Learning to ride and compete locally, versus doing the same by travelling all over the place---(Area One photos) Some thoughts--- Right now, the thing I hear constantly is how critical it is to compete where all around you in the warm up area are fabulous riders, so that just being near them will somehow lift up your game. This usually translates into spending a gazillion dollars to send American riders to ride in Europe. A couple of questions come to mind. Can you learn to be an elite dressage rider by spending hundreds of hours in an American ring with a top American trainer? I think you can. Can you learn to be an elite jumper rider in the same way? Yes. Can you learn to sit the trot, get a horse fit, see a distance, select a good horse, become a trainer on the North American continent? Of course. And instead of spending hundreds of thousands of dollars sending a few riders to Europe, where, if recent results are any indication, they aren`t ready to do very well anyway, might it not be money better spent to get more training for local riders, upgrade local shows and events, bring in European clinicians (Aufarth, Fox-Pitt, Jung, etc) to spread the knowledge? It`s a difference of opinion, but I have always thought it`s better to do well at home FIRST, like being able to win Rolex, and THEN take it on the road. If you haven`t acquired the necessary skills to compete against Europeans, and you can`t just go spend years abroad, I believe you CAN become elite here at home, but NOT until you decide to become elite by learning much more than you know now. And that requires more hunger and drive than most will ever understand. In one of my son`s long ago Dungeons and Dragons-type books, a young knight aspirant asked the seasoned veteran, How can I become a great warrior? The older man replied, Are you ready to feed your heart to the hawk? Which I think means, Just how much are you willing to sacrifice?
Posted on: Mon, 15 Sep 2014 10:15:14 +0000
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