What a world we live in now…
20 years ago, if I fell off, my parents looked at me like… how do you stay on next time? What went wrong?
They didn’t blame the trainer, or the horse, or me. They just wanted to understand what happened (ie horse spooked at base of jump bc the wind blew trees next to it over; I got to the big one and horse was like, no thanks, you go over it solo; landed off jump and horse was already downhill and dropped shoulder, bucked, and I was pitched into a sandy mud puddle). Sometimes there was an answer to the question. Sometimes I just shrugged and said, “Can’t explain to a horse why a huge gust of wind happened and why the tree that fell over wasn’t going on the attack. There are no mulligans in the hunter. It happens”.
Honestly, having them stay so mum about it and not assign blame but rather understand accountability made me want to get back on and prove to myself that I could do it better next time. I spent less time upset and pointing fingers and more time trying to troubleshoot.
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Boy isn’t this the truth.
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Sorry this happened but truly for the best. I had this happen a few years ago. Had a boarder who I mentored and she was not coming out to the barn at all or riding much. Didn’t see her for 2 weeks, then I went XC schooling with my friend and she was mad I didn’t invite her. I said you haven’t ridden your horse in 2 weeks, I’m not taking you schooling if you aren’t riding regularly. Her horse was a very green guy, going would have been a bad ride for them all and not fair to the horse.
She moved barns not too long after. Same person is still riding but getting a new horse every year because amazingly, the horses she has never do what she wants because she never has any sort of consistency. Bye bye
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