please just watch this

Leo Walker said:
She nearly died, ended up in hopsital, had to give up her dream job and come home. By the sounds of it she was desparately ill, so I would imagine it has something to do with this.

Yes shes a bit of a dramatic teenager, but not sure why everyone has decided to make statements like this when they dont know and havent bothered to look.

As I said previously, shes had training, lots of it, shes also had schoolmasters. She also admits to making mistakes but she was buying cheap horses and trying to turn them around from quite a young age and at the start she was on her own, with no facilities and a non horsey family. I'm sure shes not the only one who has made mistakes. She turned round all the horses she had and made a profit on all of them.
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But if you post a 3 min video with no context, then that's all people DO have to go on.

As for the life hardships, in fairness you can pick 10 random posters here and they would have equally difficult life experiences. But they don't post up videos of them over-facing green confused horses, and crashing horses through high-ish fences repeatedly, and then justifying it by say 'oh, my life has drama'. If you post up videos of unhappy looking horses putting themselves and the rider at risk, i genuinely don't see much to applaud. There are plenty of young posters here bringing on cheap horses nicely and quietly with no drama.

I'm glad she is doing well now and has obviously learnt from her mistakes and wish her the best for the future though.
 
paddi22 said:
eh as an event rider, we tend to NOT keep falling off constantly. If I fell off and crashed horses through that many jumps i'd be seriously reconsider my hobby/trainer/skills. I don't think i've fallen off or been reared on that much in 30 years of riding, and i retrain rescues. It's a very teenage drama angst filled video and i'd imagine she will look back on it fondly but cringing in a couple of years time.
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My point here was that even the best riders fall off, it doesn't necessarily mean somebody is doing anything wrong, it is more about the situation they are riding in. She doesn't fall off constantly anyway, its a few times and could be over a number of years for all we know. Some of them are going really nicely for her, we should also mention those.
 
WandaMare said:
My point here was that even the best riders fall off, it doesn't necessarily mean somebody is doing anything wrong, it is more about the situation they are riding in. She doesn't fall off constantly anyway, its a few times and could be over a number of years for all we know. Some of them are going really nicely for her, we should also mention those.
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Everybody falls off occasionally; many people don't do so because they are so lacking in judgment that they have crammed an unbalanced horse into an impossible situation. But not everybody has taken the time to position a camera to record the performance, nor do they then edit it, add goopy comments and publish it on a public platform inviting the world to admire them for it. Plainly the people who don't see what most of the commentators on this post are seeing identify with her "journey"; I just feel very sorry for the horses.
 
Cortez said:
Everybody falls off occasionally; many people don't do so because they are so lacking in judgment that they have crammed an unbalanced horse into an impossible situation. But not everybody has taken the time to position a camera to record the performance, nor do they then edit it, add goopy comments and publish it on a public platform inviting the world to admire them for it. Plainly the people who don't see what most of the commentators on this post are seeing identify with her "journey"; I just feel very sorry for the horses.
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Just because its the majority view, it doesn't necessarily mean its the superior one. I for one don't so much identity with her journey, but also I am not offended by her putting herself out there, you obviously are which is fine, we are both equally entitled to our point of view. The reason for the drama is likely to be that it gets people watching and talking about her videos, big brand advertising does this all the time. She has certainly got herself noticed with these videos which I suspect is her objective, rather than prompting people to say how wonderful she is.
 
I feel sorry that the younger generation now has been landed in a culture where 'getting noticed' is the most important thing, and they feel the easiest way to do it is with high high drama. Not all attention is good attention. And if her aim is branding then she is misguided. I'm sure someone will sponsor her on numbers alone, purely as she gets large followers. But it won't be decent brands or good money.

As a business owner who works in branding, I wouldn't touch her with a bargepole as a sponsor as those videos would raise too many red flags. As an owner I wouldn't send a horse to her going on those videos alone.

As an aside, I think what jars the most about it is the 'me, me,me, I, I ,my, my' typically teenage self-focused tone of it. A good horseperson is all about the horse. They don't use horses to further 'my' journey. It is about developing the horse more than the person. I wouldn't expect 90% of young people to have developed the maturity to realise that, it something most people only develop with age. But I would rather celebrate the smaller percentage of young rider who DO realise that. But then they are too busy working on their own riding skills instead of their video editing skills.
 
