There is always that tension, for those of us of ordinary means. I could get rid of my three (one retired, one less talented with soundness issues and one sound and more talented, but work ethic didn’t come pre-installed) and save up more quickly for a nice horse, But then, I’m losing out on building my own skills on less perfect horses in the meantime, and I have done the waiting around for a nice young one to mature, then have the whole thing go south and have to start over after losing 2 years of my youth to the process. The trick is advancing as a rider and getting the stars to align to join forces with the right equine partner, acknowledging that we learn from every horse we work with.
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Fair is for Monopoly.
FACT
You don’t need a 6 figure horse to move up the levels. You don’t need to compete at the FEI level to ride a GP test.
If you are pursuing the USDF medals you don’t have to win your class.
FACT: If you want WIN your classes and compete at FEI levels then you do have to get the 6 figure highly trained WB and FEI level instructors and you are going to need money and lots of it.
FACT
It is easier and faster to move up the levels with a horse that is bred for the discipline.
Opinion
I dont think that Dressage is elitist in the sense of being exclusionary. Nobody is jacking up the prices to keep “them” out. It’s not a club with rules designed to keep the undesirables in their place.
If they raise the fees it’s because of a thing called profit margin.
I dont see that as unfair. The USDF isn’t a charity.
Nor is the FEI. They make the rules of competition and those rules do not place restrictions on who can compete based on race, gender, or socioeconomic factors.
You pay the fees, you get to compete.
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Well, actually, the USDF IS a non-profit organization, it is NOT a for-profit business. It is organized under IRS Code 501©(3), which is for charitable organizations. Here are some quotes from the IRS website:
Organizations described in section 501©(3) are commonly referred to as charitable organizations.
The organization must not be organized or operated for the benefit of private interests, and no part of a section 501©(3) organization’s net earnings may inure to the benefit of any private shareholder or individual. If the organization engages in an excess benefit transaction with a person having substantial influence over the organization, an excise tax may be imposed on the person and any organization managers agreeing to the transaction.
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Thanks for the clarification. But my point is that it does not exist to make it easier for people with less money to compete with the richer members.
(I admit I dont know that much about them as it’s been awhile and the organizations keep changing names. )
I know at one time there some kind of scholarship programs but I thought those were more geared to people wanting to become trainers.
I’m pretty sure Sweet Sue who is living off ramen noodles and driving a POS and riding an OTTB she mostly schools herself cant just go to a recognized show and beg them to reduce her fees and expenses because she’ll be competing against Miss Richie Rich who rides an imported WB and trains 5 days a week with a BNT and goes to clinics given by Olympic medalists and it’s just not fair.
Please tell me if they do, and sign me right up.
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We don’t have any CPEDIs available to us in New Zealand - have to fly to Australia for that :eek:
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But “sport” was never meant to reduce to a spending contest, either.
Fair is indeed for Monopoly. But it is also for sport which is a made-up contest just like Monopoly is.
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I’ve been thinking about this a lot as my wonderful horse ages and I think about what’ll come next.
I have a lovely (but quirky and sometimes difficult and non-purpose-bred) giveaway horse and have managed to move up several levels by working my tail off to support that progress financially and athletically. Showing has been secondary to enjoying the process, mostly because showing is very expensive and in my recent income bracket an entire show season can be made or broken by a big vet bill (or human hospital bill), or the associated physical setbacks, or personal/professional circumstances (e.g. moving cross-country).
I’m o.k. with that. My horse is talented but not fancy, and I’ve found that even without any real interest in competing against others, the “compete against yourself” model isn’t necessarily rewarding enough to be worth the money. The more scores I’ve earned and observed over the years, the less confident I am that the signal-to-noise ratio in dressage judging (esp. for rides at the levels I’m likely to ride in the future, on horses of the sort I might be able to afford to ride) is sufficient for me to use test scores to make sound inferences about my progress. Only part of that has to do with variability in judging; having the power to make inferences is also a function of sample size.
