why do people think you are just lucky?

diggerbez

diggerbez

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This is going to be a sort of rant (and could be long! :rolleyes:

Without being big headed i have a pretty nice horse. he's quite talented, has a nice temperament and goes fairly nicely in all 3 disciplines. however, i am sick of people saying how lucky i am. in a way yes i am lucky but i have also worked VERY hard to produce this horse and have also forked out lots of ££s for training to get him to the stage he is at.
There are a lot of people who i know who do bugger all with their horses- riding a couple of times a week max/ never having lessons and yet when the show season starts they'll be out there wanting to win and getting annoyed at their horses when they don't... nowdon't get me wrong if you don't want to ride more than a few times/can't affordlessons etc then fair enough...but don't then assume that other people arejust lucky -maybe they have been working hard?! what frustrates me is when i am riding at 8pm in the rain nobody is about to see that preparation and clearly any good results are just down to luck. i do think that to a certain extent we 'make' our own luck by being prepared.
sorry, not sure what the point of this post is- just need to vent! :cool:
 
You are obviously far too lucky to be able to ride at all hours of the day or night in the rain, wind, sun or snow. Think yourself blessed...
 
mcnaughty said:
You are obviously far too lucky to be able to ride at all hours of the day or night in the rain, wind, sun or snow. Think yourself blessed...
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?? i have to ride late at night because its the only time i can ride? that doesn't make me lucky it makes me organised!

i do accept that there are some unlucky people out there but what i am trying to say is that when people put hard work and effort into something its frustrating when people can't recognise that and think that its all just fallen into your lap... i am not comparing myself to unfrtunate people who have to work to make ends meet and so can't have horse etc etc i am more thinking of people who compete and don't get the results they want because they haven't put the preparation in- does that make sense?
 
diggerbez said:
?? i have to ride late at night because its the only time i can ride? that doesn't make me lucky it makes me organised!

i do accept that there are some unlucky people out there but what i am trying to say is that when people put hard work and effort into something its frustrating when people can't recognise that and think that its all just fallen into your lap... i am not comparing myself to unfrtunate people who have to work to make ends meet and so can't have horse etc etc i am more thinking of people who compete and don't get the results they want because they haven't put the preparation in- does that make sense?
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Think McNaughty was being ironic! I agree with you, last year I won lots and everyone said how lucky we were. Sadly not lucky at all, just practised every day and night!

You are lucky that you have a good horse and are able to train him well though. Best of "luck" for this year too ;)
 
I got told I was "so lucky" to have land and keep my horses at home, by a lady who thinks the world owes her a living, and wanted to keep her children's pony at my place.

I told her that actually, I worked very hard to get my place, which costs me over £1k a month in mortgage, and unfortunately wasn't able to offer her livery as it's a private yard with no business insurance.

Made her think... :)
 
Happens with everything I think. Happy hackers are equally afflicted. Aren't you lucky your horse is good to catch, good with the farrier, easy to worm, stands still to mount, doesn't try and bite when you do the girth up etc etc. All entirely down to blind luck of course!

Also I'm really lucky my horse has good enough feet to go unshod - the hours spent researching "barefoot", the "weird" diet my horse is on and all the time I spend obsessing over his feet has nothing at all to do with it, it's entirely down to his genetics and I'm very lucky he happened to be one of the few that can do it.
 
Vodkagirly said:
Bet you find the more you practise the "luckier" you get?
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Agree with Vodkagirly.

People see well behaved horses and don't think for a minute theirs could be the same if they put the time and effort in. Everyone wants a quick fix these days, not helped by some of the headline horsepeople making it appear it really is that simple and easy.

Enjoy your success Diggerbez, heaven knows you've worked hard to make it happen.
 
I couldn't agree more with the OP!
It is so frustrating when people just dismiss your hard work and just see the finished product and think you just did nothing.
I had a pony who had just been ridden by boys who liked galloping his whole life, when we got him he went like a camel getting about 40% in dressage tests and he was petrified of jumping. After 2 years of work he was up to B test standard but a comment I got off my friend was "ohh but your lucky because Westie just does all the work"
Excuse me!?!
She's also one of these people who never ride then go and compete and can't figure out why she is doing so bad. I'll get the same comments with my current horse aswell, all the work I do is dismissed!!

Sorry for slight hijack I just get so fed up with these people
 
I understand where you are coming from but in my book you are lucky.

