I am not asking who you voted for. I’m not even asking if you voted. When I was old enough to start noticing the outside world, I asked my mother who she voted for. She wouldn’t tell me. One of the virtues of our system is that you never have to tell anyone for whom you voted. As an early political message, it stayed with me.
However, my everpresent quest for content made me think about horses and politics. It seems to me that, barring Mrs. Romney’s Olympic horse, the riding world as a group is not heavily invested in the political world, at least on the national level. We can get invested in local issues, such as the developments, or lack thereof, in Wellington, FL.
The obliviousness of the horse world can be frustrating. During one of the big-time hunter/jumper winter shows in Tampa, area residents were under drought restrictions: no car washing, limited lawn watering, etc. Not only were people at the show hosing their horses but they were leaving the hose running with no horse in the washstall. In their defense, no signage anywhere alerted folks to the water shortage nor asked folks to conserve water.
Of course, the horse world is all about internal politics: local association snipefests, warring breed associations, national association power games, and so on up the ladder.
Is your section of the horse world involved with/interested in/cognizant of general politics? How does that compare to other sectors of your life: church, law firm, bowling league, reading club, et al.?
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Virtual Brush Box 
As a trainer and barn owner, politics directly affect me economically. What I do is a luxury item and is generally the first to go when people “tighten their belts.” When this president was elected 4 years ago, I had a couple of customers abandon their horses at my farm, which in turn made me have to take care of them and dip into my pocketbook. When the economy is uncertain,, people run scared and aren’t willing to spend on frivolous items. Even though I try not to discuss my political beliefs in my day to day happenings, I keep a sharp eye out to try to anticipate what each year will hold. From what I have seen by going to horse shows, older adults with jobs seem not to be as affected and are willing to keep participating where younger adults with jobs and younger children are not as willing to keep participating.
Most horsefolk are politically oblivious until it hits in the pocketbook. The next four years are going to be rough for the show horse industry.
I’ll take this in another direction: my parents also did not tell me (ever) who they were voting for. Interestingly enough, though, what they did tell us was that they belonged to different parties. So each year they would truck to the polls and cancel each other out. Now a married old woman myself, I can’t quite imagine this. One of the things I love about my husband is that we have the same core beliefs. I’m not quite sure I could live with someone who supported the opposing platform. My parents made it for 49 years until death did them part, though, so they made it work.