this is the same magazine with a headline article from an investment company touting people to ensure their million dollar watches are protected :D:lol::lol:
Give me the kohls $30 special and I am good to go on the watch spectrum.
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Everyone (including me) talks about the good old days when kids were expected to work and have project ponies. But you know what? The whole âfall down and get back upâ idea has gone by the wayside. It is not a popular idea any more. Parents donât want their kid to hit the ground. Concussions are front and center. Liability is always a worry.
We have been brainwashed into thinking that every kid can get into their dream school if they study hard enough and any kid can go to the Olympics if they train hard enough. Thatâs the world we live in. Itâs not that momâs fault that she got caught up with that notion and it is to her credit that she recognized the need to change things.
Again, you guys. Stop being so hateful. Or not. Carry onâŠ
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Agreed! Poor kid, he doesnât deserve to have all of this personal information posted out there in public!
In the article she says she told herself âthis is what Ziggy needsâ but owning multiple ponies and showing places many kids will never get to go are âwantsâ not âneedsâ, and she plainly got caught up in it. From the tone of the article, you would have thought theyâve had to sell the ponies and quit riding, but that is not the case, and the two trainers she mentioned as helping now are hardly small-time local-only operations. Both programs regularly show at A shows (one more so than the other) and have good trainers, and frankly are a much better fit for a pony kid than the barn they left that competed at the biggest shows nationally but didnât really have ponies and other pony kids. And, the area they are in has a plethora of options for good local shows, so if they have to step down from A shows this year (which does NOT make them unique, itâs expensive!), Ziggy will have plenty of lower-cost opportunities to keep competing. People have to make hard choices based on budgets on a daily basis, about things a lot more serious than one childâs hobby.
By all accounts, Ziggy is a nice kid who loves the ponies, I doubt he cares about all the things his mom is lamenting. I hope heâs able to just enjoy his pony and keep riding, without any awareness of all the drama!!
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I was just trying to figure out how one spends $150K per year on a pony kid. I mean, maybe if the pony cost $75K and they spent the whole winter in Wellington?
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I have to say the whole plaid horse platform is garbage to me. Maybe theres good content there, but every podcast/article I have read is more about âfirst world problemsâ than the horses.
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If you look at his USEF record, it will give you some hints - more than one pony, regular travel, possibly some leasing mixed in, etc . . . Itâs still a hefty total unless you are counting some purchase or lease prices in there, but doing multiple weeks at out of town A shows can add up fast, plus the boarding and training costs at home on more than one pony.
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Meghan and Harry donât write an article about how they are slumming it by driving their own car in Canada.
I donât care what rich people do with their money, or if they have grooms, or how much of their money they are donating to starving children. If we get into the âbut someone is worse off than you so give them your moneyâ I think we just spiral downward. What I care about is how itâs slumming it to grown your own pony or go to shows down the road.
Itâs an insult to those of us who do that on a regular basis, and sidesteps the fact that owning a pony period is out of bounds for other income brackets.
Had it been written in a different tone it would have come off differently. Dropping the name dropping would be a start.
Her kid didnât NEED that kind of lifestyle. I donât argue that he loves riding, but heâd love it in pony club too.
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AhaâŠthe article didnât mention there were multiple ponies. Yowza!
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[B]You may be referring to my post, I did not say the child was looking for handouts. In fact- I said the child was indeed a wonderful kid (some of us show and have interacted).
It is not being hateful, sheâs not a victim. She posted a topic online (multiple times on multiple platforms).
Not throwing the blame on you but since you weighed in and know them so well?As a trainer, youâd surely know their budget if youâd discussed it with them. How can the prices be such a shock?
Why would a trainer- any trainer- not say âhighest levels may not be his destiny- letâs get through 2â6 first?â or 2 foot. Or out of ponies?
]Why not a reality check? You donât find that a tad dramatic and unrealistic?
We show- I grew up showing- and our trainer STILL gives a run down of costs, a price sheet. Did the parent just get bombarded with unknown bills and really have no clue?
Taking the ponies and kid to Aiken, Ky etc etc and showing and showing and showing- with moderate results- THAT is rarely for the children. That is for the parents or the trainers.
I do not understand your Prince Harry reference. At all. A Hollywood actress and a Prince- (just like Grace Kelly, Lee Radziwill, Rita Hayworth).
It does not come off as poignant and beautiful to most. It comes off as entitled. The premise is lovely- AA kid has to step back to schooling shows due to finances. And finds his passion is even greater. It is a Hallmark Channel movie. Unfortunately- it is complete with the parent who thinks money is the key to happiness.[/B]
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I donât think anyone has suggested anything negative about Ziggy. I know everything Iâve said on this and Iâve done my best to complimentary to him. He sounds like a wonderful kid, a natural talent, who is happy to throw himself into horses and riding and learning.
Just the same⊠itâs very hard for me to identify with mom, though Iâm sure sheâs a very nice person committed to her kids. I do understand that there is a deep need in a lot of us parents to make our kids happy by whatever means we can. That can indeed blind us (though in my case, that plays out by getting too many lego sets). And coming into the horse world can be overwhelming and get crazy fast. But all that said, weâre living in a world where more and more kids in America are growing up in poverty. Despite employment being high and the stock market booming, more and more people are struggling and stressed over just getting by and paying basic bills. In this kind of environment, itâs kind of hard not to get a bit of a âlet them eat cakeâ sort of vibe here. I mean, itâs harder now and I believe that - divorce and navigating co-parenting, budgeting concerns, etc - it is harder. But if heâs still riding and learning and happy, then⊠heâs still in Pony Dreamland, really.
I know Iâm not âPlaid Horseâ demographic, LOL⊠but itâs just so hard to read her feeling so sad over this after what my family went through when I was little. Or just while I navigate living in an area where 80% of the kids in my sonâs school qualify for free lunch, and I encounter people struggling to pay for food every time Iâm at the grocery store. Several of my sonâs friends canât do local rec league sports (and itâs cheap - about $50 per registration) because of the expense. Itâs very difficult (and maybe a personal failing of mine) to empathize fully with this writer given those things.
I do hope she gets to see her son blossom, it sounds like he will. If anything I think stepping back from Crazy Pony Fever Dreamland will be helpful for his long term success.
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The problem is not that the mother made mistakes in the horse world and in parenting and keeping up with the Joneses, it may not be relatable to most, but on some level weâve all at least thought about spending more than we should chasing dreams.
I see a few real problems though.
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This mother really needs to take a look at how sheâs treating her childâs privacy. This is a child with an unusual, memorable first name and while her blogging may have helped him make connections and move in rarified company, it means that everything that she writes about him will be tied to his reputation for a long time. He already is kind of known as a child who has struggled with bullying and fitting in which, while not shameful, maybe something he wishes had been kept more private as he gets older. Now, his reputation includes being completely indulged by his parents. Again, none of this is his fault but he really should be the one who tells his own story if he chooses to- itâs not appropriate for his mother to make him âinternet famousâ for his and their familyâs challenges.
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If my parent had ever written something like this about our family, I would have instantly read it as saying that my hobby destroyed my parentsâ marriage and tore up my family. The mother doesnât say it this way, but a sensitive child will probably feel some degree of misplaced guilt and that is also compounded with shame that the entire business is so public. Maybe Ziggy understands his family dynamics better than most children do, but I have a feeling this is going to be way more information about his parentsâ relationship than any child should have access to.
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The Plaid Horse could exercise better editorial judgment, this article really does a lot of harm and offers little in the way of useful insight.
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I think this mother really needs to take a deep breath and step back. She may have some valuable insight once sheâs spent time on the other side but sheâs still too deep in the throws of her own grief and loss to see and speak to the bigger picture. Writing can be a helpful outlet in painful situations but I strongly suggest she keep her writing about her family private until she can make clearheaded judgments about privacy.
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I feel for Ziggy and for his mother, not for losing out on being in the %.1, but because the breakup of a marriage is generally sad and difficult and change is hard. I hope sheâs getting the support she needs from true friends who know her and her family and her son. I hope he continues to find passion in riding and gets to spend his time with horses and ponies. I hope he can do this in relative privacy and make decisions about his own online presence as he gets older.
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Also pretty much all of us have seen this phenomenon play out. Maybe not at quite this high a level personally. But weâve all seen the family throwing unnecessary sums at horses and getting mediocre results, or failure. Itâs true that ambitious parents new to the game can be walking ATMs for trainers and canât evaluate anything presented to them.
The costs cited in the article just seem way out of line for a child in his first couple of years of riding, and I donât quite see why you need to go to the highest ranked shows to jump low levels at that stage.
The author is writing from what seems like a very naieve viewpoint to most of us.
I also wondered about the $5000 boots, especially since donât the little kiddies in bows ride in jodhs? But anyhowâŠ
So I think we are all looking on this as coming from a naieve beginner perspective.
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I do think that one of the reasons the article touched such a nerve IS the arithmetic of it. I mean, Iâll say it, if I earned before taxes the sum that was spent on ponies, just as a salary, Iâd be happy.
If it had been a mother forced to sell a childâs pony because of a divorce, it would be one thing. Or a child who had psychologically benefited from riding after being bullied and had to stop riding entirely after a divorce and a move to a non-horsey area.
I do think itâs worth having a conversation, though, in as rational a way as possible (and itâs hard for people, including myself, to be rational about money), if itâs healthy even for someone who can afford to do so to invest that much money to be competitive in one of the major equestrian disciplines for very, very young children. This family is being put under a microscope because itâs no longer possible for them, but obviously for some people it isâŠand thatâs still kind of scary.
