If I knew then what I know now...

[Heinz_57]

I would have bought fewer horses, and ridden some of them longer (and gotten farther). A few I should have kept but didn’t, a few I never should have bought at all.

All that aside, I wouldn’t have bought this place that didn’t even have an arena, or at least would have found a way to install one right away. I’ve now spent 8 years struggling to keep horses ridden when the weather allows, because my ‘arena fund’ got sucked up by last minute changes during closing.

My arena should be done this year. Finally.

[RainWeasley]

I started thinking about this, and came up with a few things (like I wish I hadn’t messed around so much the first several years of college having no idea what I wanted to do, changing majors, and picking up SO MUCH DEBT), but if I had done anything differently at all I wouldn’t have ended up in my field, or with my horse (possibly not into horses at all), with my job, and I like my life. The only thing I would really change is this stupid anxiety/derealization crap that started up again a year and a half ago, but I’ll eventually work through it again.

[HappyGirl77]

In the realm of college education, I’m glad I spent the money on a degree I’m passionate about (Equestrian Science from Stephens College) instead of ‘something practical’ as that is the education I’ll use every day of my life. Side note, nor for a min do I regret riding saddleseat instead of the more intense dressage program, I might have picked up a different way of sitting on a horse but boy oh boy was it FUN!
-along the lines of what Heinz57 said, I would have focused more on the footing at the barns I boarded at instead of the friends I boarded with (can always get new friends, horses don’t grow new tendons)
-someone mentioned online used books, thriftbooks.com was a life changer for me. Horse books are expensive and hard to find online and at some libraries, being able to access affordable books about equine fitness, training ect was huge for me and improved my knowledge base tremendously!

• and lastly never did I ever think that dropping $$$ on expensive stirrups (and helmets) was an investment in my own safely! Who’d have thunk that spending $100 on the little metal doh-dah I put my foot in would change my entire leg! Wish I had learned that earlier!!

[AltersAreUs]

• I would have accepted that my mare was never going to make an jumper, even a low level one, and moved her over to dressage much sooner. I only got a few years with her doing dressage before arthritis and other health issues sidelined her but that mare had the brains & personality to go much further than we did. My “young” horse has the body but oh, the brains haven’t grown in yet.

• I would have left THAT trainer after the first year instead of wasting almost 5 believing her “but she’s so much stronger now” fake progress BS. Now I know that proof is in the pudding/scores. If none of a trainer’s students are getting higher than the low 60s and none of them ever make it past 2nd, well, they aren’t going to get me to PSG no matter how good their spiel is.

[polkadotedpony]

This is a great thread! I don’t think of it as such a regretful debby downer thread, rather it’s great wisdom we can use to apply to our own decisions now.

• I would have been more skeptical of the recommendations from a friend about trainers outside their discipline (there is such a thing as someone being too nice/generous in their assessments). I would have gotten advice from people who actually know the discipline, the process, know the players and I would have pulled the plug/consulted others as soon as my spidey senses said something was off (BLM horse adoption gone very bad)

• I would have realized that a boyfriend who is jealous of your horse time is never going to change/learn to be supportive. Glad I learned that lesson prior to marriage

• I would have taken way more pictures of my favorite school horses/project rides

[RhythmNCruise]

There’s a lot of history behind this that I won’t bore everyone with, but I wish that when I started my gelding almost 10 years ago, I had taught him to respond correctly to leg aids. Unfortunately, in spite of having a dressage foundation and background from when I was a teenager and young adult, I had drifted into the world of AQHA/ApHC type hunters and all-around/western stuff, and having a “lazy” horse that needs to be pushed every stride was actually thought of as an asset. So, when I climbed on my gelding when he was two (ugh…something else I’m not proud of), and he was like “whatever” and I had to kick like crazy to get him to do anything. He was always pleasant about it, and eventually did learn to w/t/c and even show in hunter under saddle classes. But NOW I’m reconnecting with my love for dressage and am at a nice little low key dressage barn, and I’d give anything to have a horse who I don’t have to nag with my leg all the way around the arena to keep him going.

We’re working on it, though. He turns 12 next week and poor guy now has to learn that everything he was taught BY ME from day one is wrong. But he’s a kind soul, so hopefully it won’t irritate him too much!

Other than that, there have been plenty of mistakes. A big non-horse one…I would have done a bit more due diligence on my new (to me) house and found the water damage from a leak near the chimney, and I would have double checked the survey map before telling the fence guys where to put the vinyl privacy fence! Oops!

But mostly I would have trained my horse correctly. LOL.

[noreins]

I wouldn’t have let my horse be the one the new-to-boarding barn owner made her mistakes on. Originally I thought it would be okay since she had an experienced barn manager on board to help, but when their friendship deteriorated I stuck around and figured out she didn’t know what she was doing. I would have saved myself a pretty large vet bill if I had been more discerning.

I also probably would’ve waited until I was more financially stable to buy a horse - though I don’t regret owning her for one second. But I had to make a lot of compromises in barns to stay in budget, and it was honestly stressful. I had to euthanize my mare 3 years ago this July, and a big part of why I haven’t gotten another horse yet is because I want to be able to afford to keep her somewhere where I don’t have to worry about her when I’m not there.

In terms of personal goals - I wish I realized sooner that my performance at shows wasn’t reflective of my ability to ride or my self-worth. I wish I had realized the height of the jumps that I jumped wasn’t a measure of my character, and that if what I enjoyed was my dressage lessons and my hacking out then it was perfectly fine to leave my eventing dreams behind and focus on what made me happy. I really wish I had figured that out sooner, instead of weeks before I would have to euthanize my mare.

[J-Lu]

As I look back on horsie things, I have no regrets at all. Everything made sense at the time and I’ve learned much. I’ve worked hard, have been picky about people I work with, and have been relatively lucky. So far. Except for breeding. I wouldn’t go down that path again but I learned so much.

Now, ask me about the rest of my life! :lol: