Wednesday, March 2, 2016

Young Voices (guest post): The Cost of Riding


One of my goals when I first created this blog was to showcase how much of a family and close community our barn actually is.   I don't think I ever had the intention of the posts on this blog being solely about me, or even authored by me.   So I've decided to do monthly guest posts, from some of our younger riders.   I'll call this "Young Voices", and I hope you enjoy them as much as I enjoy riding and working and interacting with these people.    We can learn so much from these people, and great care must be taken because they really are the future of this industry.

Today's post comes to you from a very talented Emily Brown, a fourteen-year-old Academy rider.  I love this post, most importantly because it shows how important learning is in our barn.  The instructors here truly do work within your budget and take every opportunity to teach you.





The True Cost of Riding
by Emily Brown


Equestrianism is not a cheap sport. It’s not a flat, one-time fee sort of deal that pays for your uniform and for you to be bused around for games. This is pretty much fact to anyone who has heard of horseback riding at all.
Now, for those of us who actually participate in this hobby (I use the term hobby lightly), we have all heard at one point, “I hate how riding uses so much money, you can’t get anywhere without money or connections!” This is partially true in my opinion.
The factor they forget is arguably the most important and organic factor of this lifestyle: Hard Work. I am proud to have paid for a good portion of events I attended in 2015, and plan to continue paying for as much as I can. The problem I have with the statement ‘you can’t get anywhere without money’, is that it implies the instructors and trainers are just in it for the money, and that’s all they want from you. That not only is an insult to trainers and instructors, but it’s highly unlikely if someone wanted to make a quick buck they’d enter the horse industry. It also implicates that hard work just isn’t effective anymore, which is just plain false.
I believe part of this is the extreme competitiveness of equestrianism… especially in the Juvenile divisions. Another more humorous root to this line, in my opinion, is the unrealistic expectations we get from horse movies.  Unfortunately, not everyone gets to buy an unrideable barrel prospect for $4 and then suddenly ride it in the 1D with no riding experience at all.
It’s a lot easier to complain about how you’re not getting there than thinking about what you could be doing to get there. A couple of years ago, I was honored with an invitation to the National Academy Finals. I couldn’t go due to lack of money. I pouted. I got upset, more than a few times. Now I can see why that didn’t happen for me, because in my opinion, had I gone that year, I probably wouldn’t have made it past Friday. Sometimes it’s just a matter of you’re not there yet.
So sure, riding can cost a lot, but realizing you can decide how you pay for it can be one of the most rewarding perspective changes you have in your riding career. I know I show a lot harder when I am working or paying for it than when someone else is, and part of that is just learning the power of the ‘almighty dollar’. I can’t speak for your barn, but at my barn, we have people who work full time at the barn because they have to pay board. We have people who work two or three shifts a week so they can lease a show horse and be ready for college.
The moral of the story is- you can get to where you need to be with a little less complaining and a little more work.




1 comment: