07/07/2024
The more experience I get, the more hesitant I am to critique a horse or rider without context anymore.
I’ve become less interested in proving my knowledge of what constitutes ‘perfection,’ and more interested in developing my ability to recognize and encourage everyday progress.
Progress not perfection.
As an imperfect rider, who, as my own worst critic, has to look for everyday progress in myself…
As an imperfect trainer who has to go out and ride imperfect horses every day, and look for the progress…
As an imperfect coach who has to go out and coach imperfect riders every day, and look for the progress…
I’m not interested in being a critic anymore.
I’m interested in being an inspirer, an educator, and an encourager.
I don’t scroll and troll looking for horses and people to critique anymore, and seeing others eager to do so has started to become a red flag for me, and when it crops up on my page occasionally, I’ll use it as an opportunity to remind all of us that is not the way forward.
Anyone who has had to train multiple horses at multiple levels knows that ideal is relative, moment to moment , and that, without context, putting an absolute value on a moment is pointless.
Which makes me wonder, what IS the point of some of those comments?
There are a lot of positive things going on that critics either fail to notice, or fail to acknowledge.
It takes a lot of guts to post our imperfect horsemanship journeys online, and being a critic is merely empty calories to feed our greedy egos.
Be an educator or an inspirer, have some guts and post a picture of your own riding, or be an encourager, but please, the world has enough critics.
