The struggle is real. Before I bought my farm, I boarded at a convenient, small, low key farm and shipped in for lessons. My trainer would tune up my horse right before (or at) shows. Saved me a ton of time and money! I also show without my trainer a lot.
You have to find the right balance for you so you don’t get burnt out… burnout isn’t good for anything in your life (you, your riding, your partner, work, family, etc). I learned that the hard way!
If this is truly how you feel, Rackonteur, then kindly mosey on over to the eventing thread and leave us H/J riders here.
Wrong I am not struggling financially now.
Yes I grew up on an agistment property in a rich suburb. We were not renting, but Mum did say if we get this property it means no TV and no biscuits. I didn’t care I grew up on Peppers back.
I competed every weekend, the 4th weekend was a muster. I can remember coming back from a Marine Studies Camp where we were exhausted. I met Mum who said hurry up or you will be late for Friday Night Showjumping. Saturday was an afternoon Pony Club Muster, Sunday was a One Day Event and Monday was a Public Holiday and a Combined Training.
I fell in love young and met his parents at the bottom of the blue mountains, this is when I learned about the boomers getting real estate so cheap. They paid $8,000 for a house and land. I was 24 yo. It blew my mind. For 24 hours it blew my mind. I couldn’t get over it. I couldn’t think about anything else. If they sold the house now it would mean a mega mega mega profit. But that would be useless as they would need to buy another house, for over $150,000.00, so they should have bought 2. Then you can sell one and live in the other one. This was my plan for me.
Of course all the reports that it is not possible for youngsters to get into the property game. Sigh
I could not get a loan on a house even with my Mum going guarantor, because I could get pregnant. Sigh
So later with my fiance we bought 5 acres, I had 2 horses. After 12 months we bought a rental. I ended up in an abusive relationship. He hit me once and I darn well hit him back. After that he would break my things or kill my hens. I called the police when he put an axe through the windscreen of my car to stop me going to work.
I took the horses and went home to Mum. The banks would not help. The only reason I could keep both houses was because Mum loaned me money. My mum had me at 40 yo. I could not take 30 years to pay her back.
So I loaned from the bank what I could, Mum loaned me the rest. I paid to get both houses in my name. He was now mega rich. I had to move out of our house and rent it out. I moved into share accommodation.
As I had a job with a uniform I did not buy clothes So I paid the share accommodation, petrol and food. Nothing else. I paid the minimum to the bank and every single cent went to my mum, my horses were there as well.
My friend went interstate and saw my ex. He blew all that money on drugs.
Once I paid Mum back, I started paying the bank back. Every cent. It was on daily rates on a fixed loan, so every extra cent paid it off earlier. Nowadays most banks offer that.
Then I took up rock and roll dancing as the house owner was a good rock and roll dancer. With that group of friends we went out a few nights a week. I did buy rock and roll outfits. I can not tell you how much I loved it.
I met my hubby rock and roll dancing. He did not know I had the houses. With the equity on those houses we didn’t need a deposit. Hubby matched my equity with a deposit. We bought 2 and a half acres with the cutest Queenslander house, 2 bathrooms, verandah, etc.
Less than a year later we sold that at the top of a housing boom for what we bought 100 acres for at the same distance from hubby’s work, which incidentally was the same distance from hubbys work to his Dad’s.
I live in heaven. I taught hubby to ride. Hubby built me a dressage arena and a tack shed and shelters.
With the equity from that and the 2 houses we bought the indoor riding school in a rich suburb and I now have free riding lessons for life. They pay us rent.
This last year I sold both those original 2 houses.
No I did not go out and buy a new car. I did not go out and buy another horse. I did not change hairdresser, or change buying clothes from the op shop or buying from the carboot sale. I have never had my nails done. I am squirreling it away and would like to put up an indoor arena!
No not 6 figures between us but there has been one change to now having a lot of surplus cash. I have now given the Tuesday grocery deliveries away to the gentleman who used to be 2nd in charge. Yes less cash for me , however an extra afternoon to myself = luxury. I can ride Stars.
This guy is also going to put the bread up for one of the companies when I am doing Aldi Audits, so I can start the audits earlier AND with the Samsung S20 phone I can now put the Aldi Audits in on the phone at home, instead of in store.
