Did trainers name start with a R and end in ex and was in michigan by chance? I had one as a kid/teen and this sounds just like him…
i keep looking at this thread and reading the new entries.
Can’t say i made any major mistakes. I CAN say that following my dream has made my life complete. Horses are my answer to: What makes me happy?
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I think it largely depends on your age and resources when first starting.
If you’re a bit older, more mature and are taking lessons with a great instructor without owning the horse with most of your time supervised, I’d say there is a smaller margin for error.
But perhaps, if you’re very young, a heathen, don’t have access to a trainer, have horses sitting in your backyard with parents just as oblivious, I think your margin for error is wide, wide open.
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I’ve seen many older women, especially those without a deep knowledge base or high level of physical fitness actually get taken advantage of the worst. 
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I am over 3 decades deep in horses and am going a bit crazy w/my current one, who is making me second guess everything i thought i ever knew. Ugh.
My biggest mistake though was sticking with my first dressage instructor past the point where it was obvious i had outgrown her. I was a kid/teen though and was more or less under the impression it was her or no horses and i was an ungrateful spoiled child for wanting more success than i could achieve at her barn. This relationship/experience had a pretty substantial impact on my self esteem outside of the horse world too. Flip side is, i was given a lot of responsibility at her farm, built a reasonable skill set and competencies that have served me well enough in horses/riding since, so I am very grateful for the opportunity i had with her from that POV. But that feeling that i don’t deserve any training or competitive success unless i work myself into dust does not go away. I spend most of my days feeling like a truly incompetent rider.
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