But like I said, Iâve been at a barn far less fancyânot showing myselfâbut seeing pony moms clearly uncomfortable with how much they were spending even on the local circuit for their kidâs riding, and yet they kept doing it because they knew of no other way to âbe in horsesâ and their kids seemed to love it so much. Almost like warm water slowly being turned up, degree by degree, past the boiling point.
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Iâm having to face the possibility of selling my almost-5 year old that Iâve trained up myself because of student loan and credit card debt, I canât afford to keep two horses and the young one would have a better chance of finding a good home than the older one (that may or may not be able to rehab back to being ridden). I canât afford lessons at the moment, let alone even local shows. And Iâm actually fairly well off, compared to a lot of people here. My problems are very much first world problems. So the whole âwe can still afford these decent ponies and training and lessons but have to leave the A (AA? Idk hunter world) circuit so our dreams are ruinedâ thing kinda leaves a bad taste in my mouth. And thatâs NOT me being mean or judgemental, just like, dang. I wish I had those problems.
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@comeoutandplay, I couldnât agree with your post more. I can empathize with the trauma and upheaval this family is dealing with, and I am sure they are all lovely people.
But DAMN.
I feel so awful for Ziggy to have his young life put on blast like this and in such a way. It really does come off as tone deaf - I feel for them in the overarching situation, but she lost me completely when she started lamenting the fact that they wouldnât have grooms, and then the name-dropping just topped it off. I hope that Ziggy never feels that his sport was in any way responsible for his parentsâ split, because it does read that way (Iâm sure unintentionally). The whole time I read, I was just thinking, âoh this poor kid; Iâd be so embarrassedâ.
It sounds like Ziggy is a cool kid, and I think that this âstep downâ will be a great thing for him. Every day, I see the result of kids growing up thinking that all the privilege of that six-figure horse experience is normal, and it is a mess. In some ways, I think he really dodged a bullet with regard to his experience in the horse world.
Wishing them all the best.
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It sounds like Ziggy has a better understanding of how privileged he is to be able to have any pony and be able to ride than his mom does. Iâm sorry, but you donât need a 6 figure animal and spend several weeks on the AA circuit with the elite and uber rich to get something out of riding. The entire thing is just overly dramatic. The poor kid was bullied in school, found something he liked and was good at, and then mom took it to the nth degree and threw at least $300K at it to the detriment of an already strained marriage because the kid needed to ride to feel good about himself? The only sad thing about this story is that it took so long for that reality check to set in. I get it that sheâd want the best for her kid, but being active in the sport doesnât require that amount of money or that particular show circuit if thatâs not something you can afford blowing more than most peopleâs salaries on. Ziggyâs probably going to be way better off and end up a more well adjusted adult having been removed from that situation. Not to mention he has a better chance at becoming a real horseman and not someone that just shows up, hops on, and expects ribbons.
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Iâm sure they are lovely people. But consider this from her piece:
âÂTo realize that you canât give your kid what you really want to give your kid, thatâs humbling. When they have seen the other sideâthe shiny, fancy sideâthey know itâs there. Itâs there, and you canât give it to them anymore. Instead of grooms prepping his pony, Ziggy will prep Patrick himself. Instead of shows in Gulfport and Aiken, we will do shows up the road.âÂ
What she is the lamenting is the loss of the âshiny, fancy sideâ of horse showing and instead she has to settle for what most of us would consider a tremendous gift. Doing âshows up the roadâ is a come down, a choice she makes because she has to, not because she wants to. How sad.
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I feel like this is the latest in a string of human interest stories among our equine publications that are falling flat. I see the intent, give the readers a really positive story of someone powering through a difficult circumstance. The problem is that the âdifficult circumstanceâ is one that most of us will never even sniff so much as live. There was commentary regarding something similar with the young girl featured in the article about itâs not too late to start showing (which is a great premise). The feature however was about an individual who didnât show until her mid to late teens and then spent a few weeks at WEF.
Itd be great to see some features about the mom who found a shetland on Craigslist. Or someone I saw on FB the other day who pulled what they had a hunch was a medium welsh pony from an auction and is now totally adorable and jumping around cute for the kid. Something that resonates with all the middle income folk who have horses at a boarding stable rather than a trainer, who save for a year plus to buy a mildly started OTTB for a few thousand or the moms who bust their butt taking their kid to lessons on a lesson pony to see their kid have success at their first schooling show (or better yet, the fantastic lessons in horsemanship and hard work that donât require AA shows).
I donât mind reading about the dream world, but itâd be nice to see the other, and more likely, side featured as well.
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One of the primary issues with these elite publications is that they remain elite since they charge a fee to post articles and profiles. Even the publications are pay to play.
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Sorry, but I donât understand your point. Safety is a valid concern, but it doesnât require spending $150,000 a year or having grooms tack up your pony.
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