Even though I am financially far more secure now than I have been in prior years I still can’t spend the money and time to show enough in a season to gather enough score data to necessarily discern improvement from noise in scores (good day/bad day effects, judging subjectivity/distributional properties of scoring, known errors). And this is doubly true when the improvement of interest is a specific movement rather than the aggregate performance at a level. So the more time I’ve spent at shows the less attractive showing has seemed to me, especially as the sort of yardstick we’re all told it should be for confirming progress and engaging in some healthy self-competition. And at the end of the day I get far more joy out of feeling a movement improve during a lesson than from having a judge award an extra point for that movement, anyway.
I once got upgraded randomly to first class on an intercontinental flight. I don’t expect to have that kind of luck again while traveling. Similarly, I don’t expect sheer luck (and patience and dedication and willingness to ride anything and being active in a dressage community) to have another talented needs-a-home horse land in my lap again. And when I think about the horses I might be able to afford in the next chapter of my equestrian life I don’t know if it makes sense to focus my equestrian goals on dressage. I’m passionate about this sport and I’m sure it will be part of what I do with the next horse. But after having some hard-won success I’m not sure it would be all that rewarding to put all of my eggs in the dressage basket with a horse whose deck is likely to be stacked harder against them physically. Maybe the next horse will have a different primary talent and dressage will just be something we do quietly, at a non-dressage barn, in a less goal-oriented way, and with less trainer input. Because it’s good for developing athletic horses and communicative riders and will always be something I enjoy. But it might not be worth the kind of resources I’ve put into it in the past when the ceiling is lower.
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Well, I dunno. Ever body starts with a level playing field.
”‹i compare FEI level Dressage to Competitive Ice Skating .
There are ice skating rinks in just about every state but if you want to be competitive you have to move to area that has the best instructors.
You can learn to ice skate without 20 pairs of custom dyed skates , designer costumes, ballet lessons, and Choreographers, and elite coaches and rink time 5 or 6 days a week.
But without all of the above, you will not be able to compete at the international level if that is the goal. You just cant. There was a time when you could , probably before television ruined amateur sports.
Is that fair? I dont know. In the US we are guaranteed the right to pursue happiness. There is no guarantee that you will get it and no inherent promise that I can see that the government or any body else is obliged to help you do it. Especially in something like sports.
Now, in Europe and some other countries the government does sponsor sports teams. Is that good or bad? I dont know.
And what is the limit? Do they support you the whole way, or do you pay your own way until you get selected and then they pay for that particular competition?
Anyway, dont get me wrong, i would love to see a program that helped talented but income challenged riders achieve their goals.
If I had my way ever’body would be born permanently thin and have a million dollars.
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Another thought as I was thinking more about this today. When I was growing up in Hunterland, there were different types of rated shows. They were generally well run, well attended and quite competitive, but attracted different customers. Pretty much everyone started out at the C shows, often on school horses, but there were plenty of classes for higher level riders, mounted on what we would then have called nice local hunters.
The great, great majority of the riders were solidly middle class and there were plenty of them, showing over the same type of jumps and for the same types of judges that one might find at the A shows. There might also be a few professionals, showing in the open classes, making up some green horses. There were year end awards and banquets and a lot of socializing at the exhibitor parties. Unlike the schooling shows I see today, which is the nearest equivalent I can think of, people turned out for those shows exactly as you would for an A show. You braided, wore your show clothes, the whole nine yards.
I don’t recall anyone ever feeling or suggesting that these were somehow inferior to the big A shows… the people at these shows could RIDE, for the most part, and you had to, if you wanted to ribbon in that company. It was just the appropriate place to show a horse if you had that nice “local hunter” and lots of people did so.
Of course there were also the big fancy A shows and it was understood that you would have to have something fancier in that company; those horses more often belonged to wealthier people and there were plenty of those as well. A barn would often have a mix of both types of customers, and the head trainer would perhaps take the A show clients to one event while the assistant might take the B or C show clients on a given weekend, if there happened to be a conflict. But there were also plenty of barns where there was just one trainer and they did a bit of both.
