“Snobbism” in dressage?
That Katie Price will fix? Because she wants to loosen up dressage?
Hm. Lots of interesting thought processes going on, I think says more about people than the situation.
None of it makes any sense to me.
I think this is a reaction against:
People’s own insecurities.
Local dressage queens who are imagined to be uppity and not friendly to new comers.
People who buy expensive horses and make others jealous.
People who don’t want whooping, yelling and screaming during their test. They’re ‘stuffy’, ‘conservative’ and ‘taking all the fun out of dressage’.
So that a ‘topless model’ comes along and everyone should love her when she says she’s going to the Olympics. Because of the things they think they see locally and the resentment they feel about not making it at that level, because they feel dressage stinks - the horses and riders that win, the judging, the organizations, even the traditions…
…but…if anyone else came here and said ‘Yeah I am just going to do it, just because I want to’, 50% of the people here would hop up and shout, ‘follow your dream!’ and bludgeon to death the people who say, ‘Um, excuse me, but it isn’t quite that easy, not sure you realize how hard it is to even just go to the Olympics, let alone do well’.
And it isn’t. I’ve watched people for years, with way more money and time than Katie Price, not make it to the Olympics. Sure, they became better riders due to riding nice horses, having riding lessons, and practicing. But there is more than separates people at that level than money and time. PLENTY of people have the money and time, and they don’t make it to that level.
It is simply not true that wanting to, time and money, will get you to the Olympics. It isn’t true. Apologies to Horatio Alger and the American Dream, but it isn’t true.
SURE, you can improve, and even win some ribbons, with money and time and wanting to. And you can have a lot of fun. But the rest of it…not so easy.
Because it takes more than money, more than time. It takes more than wanting to. It takes more than ‘a good horse, a good coach’. It takes the best coach, and the best horse, and a person who physically has fast reactions, the ability to stay relaxed while working and thinking very hard, and a temperament few people have. You’re not talking about being ‘better’, or ‘improving’, you’re talking about being one of the top 3 riders in your country, and then being one of the top 3 riders of the top 3 rides of all the countries.
Normally, anyone who came here and said, ‘I’ve got the money and I’ve got the time’ would only get agreement from people who highly resent those who they perceive as beating them because of unfair advantage - ‘well OF COURSE they win! they paid more for their horse, and all they do is take riding lessons, they couldn’t take a poop without their coach there helping them! Of COURSE they’ll win if they have money, because the system stinks and that’s all it takes - MONEY.’
No…I’m not saying it’s cheap, or that it doesn’t take a lot of money. I’m saying it takes a lot more than just that - plenty of people have money and lots of it.
For one thing, ‘snobbism’ in dressage is in the eye of the beholder. That someone like Katie Price could or would fix any perceived snobbism…rather a leap of the imagination.
I don’t actually find most successful riders in dressage to be ‘snobbish’ at all. Sure, some local novice riders can be easily frightened and touchy at the local boarding stable. When people are scared to death about their horse popping them out of the saddle, or terrified of competing, they get testy. When they’re not secure in themselves they pick on others, and they don’t get it from doing dressage - it’s all over the horse world. It’s the rally cry of the novice.
All most of the people I met in dressage ever did is lend me a helping hand with my crumby little pony, regardless of how much they had or didn’t have. I don’t think saying a purpose bred horse may be more suitable to the top levels is ‘snobbism’, I think it’s being practical and sensible, despite having non wb for most of my riding life.
I don’t find judges to be ‘snobbish’ against the various American breeds, and I don’t find much ‘snobbism’ in dressage per se - that’s a trait of individuals, and fixed at the individual level, if ever. And it’s something horse people in general seem to fall easily into.
I think it’s also a rather huge stretch of the imagination to say that Katie Price is in dressage because she wants to bring a breath of fresh-air-down-to-earth-salt-of-the-earth to it.
She’s in it because she wants to be, so she can have some fun and make as much money as possible with her clothing line, just like she’s into everything else - singing, acting, modeling.
