Michen
Well-Known Member
My dressage instructor asked me this during my (once a month, tick box exercise) lesson last night. He made the fair point that if I wasn’t as committed or interested in overly improving the dressage to chase rosettes, why spend any money on dressage lessons and not just use it for jumping instead.
I actually couldn’t answer him, I’m not competitive yet I can’t deny that a rosette is nice to get. I clearly don’t have enough competitive drive to make more effort to improve and therefore climb up the placing or take it more seriously. Yet I’m constantly pushing myself to do more, entering 90s when I could stick at 80 and have a much more relaxing day nerves wise... I’m not even sure why. Achievement at that extra 10cms?
I suppose in my head I think Badminton grassroots is the end goal for any rider at my level, and I don’t believe I’d ever have the dressage to get there however much work I put into it, so I almost have a “what’s the point†attitude. For me the highlight of the day is that post XC elation, a nice photo and a fun day out with friends. Equally I have just as much fun out hunting with the same outcome. I’m not even sure why I’m still having Bog do the odd comp at a higher level, originally it was to get him super established so that he could help me out at the level below. But he’s already there, he doesn’t need to be going around 100’s to help me out at 90, yet I get loads of pleasure from watching him grow and improve with another rider. Maybe there’s a secret ambition to one day do one myself that I’ve not yet acknowledged!
So why do you guys actually compete? Chasing qualifiers? What’s the end goal?
I actually couldn’t answer him, I’m not competitive yet I can’t deny that a rosette is nice to get. I clearly don’t have enough competitive drive to make more effort to improve and therefore climb up the placing or take it more seriously. Yet I’m constantly pushing myself to do more, entering 90s when I could stick at 80 and have a much more relaxing day nerves wise... I’m not even sure why. Achievement at that extra 10cms?
I suppose in my head I think Badminton grassroots is the end goal for any rider at my level, and I don’t believe I’d ever have the dressage to get there however much work I put into it, so I almost have a “what’s the point†attitude. For me the highlight of the day is that post XC elation, a nice photo and a fun day out with friends. Equally I have just as much fun out hunting with the same outcome. I’m not even sure why I’m still having Bog do the odd comp at a higher level, originally it was to get him super established so that he could help me out at the level below. But he’s already there, he doesn’t need to be going around 100’s to help me out at 90, yet I get loads of pleasure from watching him grow and improve with another rider. Maybe there’s a secret ambition to one day do one myself that I’ve not yet acknowledged!
So why do you guys actually compete? Chasing qualifiers? What’s the end goal?
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