Cob Jockey

Anxiety at A had a good post about having an identity crisis, and after Wordpress ate my comment for the 6th time, I decided to just turn my comment into a post instead.

When watching the Olympics this year, I was struck by how icky Dressage felt to me. Eventing gave me the warm fuzzies - lots of great trips, everyone came home safe, horses that looked like normal horses. And then Dressage - just going off of my own gut feelings, the horses that moved beautifully and normally to my brain never scored well, and the ones that did score well seemed to me like they were moving like robots.

Photo used with permission

I'm not going to turn this into some holier-than-thou keyboard warrior post, it's not that. This is about me and what I want. I don't want that. I don't want a horse that has been bred to move like a robot at the expense of its common sense and durability and a bunch of other things that are a lot more important to a 37 year old adult ammy with a day job than a 10 mover. I want fun, sane, sound, reasonably competitive but not so athletic that they throw me into the rafters because they saw a leaf on the ground.

The best parts of horse shows aren't even what happens in the ring

North Forks Cardi

It means that I know what matters to me, and I align my goals to that. It also means that I support the parts of the Dressage world that I believe ARE doing the right things for the right reasons. My goals in years' past have been things like "qualify for my GMO's championships" (my GMO is awesome) and "compete at National Dressage Pony Cup" (a championship show I don't have to qualify for that puts me on a relatively level playing field for once? Sign me up!) and "finally ride the counter canter serpentine like I've actually seen a serpentine before" (which is a real problem, OKAY).

National Dressage Pony Cup is just a FANTASTIC organization.

I don't buy a full USDF membership, I don't set goals like "score a 70%", and I sure as hell don't give the USDF extra money for qualifying scores. Qualifying for Regionals/Finals is not on my bucket list and I'm, personally, a lot happier for it.

That's not to say you should feel the same way I do. I am forever and always in awe of Karen getting her gold medal and qualifying for the big shows on the self-produced and saintly Hampton, who is not a purposebred leg flinger. She fought hard and persevered through a lot more on-the-bubble scores than most people would have, and I admire the heck out of her for it. Would I do the same? I'm not sure. A gold medal isn't tantalizing to me, although learning to ride those movements is. But I don't need scores for that.

Don't need scores for this either

So where does that leave me? Still here. I'm not "a Dressage rider" any more than I'm "an eventer". The sports I compete in aren't my identity. I feel comfortable supporting the parts of these sports that work for me and my goals and skipping the parts of the buffet line that don't. 

Could literally make a montage of Connor's favorite horse show activity, which is this

Whatever horse you choose to ride, whatever goals you choose to set, whatever sports you choose to compete in, whatever levels you choose to strive for, my sincerest hope for all of you is that you choose those things because you know yourself well enough to know that YOU want them, not because some governing body told you that you should want those things either directly or indirectly. It should feel good deep in your soul to do what you do, and if it doesn't, listen to that feeling. Horses are too all-consuming to feel otherwise.