Everyone on my yard knows how hard I've been working to demolish all my horse's bad habits picked up from his various owners. His habits ranged from; no respect for people on the ground, nightmare to catch (2 hours per day) during spring/summer, rearing during shoeing and napping when ridden. Whilst most of them have been overcome with hard work, others are left questionable i.e. he still has a few sticky spots where he's in the habit of napping.

I am also unable to load him due to no box available to practice with and a previous owner's decision to use electric tape to load him. This means that I am likely to miss out on sharing the experience of taking him to the beach, going on endurance rides, having a riding lesson in the evening unless summer (need to hack there instead) etc.

My point is; whilst many challenges can be overcome with hard work, others may not. Surely that must mean you have a little luck on your side at least. :)
 
I consider myself very lucky to have a sound, healthy, sane young horse to look forward to enjoying the coming season with. Yes I've helped the luck by changing the horses I wasn't happy with, knowing what I was looking for when I bought him, keeping him somewhere he's not likely to get injured, riding him regularly, etc, etc. However, I've tried as hard before and still had nothing but frustrations. Seriously, when things are going well with horses, you are very, very lucky.
 
I don't think the OP is trying to imply that she doesn't feel lucky at all!!!! We are all lucky when we have fit, healthy horses, but I quite agree that there are some things that are down to pure hard work, but also sticking it through when it doesn't go right.

I would take it as a compliment that people think you make it look so easy and put the lucky comments down as a backhanded complement. Cos talent has something to play in it all as well and I'd take the lucky comments as proof you're not bad at all :D:D:D:D

PS - I had this with my cob, that I'd got from only schooling in a very harsh american gag to a snaffle, and starting to work at elementary. It used to drive my instructor bats when people would say, she's so lucky to have Tom who goes so nicely, when she knew the starting point and the blood sweat and tears that went in. Her reply used to be - no, she just makes it look easy ....

heh heh heh!

But, our luck ran out with an arthritic knee :(
 
I Know what you mean and totally agree with you in the situation you are describing. Really annoying!!


Flame_ said:
I consider myself very lucky to have a sound, healthy, sane young horse to look forward to enjoying the coming season with. Yes I've helped the luck by changing the horses I wasn't happy with, knowing what I was looking for when I bought him, keeping him somewhere he's not likely to get injured, riding him regularly, etc, etc. However, I've tried as hard before and still had nothing but frustrations. Seriously, when things are going well with horses, you are very, very lucky.
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Also totally agree with this as I am in EXACTLY the same position.

I do feel lucky that the horse I have now is far easier than my last one. My last horse I had 8 years and although I put just as much into him/if not more I am getting far better results (personal not yet competition) with new ned.

Although I know it is not what the OP mean't there are people out there who put in so much and do it right! but the horse just doesn't respond as well.

For example I spent 6yrs trying to get my last horse to work in a nice outline working thro, could not do it consistently at all.

However with my new young horse I have used the same methods and within weeks he is so much better than old horse was at the end of 8yrs!!!

I used the same ideas etc when I bought both of them so what went wrong with the first one, it obviously wasn't me in the end it did come down to luck.

Current young neddie is the BEST horse I have EVER owned and to think I so nearly did not buy him. Just happened the right friend was with me at the time was that luck or was it that I had gone to the trouble of choosing a friend who knew what I needed? who knows :D
 
fortune favours the brave........ and the industrious.

^^i like this! is going to be my new mantra! :D
i DO accept that i'mlucky that the hard work ispaying off-my last horse was such hard work that i can appreciate having a nice horse who is sound who is helpful...but thats not what i'mcomplaining about- its all the people who put zero effort in and think that you are the same that annoy me!

GleefulImp- yes should take it as a compliment i guess :o
 
It is frustrating. I get it a lot with my job, being told I am 'lucky'.

Well, I am, I know. But I spent a long time contacting every relevant company I could find within a 100 mile radius, spending every evening gaining new skills and sheer bloody perseverence before I 'got lucky' 6 months later.

I know horses are not quite the same! But I do believe you make your own luck, to some extent. Just smile sweetly and keep being 'lucky' :D
 
I know just what you mean Diggerbez. 7 years ago people wouldn't even hold Mick while I went to the loo! Now, the same people say how lovely he is and how lucky I am to have him. :confused::confused:

They must think I got up one morning and he had turned into a different horse!!

You could say I'm lucky as I can afford to train and compete regularly, but I sacrifice other things to pay for it. So if I was that lucky I would be dripping in designer clothes instead of Asda and go out every weekend instead of about 4 times in the last year.
 
