Maybe it’s because you’re not worth answering.
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She knows who you are, Missy! Did she introduce herself to you?
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Or because I’m pretty sure I know who the OP is referring to and they’re total criminals. Death trap round pens?
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Why is this book still fussing over USEF’s promotion from last summer’s Olympics?
What mindset do you have to have to be so offended that you wrote enough drivel to qualify as a nonfiction book?
Were the author’s feeling hurt because a non-white person dared to enter what they thought was their own little clubhouse? USEF made a deal with a popular singer to increase interest in equestrian Olympic sports. So what? Are they scared of the competition? Is the author also angry at trainers who offer discounted lessons to disadvantaged equestrians? Do they lose sleep over groups such as the Fletcher Street Riders in Philly? Are they mad at us backyard horsepeople who share our horses with children who aren’t always straight and/or white?
If you are passionate about your hobby or sport, it typically follows that you enjoy sharing it with others. The mindset of “not for you” comes from the ugliest part of human nature. The country clubs that excluded Blacks and Jews. The employers that favored whites. The regimes that persecuted people because of race, religion, sexual orientation, or gender.
Wouldn’t it be nice if we all just enjoyed our horses and left other people alone to enjoy theirs?
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USEF isn’t “just about rules and regulations” any more than the breed associations out there. Here are their stated vision and mission statements from their website:
Vision Statement
To bring the joy of horse sports to as many people as possible.
Mission Statement
To provide access to and increase participation in equestrian sports at all levels by ensuring fairness, safety, and enjoyment.
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Considering the expense to actually participate (unless the numbers thrown around here to show and own a horse are wildly being misrepresented) it seems they mean they want more diverse riff raff to enjoy watching the rich play with their horses.
The biggest hurdle to inclusion the USEF has is $$$ cost of horses and shows.
And to be upfront: as a rider and horse owner, even I do not watch horse sports.
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THIS !
Remember when Keven Hart and Snoop did the short in studio commentary for the Toyko games and they saw Mopsie and dubbed him the “Rave Horse” and they called side passing Crip Walking, during the Toyko games… that was the ah ha moment. IOC and NBC saw dollar signs. And not only that, a whole new demographic was exposed to equestrian sport. This was also around the same time IOC started talking out loud about removing equestrian sports from the games. Showjumping, Dressage, Eventing all used to be aired in the middle of the night and for the Paris Games they all had good time slots… why, to capitalize on the market that Snoop and Hart exposed to horse sport in a 5 min clip 4 yrs ago.
Hiring Snoop (at $500K a day) to play Olympic games mascot was a money grab and an opportunity to keep the torch lit for the equestrian aspect of the games. Also, Snoop invited Martha to do the commentary on the games at Versailles because he is a smart business man and BFFs with Martha and knew that she would enjoy the opportunity.
So you want white passing, black represenation for our “elegant pursuits in our equestrian disciplines”. Disruptors make change. Denzel doing commentary for Dressage (for example) would have been so bland and flat. Snoop was the right choice. He already had a pulse on the Games from Toyko and people love him.People from all walks of life know and enjoy Snoop’s music not just inner city black kids. I am a late-40’s white woman who grew up on Snoop’s music. Equestrian sports needs to be shaken up. (and yes, I know they were not doing commentary, they were filler)
Seeing young black riders like Anna Buffini, Sade Cain, and Sydney Steverson to name a few. We need more people like these young riders for the the sport to continue and Thrive and if that changes the landscape of the riders, the culture, so be it.
Because you are not the demographic advertizers were trying to lure. Not everything is for you.
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Sure…cause everyone else loves watching rich privileged convicted felons and aged drug addict rappers put on completely useless/not-funny/no onscreen chemistry commentary about things they know literally zero about.
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Hmm. No shortage of those in public life. They’re everywhere on the news.
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Lot’s of impulse control issues around here….
[quote=“Sdel, post:251, topic:805080, full:true”]
There are felons as well as drug addicts right now making decisions that effect the American people, but I am NOT going to bring politics into this thread to have it shut down. Seriously the nit pickiness is insane.
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Yes. And traditionally underserved communities have long struggled with societal barriers that have prevented them from amassing said $$$. Just connect the dots. That’s all an “inclusion” narrative wants, is for people to connect the gosh darn dots and look beyond the easy way out of “well they’d be included if they just had money”
The whole elegance thing, it just translates to boring. We all know things like dressage are boring to everyone but us and Denzel commentating would have upped the boring factor to 11 
But the thing is, there’s nothing boring (nor particularly elegant) about bringing along a horse, at any level. It’s literally blood, sweat and tears up until that point we don our fancy coat tails and mount our gleaming steeds and prance into that arena, leaving the grooms and muckers and vets and farriers and army of people and hours toiled behind.
It’s a sport. It requires strength and determination and enthusiasm and teamwork and that’s what I want the world to know about equestrian. I want to debunk the whole “they just sit there” stereotype. And honestly, the Snoop, Martha, Meghan Thee Stallion powerhouse was probably great for getting us seen as something other than landed gentry that just hop on for a ride after a spot of tea.
One of the highest grossing and most popular modern-day celebrities there is did a whole ass prime-time TV commercial for dressage, and we have the gall to call her a hoochie stripper mama. We are truly insufferable.
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I’m sorry to hear you’re apparently having issues.
My sympathies.
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Rein in the personal commentary.
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Yeah this is what I was wanting to say but you just said it better:
Why are some of us pretending like equestrian sports are elegant or the only sport that can be a beauty and joy to watch?
We fall off, hit dirt, dust ourselves off, get back on if we’re able. There’s so many different disciplines within the equestrian umbrella - yeah dressage at the highest levels looks elegant to watch, as does a smooth jumper round, but you want to watch eventing and tell me XC is elegant? Or foxhunting, where they might be dressed to the nines (and okay, that example’s a stretch since it’s not exactly a specator sport in any sense) but they absolutely do sometimes fall off and get those pretty outfits (for the hunts that dress more traditionally) all messed up?
And on the flipside - how many of those propping up equestrian as the ultimate in elegance actually watch/follow any sport that’s not equestrian?
Go look up Reggie Miller’s 8 points in 9 seconds against the Knicks in the '90s, tell me that’s not impressive. Watch an Obi Toppin dunk in slow-mo and tell me it’s not a thing of beauty in it’s own right. Watch Tyrese Haliburton make some impossible-looking pass to his teammates for the assist. For WNBA, I had the good fortune of the one Fever game I made it to last season being one where Aliyah Boston had a 30 point game w/not a single one of those 30 points being a three.
I don’t know football or baseball well but tell me a quarterback throwing a perfect spiral isn’t kind of pretty and a baseball guy doing…uh…okay scratch that example.
Heck, I used to be into swimming as a kid, albeit never competitively, and I caught some of the swimming at the Olympics (might’ve been trials? I can’t remember now.) - tell me if you know swimming enough to know butterfly stroke ain’t easy that it’s not a thing of beauty to watch, done well (in short bursts b/c it gets boring if you try to sit through and actively watch the whole event). Or diving.
I do taekwondo - tell me a well-executed kick to break a board can’t be beautiful and powerful.
You know how many times in HS I’d have other kids I knew say “well you just sit there” - a lot. Don’t run into it as much as an adult who left the sport for longer than I planned and now doesn’t so much mind that it’s still out of my budget b/c I’ve found other things but still like following it some but I know full well people still think that.
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Not sure that applies to Martha, whose whole persona is perfect (and fake) for a gentry spot of tea.
As for Snoop….I’m not sure someone who was a huge life long addict is all that great considering the exact physical and nutritional requirements and dedication….plus all the emphasis on being drug free athletes the Olympic narrative centers on.
They could have achieved the same effect with other celebrity choices, and there were better ones out there.
The Meghan Thee Stallion ad was just boring and unimaginative and really wasn’t clear that it was about equestrian and not a generic Olympic ad featuring her branding. The fact that it was connected to USEF was something I learned from this thread.
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But… isn’t this the point? You’re talking about Snoop and Martha and the Megan Thee Stallion ad and how you felt about them months after the fact. The intention is to get people talking about those events, and that’s precisely what you are doing. The more conversations we have about the commercials or the commentary, the more people will hear about the sport. It doesn’t matter if you liked it or not, but you’re still perpetuating it.
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Not exactly. They did the same stuff with a lot of other sports. Nothing is singling out equestrian or indicating a direct effort to specifically increase equestrian viewership.
And I didn’t actually watch the Olympics either unless I was somewhere else where it happened to be on.
Yknow what im glad this thread has happened, it reminded me I needed to get around to donating to my local urban equestrian center that focuses on offering riding opportunities to children in historically underserved communities 
I love seeing diversity in our sport and will always go out of my way (and out of my pocket book!) to support it when I can.
The more we open our doors to people who might not have been introduced to our sport under usual circumstances, the more we can guarantee the next generation of horsemen.
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They sound awesome!
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