GSLS
Well-Known Member
Does anyone else feel... Not down, but perhaps disheartened if you're really happy about your horses but don't get any support. Or see others getting comments and likes on facebook for IMO lesser things. A very pathetic, attention seeking, self-absorbed thing to say but just how I feel right now. I've been so happy and content lately (especially horsewise) and I thought the best thing about happiness was being able to share it. A brand new ferrari wouldn't be any good if you kept it in a garage and no one ever saw it. I know you own horses for yourself to enjoy and not others, but that's why I used to enjoy being on a livery yard (rather than having them at home). Because there was always the "how's Harry today?", "Are you going to jump Charlie?" "Oh really, I'll join you". Kind of thing. Feel like I've made particular and IMO (amazing) progress with one of my horses yet no one seems to care, but will say nice things about others / mutual friends who have veteran schoolmasters and hack once a week. - I see nothing wrong with this, but I just don't like feeling as though all my hard work with difficult/green/inexperienced horses goes unnoticed, especially as I don't do it as a job so don't have owners to say anything. My family are non-horsey / basically wholly uninvolved and I don't have an other half so just go it alone basically. What's the point of even taking a photo if you're never going to be able to show anyone. Unless it was something like documenting weight or an injuring healing etc. Obviously I love my horses because I love them, and actually wouldn't care if people said "oh, she's looking poor", or something negative/critical, it's just the fact that I get completely ignored by people that I know well. Wouldn't care if it was someone 200 miles away that I've spoken to once on twitter, but it's people that I've known for years that know me on a personal level. if these means they're not true friends, then I'm still no better off as I still don't have anyone to share my "happiness"/progress etc with. I've tried the whole 'turn to strangers on the internet thing' sooo many times before from so many angles and have ended up with several thousand twitter followers etc, but then I get more angry when only 2 people out of such a large number will interact with me. Whereas, if only two people out of 50 what I'd call "genuine" friends interact, it doesn't seem so bad. Strangers on the internet knowing personal facts about my horses and I hasn't fared well for me in the past, so I don't intend to go down that route again unless it's on a very generic level. I.e. I wouldn't mind saying, my irish draught has cracked heels at the moment, what can someone recommend etc. But I wouldn't want to be sharing things like what I'm up to with my youngsters or how many faults I've got at a show, as right or wrong, called for or uncalled for, someone always has something nasty to say. And as I don't really want a stranger who I've never met to personally ridicule my animals or get hold of personal info like venues I compete at or where I hack out etc (which they would get from photos), I don't share things like that. Hmm, I just feel rather conflicted in some sense. I used to be a very open person and have all my social media stuff on public and post hundreds of images / videos etc, and share what some would call, 'controversial' views, and not have a care in the world. Now I've gone the complete opposite and only let a very select few see things, unless like I say, it's generic or not too personal. But as a result, I've left myself so few people to get this "support", I want from. I don;t think it's good though, when these people get "internet famous" and have people who could be creepy or not have their best interests at heart know about their life.
Maybe this is a pointless selfish post, but I don't think it will cause anyone harm so here goes. I've tried talking to "close friends" and saying virtually the same as above but they more or less say it's up to me what I share/who I talk to. But once you've gone down the route of making it common knowledge what your horse is called, where you keep it etc, you can't take it back and that could end up causing trouble in the future if it got into the wrong hands. But at the same time I don't want to feel so secretive I feel like I can't even put a photo up of a new horse as my facebook profile picture in case someone who doesn't like me sees it and thinks "ooo she's got a new grey", "it looks so on the forehand", "it looks overweight". Or any other nasty and uninformed and possibly incorrect assumption someone could make.
Arg, people say I shouldn't care what others think but I don't like people having a bad opinion of me as it sticks, and people always see things and pass judgement. Like someone could put a photo up of a thin horse, people could say oh she doesn't feed her horses, little did they know, they rescued it the day before.
Sorry in advance for just being strange and possibly repetitive
Maybe this is a pointless selfish post, but I don't think it will cause anyone harm so here goes. I've tried talking to "close friends" and saying virtually the same as above but they more or less say it's up to me what I share/who I talk to. But once you've gone down the route of making it common knowledge what your horse is called, where you keep it etc, you can't take it back and that could end up causing trouble in the future if it got into the wrong hands. But at the same time I don't want to feel so secretive I feel like I can't even put a photo up of a new horse as my facebook profile picture in case someone who doesn't like me sees it and thinks "ooo she's got a new grey", "it looks so on the forehand", "it looks overweight". Or any other nasty and uninformed and possibly incorrect assumption someone could make.
Arg, people say I shouldn't care what others think but I don't like people having a bad opinion of me as it sticks, and people always see things and pass judgement. Like someone could put a photo up of a thin horse, people could say oh she doesn't feed her horses, little did they know, they rescued it the day before.
Sorry in advance for just being strange and possibly repetitive