You're not alone in this, and it's not just horses either! Oh, aren't we' lucky' to have our own land - well yes we are, but we still have to insure it, harrow, top it, repair the fences and buildings, and I would say those at a livery yard are lucky - a school to use, other people to share duties with, even other people to ride with!

We get this at work too, aren't we 'lucky' to have a successful small feed merchants, again yes we are, but come and work with us for a week and lift about seven tonnes of feed and bedding (my husband carries more than this, I carry less), carrying items to peoples vehicles and delivering in all weather, maybe you won't feel lucky then - just tired and a bit grumpy! And yes we are 'lucky' to have a Landrover - what's that, we're so 'lucky' that we must have paid cash for it and bought it brand spanking new? - uh no, it's secondhand, on finance, costs a fortune, but means that we can still carry out deliveries to our customers through the snow.

I do feel lucky to have the horses, and I totally understand that you get back what you put in - hence my 19 year old cob has always been daft at shows, as I couldn't afford to educate him as much as he should have been with lessons, travelling etc - but I'm still really lucky to have him. The four year old homebred will soon be starting work, hopefully that will go well enough that people wil class us as being 'lucky' to have such a nice homebred (fingers crossed anyway!)

Sorry, ranted a bit, but I feel your pain!
 
No idea :rolleyes:

With our neds, because most of them were young and inexperienced when we got them, each time of doing anything with them was another building block in their experience and lives, which we all would benefit from in time. It's that thought that has, at times, made me get on when my knees were quaking/the weather was rubbish/I should have been doing something else/I was short on time/I was tired/I was hurting/I wanted to go drink tea and eat cake instead :rolleyes::D
 
Yes I've been told I'm lucky to have such a nice horse, and all I have to do when I ride him is just sit there and he does it all for me!!
Never mind that I've owned him since he was a yearling and I backed him and done everything myself! I've spent hours schooling him and ££££ having lessons to get this lucky...
 
I think it's not usually meant as "Your horse is brilliant by luck" but rather "You have produced a wonderful horse, I'm jealous, that makes you 'luckier' than me." To me, it's a polite but imprecise way of conveying awe and envy!
 
Totally agree with op and others on here and really understand the need to have a rant. Buy mine as foals and spend 4 years quietly working at home only to be told aren't I lucky they just do it. I now take this as a big compliment. Have a rising 5 and 2 year old at present and spend as much time with the 2 year old as I do the 5 year old not to mention the 60hr weeks at work. Am lucky that half my shifts are night shifts (hence posting now) which means that if I only have 4 hrs sleep I've got daylight hrs to work the horses. Must say though wouldn't change anything (although a lottery win wouldn't go amiss!)
 
I think that I am very lucky! We put in lots of work, (as much as we can in this weather) no school, mud everywhere etc... etc.. Don't get placed all the time at shows, but some shows are like that ie if the face fits.
But I think we are extremely lucky, to have what we do.
Having said that practice makes perfect, so the more you put in the more you get out.
 
i think myself pretty 'lucky' too.

However when people say 'u are lucky' i dont think they mean that things have just fallen into your lap, i think they genuinly admire your commitment etc. and also, you maybe understand the amount of 'luck' you do have.... for everything that goes well, luck does play a part. Remember some people arent so lucky, there are many people who live healthily but get sick, work hard but lose their job or look after their horse and lose it to colic (for eg.) personally i feel lucky everytime i sit on my horse ;-)
 
I think I am lucky to have found a 'hobby' I love so much and that involves you developing a incredible bond and working out how best to work with an intelligent animal to bring out the best in both of you.

I am lucky to have my mare and I am def lucky that she seems a healthy and sound sort (touch wood!) - that she is polite and well mannered is absolutly not luck though, that is alot of dammed hard work over nearly 2 years to change her from an ignorant spoilt brat to mannered and sane riding horse. I am lucky that she now understands working from behind and being light in the hand and is getting to be a joy to school - again with work! She used to slop along in walk, no other paces available! She went with the flexibility of a plank of wood and the only reason your hands (even with the most feather light touch!) were there were as a prop or to have a temper tantrum against.

There is def luck involved, but a well mannered nicely working horse is so very rarely luck and is more a case of alot of blood, sweat, and tears and finding a way of working together that suits you both. We go out to comps well turned out (and carefully and patiently prepared) and we rarely come home without a rosette, that isn't luck, that is early mornings, late nights and alot of work!
 
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