 6-year old Czech warmblood hunter in progress named Rivalry, after the UCLA-USC rivalry where she and her husband attended college, respectively. Finally, they have a “husband-horse”, a 5-year-old buckskin AQHA halter futurity winner and barn favorite.
When she’s not riding, Allison is working hard to support her riding as a Regional Vice President at Logicalis. Logicalis is a global hardware, software, professional services and consulting company focused on technology solutions for the education and healthcare verticals. She has overall responsibility for 150 employees in the West and an annual goal of $175m+ in revenue. Allison travels between sales offices in Tempe, Irvine, Portland, Seattle and Houston. She chairs the employee steering committee in Diversity and Inclusion and created the Women’s Employee Resource Group in Tempe.
Allison has worked in technology for over 20 years, which includes time with recognizable names like Oracle, Cisco Systems and VMware. She served as a founding board member for Western School Science and Technology, a STEM focused charter school in Avondale, Arizona. Allison’s’ husband, Bobby, own Seven Development LLC, a Phoenix based residential design-build firm and is also a retired major league baseball player.