Marigold4
Well-Known Member
Perhaps I didn't word my original post very well. It wasn't partly about the money but it was partly despair that I would never be able to ride as well as someone who was started properly when they were young. And yes, I do compare myself with others and the judge compares me with others. It's called a competition!!! I also have my own ambitions. I'm getting old and I want to have achieved more. But think I've reached my limitations. I wish I'd had lessons when I was younger like them. I wish I'd gone to competitions. I think I would be a better rider now if I had.While I understand that the OP is (slightly) tongue in cheek and that in every walk of life, or just life full stop, there will always be people with "more" who appear to glide through life untouched by any troubles I have never understood the reverse snobbery in horses.
If someone is able to have their hobby/sport funded in some way then their horsemanship will be lacking, or they aren't enjoying it or all the work has been done for them. It's not just this thread but it's been a common theme on here over the years. it's almost a sport in its own right to "look down" upon those with money and pick holes because they must have had it so easy. If someone handed me a £100k horse tomorrow and booked Caroline Moore to teach me I still wouldn't be able to ride one side of it; to think that they just sit there and haven't put in any work or effort, let alone have any skill, is really quite rude. If I had access to training, horses and funding too right I wouldn't be saying "but that's not fair on the people who don't". Horses are a luxury and always have been.
Yes getting correct tuition on correctly schooled horses will undoubtedly be a huge benefit and not all of us had access to that when starting out but as LEC and others have said where there is a will there is a way and there are plenty of things that anyone could do to improve their "game".
Like Milliepops has said it can be hard if you're competitive but are restricted by money/time/only one horse but it's not impossible. I don't understand why so much time is spent comparing oneself to others. You have what you have and if you want to see a change then you've got to put in the time/work/money/effort somehow. I'm not talking about people who solely have horses for the enjoyment but if you have horses to compete/that's a big part and competing means a lot to you then you do what it takes.
For example while I have passing notions that I'd like to do X,Y or Z I don't want to do it so much that I want to go back to 4.30am starts and purely living and breathing horses. I quite like the balance that I have just now and with that I have to accept that I'll never be bothering Ros Canter. If somehow it did become very important to me to be the best that I could possibly be then you betcha I'd be up crack of dawn putting in the hours, reading, watching, learning, listening, doing my keep fit, building core strength, changing priorities and devoting hours and money on getting where I wanted to be. People have pointed out ways, on this thread and others, to progress, improve and better results but there are always without fails excuses given as replies. I mean that's fine if you don't want to do/try what's been suggested you don't have to but don't say that it can't be done.
I never understand complaining about dressage either (clearly there is a lot I don't understand on here about people). In dressage you are being judged against the set out scoring scale for performing the movements, IMO you go out to "beat" yourself and better your score. So it really doesn't matter if Millionaire Maisie is out riding Thousand K Tommy in the ring before you because you aren't being judged against them. If you want to score higher then do better and stop complaining that there aren't rules to stop Millionaire Maisie from competing!