WandaMare said:
Just because its the majority view, it doesn't necessarily mean its the superior one. I for one don't so much identity with her journey, but also I am not offended by her putting herself out there, you obviously are which is fine, we are both equally entitled to our point of view. The reason for the drama is likely to be that it gets people watching and talking about her videos, big brand advertising does this all the time. She has certainly got herself noticed with these videos which I suspect is her objective, rather than prompting people to say how wonderful she is.
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I don't give a flying fig about her; but I am extremely sorry for the horses - THAT offends me. Being a not-young person I haven't grown up with the overwhelming need to hang my every action out like a flag for attention. There is also the unfortunate side effect of people watching this nonsense and thinking that it is the right way to train horses.
 
Cortez said:
I don't give a flying fig about her; but I am extremely sorry for the horses - THAT offends me. Being a not-young person I haven't grown up with the overwhelming need to hang my every action out like a flag for attention. There is also the unfortunate side effect of people watching this nonsense and thinking that it is the right way to train horses.
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Cortez I think we were separated at birth, lol :)
 
Cortez said:
I don't give a flying fig about her; but I am extremely sorry for the horses - THAT offends me. Being a not-young person I haven't grown up with the overwhelming need to hang my every action out like a flag for attention. There is also the unfortunate side effect of people watching this nonsense and thinking that it is the right way to train horses.
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I don't think you need to be extremely sorry for the horses, now who's being dramatic! You seem to be someone who does like to get attention with your strong opinions, for example calling this girl's videos 'nonsense' that is a bit harsh. She's just making a video of training horses, some of which look quite difficult to ride, let's keep this in perspective, and agree to differ! :)
 
We have all been young.
I remember I used to think wearing Adidas trackies made me look amazing. It turns out they don't... A good few years down the line changes us all. I'm sure in time she may look back and wonder why she posted the videos.. I wonder why I wore trackies.

I just wonder where all the folks I YouTube get the videographers!! ... I struggle to get OH to take a blooming picture never mind an entire ride! #welljel. .... That was the fashion 3 years ago right?
 
i don't mean this harshly but you wouldn't call some of the riding in the early videos 'training' a horse. I'm not slating the girl, but i just don't see where she deserves credit for some of her videos, those horses would have been a lot happily and come on a lot better with a different rider. I'm giving her points for being obviously very passionate and ambitious about her riding, but I can't give her a lot of credit for the riding, and 'training' decisions she make in some of the videos and blog posts now that i've read them.

There are plenty of better riders, young and old, who make difficult horses look not difficult. Overfacing a green unbalanced horse into a 1 10 jump and watching it crash through and rear repeatedly isn't a shining example of training. There are better people out there who deserve credit over her. But she def has a vision for herself and passion and thats no bad thing either
 
As an aside, I think what jars the most about it is the 'me, me,me, I, I ,my, my' typically teenage self-focused tone of it. A good horseperson is all about the horse. They don't use horses to further 'my' journey. It is about developing the horse more than the person. I wouldn't expect 90% of young people to have developed the maturity to realise that, it something most people only develop with age. But I would rather celebrate the smaller percentage of young rider who DO realise that. But then they are too busy working on their own riding skills instead of their video editing skills.
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Many riders who want to become professional have no choice but to do the 'me,me, me thing. Its the way they make their money. As a rider they are the brand, we see that on many horse related ads, and these are adults not children. They need to work on both the riding and the marketing skills don't they, its no good being a great rider if you don't have any money to fund your sport or even make a living. They have their names plastered all over their horseboxes, merchandise etc and they don't get accused of being self-centred. Maybe they do when they are young but when they start to be successful no-one thinks anything of it. I personally don't think its a sin, its almost a necessity to break into the professional horse world.

We need to encourage young people, its supposed to be a sport that we on here support. If people have concerns about her riding, training style or whatever then there is nothing to stop them contacting her and giving her some constructive advice. We all live and learn and I'm sure there is plenty of valuable experience to share.
 
WandaMare said:
We need to encourage young people, its supposed to be a sport that we on here support.
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Supporting young people doesn't mean we have to be sycophantic. A spade is a spade, this is a forum and a poster asked for our opinions. Based on that video, I don't see why I should have to praise someone.

I would also counter the "she's young, makes mistakes, just needs more training etc." narrative - when I don't know something, or my approach isn't working, I do something about it and find a way to learn. That may be through lessons but if that isn't an option you could read a book, do some research on the internet, watch a training video on youtube etc.
 
But if you look at what successful riders do, it isn't 'me, me, me'. It's results, results, results. You see talented, nor particularly wealthy young riders get cheap horses and bring them up the ranks all the time. They have bad days, fall off, have disasters, but they keep them quiet and stay at lower levels till those issues are ironed out. From the second they arrive at a show they present a professional, polished face and make it look effortless. People want to see the swan gliding on the surface of the water, they don't want to see the legs furiously moving underneath. Their social media is curated and polished to emphasis the good parts because thats what owners and sponsors want to see. And if this girl wants to be a professional, and get sponsorship, then she is going about it completely the wrong way, and people applauding her isn't going to help her in the long run. It will actually move her goal further away from what she wants.

Picture if you owned a massive feed company and sponsored this girl. The first thing that would happen, and i guarantee from experience it would happen in minutes, is you would have people on your brand facebook page screaming about how the horses look unhappy, and how cruel it is to see her crashing them through jumps, and they would pull the sponsorship. There is no way a big sponsor would touch her, and i work with brands and sponsors all the time.

If she wants to go down the route of showing how she improves horses and brings them on, then she needs to take her personal dramas and struggles out of it and make consciously edited, logical videos showing the journey of each horse, where they started from, where they are now and results they are getting. That way she has a chance of getting proper sponsors who could actually help her journey - feed companies (look at their topline now!), calmer supplement companies (look at how relaxed they are now!) etc.

Those videos do not help her goals in any way, in fact they damage them. Brands and sponsors and owners don't particularly care for the struggle of a young rider unless they can see how their audience will connect to it. Those videos are not attractive to a proper sponsor in any way, and would actually bring down a ton of hassle if someone tried to sponsor her.

Nobody wants to watch a young girl being reared on repeatedly and crashing into fences. It doesn't show riding skill, training skill - it shows bad judgement on a riders part unless it is clearly understood in the context of a horse's training and a training timeline. Those videos don't show that unfortunately.
 
She went to an equestrian college on a scholarship and then went to Germany to a well respected yard to work and train, so clearly she was getting training.
 
Cortez said:
I don't give a flying fig about her; but I am extremely sorry for the horses - THAT offends me. Being a not-young person I haven't grown up with the overwhelming need to hang my every action out like a flag for attention. There is also the unfortunate side effect of people watching this nonsense and thinking that it is the right way to train horses.
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This.

What I really don't understand is why OP wanted us to watch it. That is 3 minutes (+ puzzling time) that I won't get back!
 
Durhamchance said:
Totally agreed! I've got a four and two year old, I can listen to whining all day without watching it on YouTube too.
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hahahahaha ^^

I'm so glad I'm not a teenager now. so many young girls posting silly videos, ridiculous selfies, and half naked photos. I did all my growing up without showing the world. it makes me shudder to think of that stuff I would have posted, urgh.

As for this particular video, its painful to watch and to listen too.
 
apercrumbie said:
Supporting young people doesn't mean we have to be sycophantic. A spade is a spade, this is a forum and a poster asked for our opinions. Based on that video, I don't see why I should have to praise someone.

I would also counter the "she's young, makes mistakes, just needs more training etc." narrative - when I don't know something, or my approach isn't working, I do something about it and find a way to learn. That may be through lessons but if that isn't an option you could read a book, do some research on the internet, watch a training video on youtube etc.
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I agree you don't need to praise anything if you don't think its deserved and definitely not be sycophantic. I just think this young girl has something, she has accomplished a lot for her age. We don't all have to start throwing praise at her but credit where credits due. There are some things not to like but there are also some strong positives in her too. She is remarkably driven, she has left home very young to pursue her career in showjumping, from her videos she seems to be fearless and she is still young enough to take on a lot of training and learn from her mistakes.

