HOLY COW can I be Betsee Parker, PLEASE???
I think BP does have “greenies.” Not that Tori rides but that other do. Wasn’t there a whole brohaha over her horse Casanova winning the pre-green year end award but it having a European show record? She owns greenier horses too, you just hear about them less.
Here’s the thing (and this applies to me too)… if BP didn’t own all the winners-- it’s not like they’d vanish. They’d still be owned by SOMEONE. And not you (or me). So… let her have all the horses her heart desires. I don’t play in that sandbox and the people who do can buy their own nice horses too, if they want.
This list I got was from USEF.
[QUOTE=Davignport;7656384]
While it is nice that people like Betsee Parker can spend their millions of dollars on one horse for one rider, it kind of leaves the “poorer riders” who don’t have the “big bucks benefactors” on their side out in the cold. It does not seem like a level playing field for everyone. I guess it just gets old watching Parker buy all the “winners” for her kids. Sort of gives them an unfair advantage over everyone else. Maybe she should look at buying a young, unproven horse, but then again, that would not be an instant win.[/QUOTE]
Until she got noticed by Scott Stewart, and then BP, Tori was one of those kids with lots of talent but not much money, she comes from very modest circumstances. BP has also given opportunities to a couple of other kids, who ride and compete some of her ponies at the local level as well. I think it is great that she does this, and gives some deserving kids an opportunity they would not otherwise have.
I know I would have like, totally won everything if someone had just given me a horse. The playing field isn’t level!
Oh wait, the playing field was never level. If you have the $$$ and talent to make it to any of the eq finals, I have a really hard time with anyone crying poor me.
First world problem…
[QUOTE=KateKat;7656558]
HOLY COW can I be Betsee Parker, PLEASE???[/QUOTE]
I would love to have the funds to buy the horses she does. However, I would not want to have some of the health problems she’s reported to have had.
That was a fun list! Not only does she have a TB but an offspring of Heisman (Nostalgia)! Loved, LOVED that horse with Michael Matz. Always thought it was too bad he had so few offspring. Does anyone remember Nostalgia? (haha just realized that’s a pun… :lol: )
[QUOTE=Trixie;7656732]
I know I would have like, totally won everything if someone had just given me a horse. The playing field isn’t level!
Oh wait, the playing field was never level. If you have the $$$ and talent to make it to any of the eq finals, I have a really hard time with anyone crying poor me.[/QUOTE]
Don’t forget you need to be blonde…sarcasm font
[QUOTE=busylady;7656468]
I get what you are saying, but I agree with the other posters about life not being fair. Though there are many benefits to having an owner like BP in the sport (including being able to gawk at all her pretty horses), it seems like there is the potential for other competitors to be discouraged from competing in the divisions her horses show in. If you are showing against Tori, you better be happy with third place because chances are she is taking first and second. Nothing wrong with that, because we are supposed to be doing this for the love of horses, but it would be a little frustrating.
What is more frustrating to me is that Betsee doesn’t have a website. I demand a virtual tour of her barns and a bio page of all her horses. If you are going to collect all the top hunters, at least share them with us virtually!![/QUOTE]
The print COTH did a photo spread of her farm a couple of months ago, IIRC.
If it improved my riding to an extreme extent, I would totally go blonde. Or if someone offered me a bunch of horses of that quality and paid for me to show them. Seriously. Blonde it is. Or green, purple, blue, or whatever color they wanted.
[QUOTE=Trixie;7657288]
If it improved my riding to an extreme extent, I would totally go blonde. Or if someone offered me a bunch of horses of that quality and paid for me to show them. Seriously. Blonde it is. Or green, purple, blue, or whatever color they wanted.[/QUOTE]
What do you think GM would say if he saw purple hair under your hair net?
[QUOTE=CaitlinandTheBay;7657403]
What do you think GM would say if he saw purple hair under your hair net?[/QUOTE]
I am daring someone to do that! Please! With video and photo proof. Of course, regardless of where you are, everyone will probably hear him anyway… :lol:
I used to have hot pink hair 
Just the under side, and once I put it up (with 2 blonde hairnets) in my helmet it just looked reddish.
[QUOTE=Peggy;7657220]
The print COTH did a photo spread of her farm a couple of months ago, IIRC.[/QUOTE]
So did Covertside, a foxhunting publication, several years ago. I recently came across it when going through old magazines that I had saved in the basement. 
Both magazines did a great job with lovely photos of Huntland, and the renovations she undertook to that magnificent estate, she must have spent millions. I only wish more people had the funds to restore those beautiful estates and properties.
I’d risk the GM ridicule to ride like Tori Colvin. But y’all would have to help me come up with hairnets to match my rainbow.
[QUOTE=Trixie;7656732]
I know I would have like, totally won everything if someone had just given me a horse. The playing field isn’t level!
Oh wait, the playing field was never level. If you have the $$$ and talent to make it to any of the eq finals, I have a really hard time with anyone crying poor me.[/QUOTE]
Ok. I’m getting grumpy. Didn’t Torie do all her winning on the green eq horse VIP. Only this year has someone given her nice ones. She made VIP. He’s carting someone around now and it’s a rich one
Tori is pretty much the last person I’d say was born with a silver spoo in her mouthn. She had the benefit of parents in the industry… but not money and she certainly is the queen of hard work. More than any of the other BN Juniors-- she’s the one out riding the sh*t ponies to fix them for other kids. She works ALL DAY LONG at the shows, and not just riding the fancy ones for BP. She’s basically a pro and has been for years.
The fact that someone like BP believes in her and wants to give her a chance should be lauded. She’s exactly the kind of junior who deserves to have the benefit of nice horses because she isn’t herself wealthy, worked hard, and worked her way up. She gets rides out of some of these horses (Way Cool comes to mind) that the real pros can’t/don’t get. She’s just the real deal, ability wise. End of story. That’s why she wins. Not because of how she looks or any special advantages she gets.
I guess now we not only want wealthy owners to give their horses to up and comers, and kids, and ones that aren’t wealthy-- but I guess ones that can’t win too?! Tori wins because she can ride the hair off a dog, not because of who she was born. It boggles my mind that anyone would criticize an owner who wants to funnel nice mounts to someone like that?!
Ok. I’m getting grumpy. Didn’t Torie do all her winning on the green eq horse VIP. Only this year has someone given her nice ones. She made VIP. He’s carting someone around now and it’s a rich one
Erm, I think I should’ve used the sarcasm font, because you completely misread my post and got “grumpy.”
My point was actually that pretty much everyone that gets to show at the big eq level has more opportunity than most people, and I can’t understand the complaining, at that point, about someone being better or having more opportunities, when the average big eq rider has more opportunities than most of the rest of the country.
And no, I don’t actually believe I would have won the in the big eq even if I had the nicest horse on the planet (again, google sarcasm). :rolleyes:
