I think we shouldn’t discount the possibility that Reed Kessler’s decision to follow a different career path than being a professional equestrian was maybe partly the result of the fact that she was able to pursue the equestrian path as far as she did - you know, kind of like taking a gap year but on a billionaire scale.
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Yes, absolutely.
He has a lot of executive-level experience in industries with strong lobbies and political influence (tobacco, pharmaceutical, etc) so you’re not far off.
Honestly, while not to discount the Bloombergs, Gateses, and Springsteens of the world…it seems the pro riders who have the most staying power in the industry are high-level trainers’ kids, who, even if they come from money, get exposed perhaps more to the grittier realities of running a horse business, and who don’t see themselves as having other, better (and truthfully easier) career paths.
I agree with all you said. And maybe it gives her resume a little extra glitter.
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I would say the advantage of having a high level parent is that business world doors are opened and advantage steps through. Saw that at my last job where amazing numbers of EC children got paid summer internships one year.
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Wow that graphic is insane!! I have a few D1 friends who show less but I know the D1 is really competitive to get into.
I can’t imagine showing 10 horses per year…. One horse is already a lot to manage and perform well on…
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TL:DR
Marry well.
Good luck
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First, I have not read the whole thread. I read some posts at the beginning, and then jumped ahead.
It has been a LONG time (well over 50 years) since I took the SSAT (Secondary School Admission Test), but it is my memory (and Wikipedia confirms it) that the SSAT does not report a “percentage”. They report a numerical score (for the middle school version it is between 440 and 710 per section, between 1320 and 2130 total) which does not correspond directly to the percent you got right (they subtract 1/4 point per wrong answer to discourage guessing).
What they do report is the “percentile” which is quite different. It says where your score stands in relation to the other test takers. “60th %ile” means that you scored better than 60% of the other test takers, and worse than 40% of the other test takers. If it was an easy test, the 60th %ile might correspond to 90% correct. If it was a very hard test, it might correspond to 20% correct.
Taking off my pedantic hat, I faced a similar choice (though no fnancial aid was involved). I went to a private school for 6th - 9th grade. My mother taught there, which meant we got free tuition. Almost all of my classmates were going off to boarding school. My parents said that they would pay to send me to boarding school if I wanted (in those days, IIRC, boarding school tuition was low 4 figures), but I would have to sell my horse, they couldnt afford both. After reading through the documents about the relevant schools, I decided to stay home (and go to the local high school) and keep my horse. I have no regrets.
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I’m guessing the riders showing several horses are doing a lot of catch riding so they aren’t managing all those horses.
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