She is also getting a lot of likes on her videos, more likes than dislikes so I doubt she is going to stop making them. She says she is a hard worker so it will be interesting to see how she gets on in the future.
 
I think that most on this forum are horse-driven and not people-driven - it means that we will always think of the horse's welfare first and the person second (within reason obviously...) and I think it's why some posters on here get quite short shrift as there is little patience for those who put themselves before their horse. A theory anyway, and it would certainly apply here.
 
apercrumbie said:
I think that most on this forum are horse-driven and not people-driven - it means that we will always think of the horse's welfare first and the person second (within reason obviously...) and I think it's why some posters on here get quite short shrift as there is little patience for those who put themselves before their horse. A theory anyway, and it would certainly apply here.
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If that was the main objection to the video then yes I can understand that, but it isn't what most posters have said. Most of the objections have been centred around teenage angsty whingeing. Also, in the equestrian competition world, it often seems to be a fine line.
 
I think it's that if you aim to set yourself up as a professional rider, then it just doesn't cut it to try and gain sympathy votes by playing the 'poor me card'. look at boyd martin, he had an absolute horror of a year or so, nightmare stuff - but just kept his head down, worked and competing, without dragging out his personal life for sympathy or effect.

The teen angst whingeing does grate as you get older and life throws absolute curveballs at you with serious illness, marriage stresses, dying parents etc. I look at that video and think 'god i'd love to go back to the days when all i had to worry about was a horse being difficult!. I don't think i even got that dramatic when my mum was dying!
 
paddi22 said:
The teen angst whingeing does grate as you get older and life throws absolute curveballs at you with serious illness, marriage stresses, dying parents etc. I look at that video and think 'god i'd love to go back to the days when all i had to worry about was a horse being difficult!. I don't think i even got that dramatic when my mum was dying!
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yeah, as the song says-everyone's got a hard luck story to tell. we were asked to watch the video and so I did, then I said what I though of it. she's alive, she's doing what she wants to do-in an elite sport no less.
 
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paddi22 said:
I think it's that if you aim to set yourself up as a professional rider, then it just doesn't cut it to try and gain sympathy votes by playing the 'poor me card'. look at boyd martin, he had an absolute horror of a year or so, nightmare stuff - but just kept his head down, worked and competing, without dragging out his personal life for sympathy or effect.

The teen angst whingeing does grate as you get older and life throws absolute curveballs at you with serious illness, marriage stresses, dying parents etc. I look at that video and think 'god i'd love to go back to the days when all i had to worry about was a horse being difficult!. I don't think i even got that dramatic when my mum was dying!
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Yes true, but that's because she is young. I'm no sucker for the sob story tactic, but I do like to see young people who are engaged so passionately in something. Some people do the sob story thing without any substance behind it at all, at least in her case she has got herself out there, she seems to be working hard and she has a strong vision of where she wants to go. I genuinely believe that the story telling with the video is to make it into something. If she was just riding an established horse around a course of show jumps with no narrative or story, who's going to remember that, probably only her family would watch it. Look at the build up to the sports events on tv, they nearly always dramatise the main player's lives in an attempt to connect us with them before the big match starts, the 6 nations is a good example.

The video is most likely aimed at other young riders with similar aspirations rather than old timers like us :)
 
WandaMare said:
If that was the main objection to the video then yes I can understand that, but it isn't what most posters have said. Most of the objections have been centred around teenage angsty whingeing. Also, in the equestrian competition world, it often seems to be a fine line.
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It is the whingey attitude at the expense of the horses that irritates people though I think. Those horses neither know nor give a damn that she is young, is trying her best, is passionate, has been ill, comes from a non horsey background.....
They don't know that they're on her 'journey' with her, they just know that they're being piled into fences. If she could get her head out of the clouds long enough I'm sure she'd realise that. I think back to the people I worked for at that age (and younger), and I can say with absolute certainty that I would've been told to get off for a lot of the riding shown in that video.
 
If I had been thrown off the same horse that many times into fences i would assume I was doing something wrong, not post it online wanting sympathy.
 
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