1) Money counts. Big time! Oh I know, you want to tell me its just an excuse, just something us poor girls cry out from the sidelines, but isn't really true! You just need some pluck, some hard work, a can-do spirit! Anyone can make it! HA! Yeah right! First of all, lets all acknowledge that, no matter what type of riding you do, it's expensive. Even owning a horse in your backyard to trail ride on is a costly endeavour. Once you start showing, the tack, the clothes, the trailers, the memberships....yeesh. A car is a cheaper investment. There's board and vet and farrier, all the more involved if you have a show horse. And let's face it, if you wanna ride against the big boys, you can't do it on Charger the trail horse. At Coach T's they wouldn't even look at a horse unless it came from Germany, had an all-star pedigree, and cost as much as my house. Seriously. Nothing North American bred. That attitude might be changing, but it doesn't translate into cheaper prices. And if you want to REALLY compete, you can't have just one mount! Along side the Prix St Georg trained star, you need to have an up and coming star. And maybe a third slightly lower level trained pony that you can pull out when ol'Superstar tweaks a tendon and is off for a year. If you don't come from deep pockets, you can try for sponsorship, although these can be fickle. I saw more then one heart broken young rider get a letter from their sponsor telling them the well was dry. Average income earner? Good luck! Hope you have a secret horse supplier no one else knows about! Most of us have jobs we have to work, and don't get to train daily with a top trainer. But oh no, money means nothing....
** Oh I can hear you all now! "She's so negative! So and so made it to the Olympics and she didn't have money or sponsors! " Sorry, so that one person did it! Every once in a while they let one of us sad poor girls into the inner circle to keep us all hoping, showing and buying sparkly breeches.
2) Its a nasty place to be. I stood on the sidelines, I heard all the inner gossip, the stories floating around from one barn to another. It wasn't pretty! It was ugly and competitive and just plan nasty. Those big fancy barns with the velvet carpets and diamond studded horses were not peaceful, horse filled retreats. No! The people (mostly women) riding and training there were aggressive, harsh, and they were not going to be pushed around. One minute they loved a certain barn and trainer (oh, the gushing! oh, the infinite declarations of love!), the next they had packed up and moved on leaving behind a mess of stories and frustrated barn staff. Yup, the fickleness of it all still surprises me. But it was considered normal, and was in itself almost a sport. I grew tired of it all very quickly.
3) It's not really about the training. Ok, it kinda is. Some of those trainers I watched at the show were good. Even Coach T was amazingly knowledgeable, and gave me so much great advice. And he even really liked my riding! But when you're in the ring, so much can be hidden. So many flaws, so many glaring issues can disappear with a certain type of riding. Although you warmed them up over bent and tense, the show ring was a different story. A good trainer would easily get beat by a flashy show trotting horse that looked like it constantly passaged everywhere. It was all about expression and flair; good basics and flowing horses didn't matter. An expressive front end hid the flaws of training. It was all very interesting to sit back and take in, but in the end who paid the cost?
4) People ride for many different reasons. They show, they spend the money, for many different reasons. Some love to be competitive, some love to show off fancy horses in sparkly breeches, some honestly want to show off their horse and training. But different reasons present different pictures and some are all sparkle, no depth. It was easy to see who's motives were more honest then others. But in the end the picture I came back with was dressage was big business, and I wasn't sure how my world and it would ever fit together.
By the end of summer I realized it wouldn't fit together. That world was out of my league, and I honestly didn't want to be there anyways. That summer was the first time in my life I dreaded going to the barn. I didn't look forward to my lessons. I just plain didn't want to be there! So I spent the remainder of the summer at home staring out my window at my horses. I rode my tb on my lawn, I watched Classical Dressage videos, I read books by Anja Beran and Phillipe Karl, and I tried desperately to find my way back. And it was during those times that I realized that horses were a journey. The part I didn't like about my whole experience was that they made the destination the sole focus. It was an idol that they sacrificed everything for. For me, it was about the riding, the training, but also about so much more. I wanted to know each horse, I wanted them to teach me. I wanted it to change my life, to shape my life. I wanted horse to be more then just ribbons and money and sponsorships. Not that all those things can't help or can't be a part of it. But I didn't want it to become the reason behind everything. I wanted to help train horses and people in a way that showed it could be done gently with a happy horse and rider.
I emerged from that summer feeling more focused, like I had a mission. I couldn't change the dressage world, that world didn't interact with mine in a decisive way. But I could change the way I saw it, and the way I rode and handled my horses. I could teach and ride the classical way, no matter who frowned on it, and help along anyone else who had the same ideals. I would try and learn from my horses and let them be my teachers.
In my next blog post (or 2) I'll introduce you to the horses who changed and shaped my life. My teachers.
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| Little Greyson says Hi! |
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