[QUOTE=Sunsets;7697504]
IMHO, dressage tends to attract overly-analytic types who like thinking about every bit of a ride. This can manifest in a rather annoying fashion in some people. Not that they aren’t trying, they just seem to like talking about riding rather than getting out there and struggling with it. (I’ve seen a few riders at clinics spend more time on their horse discussing theory with the clinician than they do actually riding in front of him - seems a waste of money to me, but hey, not my life). [/QUOTE]
Now, now, I’m an overly-analytic type as well as a born-and-cultivated Theory Head. Heck, I ragged on Rene Descartes in another thread about the mind/body problem in the ASSumptions people make about smart people being physical idiots on horseback.
And I tend to give a horse a very “intellectual” ride. That is to say that I focus every minute on our conversation, mainly trying to make sure that what I “say” to the horse next makes sense to him in the context what what he said/did last. I promise you, the beasties don’t complain. In fact, they dig having a ride that’s so them-centric. Even when I choose to chill on a trail ride or let some ring-bound horse gallop outside or screw around bareback, that’s in service of the horse’s development and what he seems to need on that day to keep him happy.
ETA: Come to think of it, I was always this way, even when I rode fox hunters (and didn’t want to die), groomed for trainers, sat on crappy polo ponies that we hoped we’d someday make into quieter riding horses. I always brought my propensity to think carefully to what I did with horses. Dressage isn’t the only place this happens.
And I do appreciate the stereotype that folks who can’t/won’t/don’t wanna master the physical stuff build libraries and master the talk and ideas instead. I, too, stayed away from competitive dressage for a long time because of this. I’m still afraid that showing won’t be fun because of the company I’ll have to keep.
But-- and related to the topic–I have learned that it is really boring to listen to someone else’s intimate conversation with a horse. I don’t talk about this detailed stuff unless asked. I consider that common decency.
And, OP, if you have ever bored someone with your riding talk, just consider this recent experience to be the universe showing you what it was like to be on the receiving end of your horse stories. Be polite and don’t participate much in the conversation. When your time in Purgatory is done, your sins of boring others with horse talk expunged, she’ll leave you alone.
