02/03/2024
The horse world is yet again attacking each other from all sides in response to a recent highly scored dressage test where the horse really didn’t look like they were having a very nice time.
‘Professional’ riders are claiming that they’re being bullied and trolled, and I’m sure some feelings of humans have been hurt along with those of the horses.
This is what I believe is happening.
There IS a ground swell of change occurring and the voice of lowly people without the wealth and status of the equine elite are being heard. Without a doubt there is a class and hierarchy issue sitting behind this. The aristocracy don’t like it when the peasants revolt, we’re a messy and annoying bunch.
AND, more importantly than this, and the part that gives me hope is this. Those riders who are feeling criticised and coming back all guns blazing, are in their teeny tiny heart of hearts, scared we might be right. And the scariest thing for our ego is the realisation that it may have hung it’s hat on the wrong stand.
I’m holding on to the belief that all of us - when we plopped into the world - didn’t want to do things which were hurtful or harmful to others. That in our souls we know we are all interconnected and each of us - horse, human, tree, spider, star, lichen - are all equally worthy of love and respect. And that this growing voice of ‘Hey, this doesn’t look like you’re being very nice to your horse’ is tweaking that bit right in the middle of them, and it’s making them feel uncomfortable.
And as we’ve been trained to look for comfort wherever we can, we will do whatever it takes not to feel uncomfortable. And right now that’s being expressed as a big fat ‘F**k off’ from the equestrian elite. They’ve gone into full scale defensive mode which includes both claiming victimhood and shaming and mocking everyone else,
My great golden hope is that the reason they’re so rattled is because a bit of them they can’t quite remember, maybe the part of them which as a 2 year old exploded with giggling delight at the sight of a horse, also doesn’t want to make their sides bleed or stop them being able to breathe properly or have to use a huge amount of painful traction on their jaw to ‘ride a medium trot’. That it’s that tiny child right in there who’s saying, ‘Hey grown up me, is this really what we wanted to do to horses?’
At the moment, it’s all coming out as vitriol or self pity, but maybe one day they too will stand up to the system which has caused this and say ‘Let’s not do this to our friends anymore….’
