Wow. Catching up on the last many pages and this certainly took a turn.
I will say one thing: the best way we could go about decreasing interest and participation in the sport of Eventing is to turn this discussion (though now really an echo chamber) into the first annual meeting of the Get Off My Lawn Club. The sheer number of pejorative references to younger people (âwhipper snappersâ, the much maligned âyounger generationâ including a list of all the things âtheyâ donât respect, âjuvenile twitsâ, trantrums, 3-year olds, etc.), mocking their twitter names, their looks, their concerns, weaponizing terms like âwokeâ, and on and on is just :eek:. And âtheyâ are the ones who donât see the other side? âTheyâ are the ones who are set in their ways and donât care about others?
Even âolderâ folk line @OverandOnward are mocked merely for presenting an alternative scenario to the one everyone agrees with. Her scenario is put down as âspeculatingâ and evidence of a grudge against someone she never knew about until a week ago, while the other one is treated as gospel even while itâs acknowledged as what âmost likely happened.â
If I were a young equestrian with some money to spend, or a parent looking to invest a lot of money to get my child into an equestrian sport, this thread would convince me that Eventing was the last place that would be welcoming of a young rider, regardless of socio-economic/ethnic background. Iâm not surprised @ake987 stopped posting several pages back.
The âyounger generationâ (and many others beside them) may, indeed, have different concerns, different culture, different values. Belittling them and name calling (and it started well before anything appeared on twitter, so thatâs no excuse, nor is responding in kind, esp if maturity and diplomacy is the angle youâre pushing) does nothing to either resolve problems like this or make the sport attractive to them. And simply because other generations were painted with a broad brush doesnât mean we should perpetuate that nonsense and tell them to just suck it up. We should be the ones to do better by them than was done before. The anger and vitriol here aimed at younger people all on the strength of reconstructions of what âmost likelyâ happened is really off putting. Especially from people accusing them of approaching everything the wrong way, being too aggressive, not understanding the other side, pushing an agenda. Where is this diplomacy and grace and respect that, by comparison, you claim the younger generation is missing? We donât even know how many young people are really angry about what has happened and wish it hadnât - who disagree with EN - but they are alienated anyway.
Not a good look for the sport at all.
Flame away, Iâm 100% expecting it. But off line think about the anger and negatively spewed at young people here the last many pages and at least examine privately the wisdom of that response. Ask the simple question: is all this any better a tactic for change and/or community and consensus building than what you think EN did to the LO and event manager?