My grandparents had horses, my parents had horses, I’ve lived on a stud since I was born and, when I was little, having them around was nothing out of the ordinary. In my world it was completely normal. Having ponies wasn't a novelty and it wasn't something I spent my whole time talking or thinking about. Then I went to school and realised it wasn’t that normal after all. It made me different, something which any teenager struggles with from time to time. And it came with the ‘girl with a pony’ stigma - that idea that every girl with a pony is rich and a little bit spoilt. I’m neither. (Ok, maybe a bit spoilt, but not in the my parents have lots of money kind of way!) Yes, for some that was true; having a pony is sometimes a status symbol, especially when you’re 12, but more often that not, there’s a lot more to it.
Here’s a few reasons why I hate the ‘she’s got a horse’ stigma
1. Having a horse doesn't automatically make you a spoilt brat.
It teaches you sacrifice (missing birthday parties because there's a show); responsibility
(no we can't go on have a lie in / go on holiday because who would feed the
ponies) and, above all, it teaches you how to be a competitor, how to win...and lose.
2. No, it doesn't mean daddy is rich. Horses are very good at
eating money and significantly less good at doing anything else productive with
it.
3. It doesn't recognise the level of skill and talent required.
It's really not as easy as it looks and it takes real balls to compete on your
own with something that could quite easily get rid of you whenever it wanted.
And, seriously hurt you in the process. Take this from someone who took an
outrageous amount of time to make their first ridden debut! Horse riding is a
majorly underrated sport. Yes, I dared to call it a sport.
4. It's not all I’m interested in. To this day my friends still
say 'oh look a horse, you like horses' to anything we happen to see. Ok, they
now knows it really annoys me and just do it to wind me up but my point is that
it's not all-consuming. Yes it can be at times, yes it's what most of my
biggest dreams are about but I actually have other interests. I love getting
away from horses, doing 'normal things'. Probably more than 'normal people'
enjoy doing 'normal things'.
I’m sure there’s a few more reasons I could think of but I don’t
want to labour the point too much! All I’m really trying to say is, we’re not
all showing divas, at least not all the time anyway!
I’d love to hear from you if, like me, you’ve found yourself
trying to explain the realities of showing…
Twitter: @showingbusiness
Instagram: @showbusinessblog
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