UK/Europe compared to North America. The differences?

spookypony said:
I'd like to second what some others have said: I grew up in Ontario, and I remember there being three distinct equestrian cultures side-by-side. There were the German-style dressage people (my lot), the hunter-jumpers, and the Western types. All three groups had distinctly different approaches to management, as well as riding. It taught me that I need to examine why I do something, horse-wise, because much of the differences seemed to have no particular logic behind them beyod tradition---or else, the logic of the one was contradicted by the evidence of the other. For being so "BHS-safety-conscious", people over here sure do some things that would have been regarded as invitations for serious accidents back in Canada! And vice-versa...
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I think this is the very best part of having exposure to different systems and disciplines. You can see what works when and how, how systems fit together, and get away from the idea that things *have* to be one certain way to be "right". (Something which, let's face it, horse people seem particularly prone to.) Systems have usually evolved to fit circumstance, goals and types of horses - sometimes information from one can shed light on something in another. All tools for the box. And as you get more information you start to see the similarities as much as the differences (interestingly, more noticeable as you see more experienced, successful horsemen at work) and get some insight into what's a choice and what just needs to be because no matter where you go, horses are horses.
 
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