O M G that means such a big difference. I can do 4 stores, go home and start putting them in, ride Stars, have tea, sleep and finish putting them in. That will be a huuggge difference. I will have more Stars time.
So no as someone said above there is no buying at Ikea!
Years ago at 24 yo I sold some shares to buy my bed, a video machine and a washing machine.
Last year I replaced that washing machine new, hubby was looking at 2nd hand ones, but didn’t say anything when I said I wanted a new one.
This morning I decided I would like an updated smart watch. That is totally a want, not a need. My Samsung 2nd version out Samsung Smartwatch is working perfectly, but is getting harder to recharge.
So I googled - the new Samsung 4 had a lot of bad reviews, especially the battery not lasting a day. So I decided on the Samsung 3.
So then I checked out the Cash Converters webshop. Most are $250 - $300.
But there is one in Western Australia that was more expensive than the others and is now discounted at over 50% off for $160 it will be here in early March.
So I am rich. I am rich with friends. I am so rich that each item of clothing gets its own pegs on the clothes line.
I hear a lot of people that say they don’t go out to eat, don’t get their nail and hair done and seem to miss it.
Please google mystery shopping. It is different in America as I have heard people complaining about jobs for $2.00. However you accept what assignment you want, don’t accept anything that you feel is below your pay rate or you don’t want to do. And you never have to pay to join a mystery shopping site. They are scams.
Mystery shopping means: too much fuel for your vehicles. Too much food eating out so you put on weight. Too many pharmacy products, you have a dispensary at home. 1st world problems.
I have been PAID to take a friend to Sizzlers, to buy from the cheesecake shop, to have lunch and dinner at Hog’s Breath Cafe, Bakeries, 2 x different Mexican fast food, Subway, Miss India, an Italian restaurant and coffee shops. Hungry Jacks, McDonalds. Caltex and Ampol you buy petrol or buy from in store or buy both depending on the assignment.
For free I have had facials from Ella Bache. I have been paid to test drive cars - some high end ones, I have been paid and gone around Seaworld and Movie World twice each with a friend. I have had hundreds of dollars of groceries, some you buy what they say some you buy whatever you want. I have had my hair washed and blow dried. I did not take the assignments that were a cut and colour or the one that was for laser hair removal. As I said you can pick and choose.
I have every product you can imagine in the bathroom, all my skin care routine, shampoos, conditioners, toothpaste, so much ibuprofen and panadol, and at one chemist that was a newsagents as well, I chose Dame Edna onion glasses and at another unicorn pens.
Last week I HAD to go and have a burger and chips for lunch at Burger Urge and gelato for dessert at Gelatissimo.
It is the best job ever, however not enough to make a living out of.
I used to do mystery shopping. There is a lot of dining out. They pay for your meal but no cash in pocket. A lot of companies now do surveys. If you buy at a burger joint, the receipt sez something like take our survey for a CHANCE at $1,000. Or a free meal. Whatever. That used to be a job for mystery shoppers.
No one suggested you were struggling, @SuzieQNutter. The tone deafness continues unchecked.
IMHE the Connecticut bar is the WORST. They harassed me for years and charged me fees for years because ONE TIME I had a case that almost went to trial in Danbury.
I vote for California State Controller’s office… never lived in the state but they tried for years to collect income taxes from me… even filed a tax lien on me which took a few years of “discussion” to get removed. They finally accepted that I owed them nothing, not a penny.
Hey, everybody! We’re all supposed to be just like Rackonteur.
Thank you for this post, now I know who blocked me! So many threads weren’t making sense lol.
I empathize. I make 6 figures and have a daughter who rides and competes. Im also the family breadwinner. Things were great until the pandemic and then a series of vet problems with my horse that led to roughly 40k in vet bills. Work pay changed (down) and vet bills soared. I now don’t have the money to show (and I haven’t for 2+ years because horse health issues). If I could sell my current horse I might, she was very expensive, but probably has little value now as she hasn’t jumped since last March. So I feel stuck.
My daughter showing is my priority, she’s 16 and we won’t keep paying for her horse once she goes to college. So I spent awhile feeling like the horse Gods hated me and maybe it was time to quit for now. Then I decided to re-arrange my perspective. So long as I can have a healthy horse and be able to show by my daughters senior year so we can show together, I’ll be happy. Maybe that will mean me selling my mare and having to show lease horses, but that’s okay. Try to fond a goal that you can look forward to in the future so that the current frustrations don’t feel so sharp. It’s helped my mindset a lot. Good luck to you.
Sigh. 
It just makes me feel sad and confused to see the horses who compete in the H of H/J called hunters.
They don’t hunt. They never see hounds.
Their shows have no classes for hunt teams, or appointments; there are no outside courses featuring rolling natural terrain or fences that simulate those found in the hunting field.
It’s just confusing to have the label “hunters” applied to horses who don’t hunt, shown by riders who don’t hunt on them.
It’s like the Twilight Zone of showing. It doesn’t make sense.
Why aren’t they just called Jumpers? Yes, I know the rules differ between “hunter” and jumper classes. But there should be a more accurate term for the horses in the H group.
Because all their riders are “hunting” are points and prizes.
It’s just weird.
Rackonteur,
Thank you for sharing.
Now scurry on over to eventing where your friends may be, and we will happily carry on not doing all the things you think we don’t do.
See, we don’t mind your misconceptions and general disdain. We’re okay with you not liking us. And we don’t feel the need to criticize what you do because we don’t feel one bit threatened by those who enjoy eventing or other disciplines.
Buh bye!
Man, I wish I could ride a hunter round like some of the pros! That said, some of their equitation makes me want to puke. Yeah, I know what they’re doing makes the horse snappier or what have you, but it’s still ugly. 
It doesn’t negate the skill it takes to get around a course looking absolutely perfect.
I don’t get you.
What are these misconceptions of which you speak?
You aren’t making any more sense to me than “hunter” as it is these days does.
I was taking you seriously and trying to explain why I feel sad about today’s “hunter” discipline. You, by contrast, don’t seem to have taken my post seriously at all, certainly not enough to try and teach me about your discipline.
Most horse people I know love to share their love of their discipline with other horse people, and teach others about it.
You, on the other hand, seem to want to chase people away. Why is that?
Do you, despite your own words, perhaps feel threatened after all?
Part of me wants to laugh you off for your seemingly childish attitude and attempt at sarcasm.
But the rest of me really wonders why you can’t say anything positive and informative about your own sport.
Weird.
What does this word mean? I think you have used before, in other posts; I never saw it 'til then.
Technically, nobody is really “hunting” anything but a scent, which is all theatre for the entertainment of the people. Personally, I think that’s the Twilight Zone. To dress up and follow dogs around the countryside chasing, well, nothing really.
To quote you, “It’s just weird.”
It’s no more weird than modern eventing, which bears little resemblance to its military origins. Or modern dressage competitions, which have evolved considerably from their origins over the hundreds of years humans have been practicing the art.
Would you like to rename those as well?
Rack…Communicating disdain for other disciplines is unhelpful for those coming on here for advice and opinions solving a problem with their horse life with the horse they have where they live with what they have available where they live.
Whether you mean it or not, it can be taken as exclusionary to those who had no access to actual Fox Hunting due to their location, lacked funds to join a Club in areas where that was the only way to Hunt or did not want to hunt and kill anything. As you probably suspect, I am in that group, even drag Hunts simply were rarely available and restricted to club member only.
As a 40+ Adult I did finally do breakfast and hilltop as a guest of a MFH a couple of times- I found I didnt really like it.
Different strokes. Back off bashing the “lesser acheivements” of others as a solution for problems they really need help with
We actually chase a lot of things in this country; we’re just not trying to kill them. Coyote, fox, some hunts bobcat I think. There are of course drag hunts in the US, but not all that many.
Um, that doesn’t mesh with what I’ve read on hunting sites. True, the hunt does follow the scent. But it’s a real fox leaving that scent, and real hounds following it. It’s not a drag hunt or a paper chase. The fox is real.
Personally, I am glad to learn about hunts that hunt the fox but don’t catch him. I never got excited about “the kill” and blooding.
The fact that in order to hunt with some hunts you have to have a hunting license indicates that hunters are not just following a “scent,” but a live animal.
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