I don’t know if any similar local type shows existed in dressage, or if they did but faded away as I think they have in hunters. In my area there seem to be quite a few schooling shows advertise a show experience at a lower cost, but they seem to be just that: schooling opportunities. The horses aren’t braided, people are in polos, etc. Nothing wrong with that of course! But the atmosphere is different than a rated show and from what I understand, the judges have different credentials than you would find at the rated events.
There are also plenty of rated dressage shows, of varying qualities. I can go to our local horsepark (which used to be wonderful, but sadly now has cr*p footing) and spend a few hundred bucks for a weekend show with decent judges. I could also pony up for the same weekend at, say, Tryon - with nicer amenities, excellent footing etc and spend closer to a grand. Or I could go to Global and obviously spend multiples of that amount. Up until about two years ago (when the footing really declined and I stopped showing there) I rode for many of the same judges at that local horse park as I did at Tryon, with more or less similar scores. So the economic delta was more about how nice the amenities were, particularly for my long suffering DH, who almost always comes with me when I am showing. But in terms of the showing itself - the judges, expectations etc - were pretty much the same at wildly different costs.
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Absolutely fascinating.
Also working well through the levels instead of competing successfully through the levels is remarkable to me.
No doubt buying a youngster or breeding one is a big gamble. Absolutely the truth that riding a variety of horses teaches riding skills you might not obtain only riding made schoolmasters. Undoubtedly we all make choices to fit our horses into our budgets as ordinary people.
Kudos to you for keeping your horses instead of trading them in. I’m always happy to hear of less than perfect horses being kept safe and loved!
Starting my home bred horse myself was a riding experience I may never have again. He was the first horse I’ve backed and easily may be the last. I believe that absolutely elevated my understanding and ability as a trainer and rider. The connection we have surpasses any relationship I’ve ever had with a horse. Even if horse matures in such a way that dressage becomes more mentally suitable for him, I will never have the money to campaign him. Shows are spendy spendy.
So now we are back at the OP’s original query. Is dressage a sport for the mega wealthy? More or less, yes it is. Between the horse, the training, and the showing the costs are prohibitive for those of us with ordinary means. Perhaps if we remove the word sport, and instead only consider dressage as a personal journey with our horses it becomes more budget friendly.
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I do think you can ride and compete in dressage without spending a complete fortune. I don’t know if it’s a rule that only $100K ++ horses (at least at the time of purchase) are what’s needed to win at FEI classes. I can think of plenty of examples where that wasn’t the case - all were very talented riders and either bred their horses or trained them very young ages.
But leaving that aside, I think you can find a lot of personal satisfaction and success with training dressage on a variety of horses and feeling things improve, those “aha” moments, etc. Feeling yourself get to be a better rider - learning to take a non-purpose bred horse and working with them to the point where you can get a fairly successful (~65%) second or even third level test is immensely satisfying and a great feeling, in my opinion. Training a horse for a year where you feel like they’ve learned to be more “with you” in that “throughness” that dressage teaches, is itself a “successful” feeling, at least I think so. Yes, shows are super expensive and I think it all depends on what you mean by dressage itself. This is more in line with the “progressing through the levels” idea of dressage, vs. the idea of flying around and winning international CDIs.
I’m working with a former jumper now who’s 15 and trying to teach her to be a dressage horse. When we get really cool moments where she learns to listen to my seat and stop pulling, and learns to get more through and collected (no easy feat for her physically), it’s awesome. It’s more of a challenge in some ways than working on PSG movements on a different type of horse.
No one can kid themselves that riding horses is more expensive than most pastimes. But also, i can’t think of many sports where competition at an elite, international level doesn’t require some amount of extreme wealth or extreme talent and sacrifice. Few people can have a regular job/life responsibilities and also compete at the Pan Ams or whatever. I grew up really loving competing at the local show on my Morgan/Thoroughbred cross and sometimes getting high 60s at lower levels - we worked so hard and it was an amazing feeling to do a very precise, careful test and outscore the “fancy” expensive WBs.
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This probably won’t help you feel better, but for the Liftmaster Eventing showcase in aiken this year, they had a brochure for people interested in sponsoring, and in it there were USEF demographics:
AffluentӢAvg income is $185,000 Ӣ38%networth>$500,000 Ӣ22% own two or more homes Ӣ40% live on a farm; 66% of those are10 acres or more ӢAverage home $594,000
Active Ӣ30 nights per year in a hotel Ӣ43% take more than 16 airline trips per year Ӣ97.3% hold >1 credit card ӢOwn three vehicles Ӣ53% own a pick-up truck
Decision makersӢ80% make purchase decisions Ӣ63% traded Stocks, Bonds or Mutual Funds in the last year Ӣ85% are women Ӣ66% have college degrees *US Equestrian Federation
And if you have your horse insured, they always want a show record - so I’m not sure what to do to justify value if you don’t do recognized shows. I guess schooling shows and the $$ you spend on training would be sufficient? I’ve not asked them, but I’m well below the average income listed above and it’s super hard to afford showing and training.
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Oh, what a fantastic blog! Thanks for sharing that one!
So, lots of good points made here. I thought I’d share a little math tho. My current horse is 16, confirmed PSG. I bought him as a long yearling and have brought him up with LOTs of lessons and a few years with a trainer while I worked overseas. I got him as a long yearling, asking price was $6000. If we assume that I’ve spent $1200 a month for the past 14 years, I’ve put $168k into this horse (note: back of envelope math for semi high cost board area, supplements, vet bills, showing, training). Do I regret it? Absolutely not. But would I have been better off buying a 20k fancier prospect? Assuming a similar trajectory, I’m pretty confident saying yes. It would be a 3x increase in my initial investment but purchase price remains pretty insignificant compared to the lifetime investment, roughly 3% in both cases, and I would have been significantly more competitive over the years.
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…way back then I once scribed for Karl Mikolka and he said that I should buy the best horse I could afford because ‘a bad horse eats as much as a good horse.’[/QUOTE]
This is the quote I needed to see today as I ponder horse shopping again.
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I get where you are coming from OP. I am inherently risk averse. I could probably fork out 30kk to 45k for a horse, but I never will. For the reasons you state…it could keel over at any point for no particular reason and all the love and care and energy I’ve poured into it will be for nothing. And I can afford to lose that money technically but not in reality. It would take me awhile to replace it and justify another outlay like that. So I won’t.
I am very patient and look for good horses, really well bred and decent movers - with issues. If they are issues I can deal with and perhaps someone else can’t. then there is my next horse. I am realistic, there are some things I can’t deal with but I can deal with a lot more than someone who is dead keen to get in the ring tomorrow. I can also deal with some imperfections in vet results. Again, I know I can because I have in the past. But I know what I can’t deal with too.
It’s all a risk but I just can’t justify the kind of cash outlay the some folks do. Heck I didn’t get a credit card until on line buying became a thing. I managed until my forties with no credit card. and the only debt I ever incurred was a mortgage and that got paid off damn quick. I drove a lot of shit cars and made do…from choice. I always want to be able to afford my lifestyle without financial worry.
I have loved all my horses just as much as anyone who paid ten times that for them. And I think I’ve had as much joy from them too. My current chap - big Trakehener - would have been so expensive back in his day, I probably wouldn’t have been allowed to get close enough to pat him. LOL. And my previous horse was known as so and so’s…60,000 dollar pet when I bought him. He was too big and too strong for his wealthy but new to riding owner. Neither of these two cost me over 9k which is an amount I am comfortable with.
I guess it comes down to risk tolerance and mine is low.
Such a great blog! And as a fellow AA muddling along with my horses in my backyard, I applaud the positivity you bring to the game. I do 100% agree that moving up the levels successfully is possible for normal people with normal horses - assuming we work hard, train correctly and have enough luck to avoid all the normal pitfalls of injuries, etc that all horses and riders potentially contend with.
We should have had a COTH meetup at Global in January - I was there at the same time (although I am definitely in the Loxahatchee-not-Wellington crowd, except for spectating.)
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