Riding Journal
Awareness of the outside world. There has been a spate of pearl clutching in the USEF ranks. One of the clutchers declared that if USEF insists on joining the 21st century, they will take their toys and go home. My response is, Okay, don’t let the door hit your butt on the way out.
Social values are changing. Some of us think, changing for the better. Lead, follow, or get out of the way.
Which is why no one puts me in charge of consensus building.
Update: more on this in comments.
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Signed up for a clinic with Stephanie Mosely, The Empowered Rider.
Well, saying that out loud doesn’t make me all kinds of nervous. Not at all. I mean, it’s such a normal thing to do with your horse. It’ll be a first for Rodney and me. (Sits down hard on tangential grammar rant.)
Mosely teaches rider biomechanics, in the tradition of Mary Wanless. I have not done any Wanless IRL, but am a huge admirer of her books & videos (yeah, I’m that old). I shall report back. Given three rides and two lectures in the clinic, I’ll probably report back a lot. Coming in June. Above, screenshot of homepage.
So, I got to thinking about the elevator speech that you to give while standing in the middle of the ring introducing yourself. I ended up using it in my introductory email, figuring she’d want to schedule horse/rider pairs at similar experience levels.
Horse & rider experience. Sigh. It’s complicated. Assume a beginner level. This month we did our first WTC dressage test & a jumped course of crossrails. He’s 22. I’ve had him for 11 years. He was supposed to be my mid-life crisis horse. It has taken us this long to get that far. But I digress.
I should’ve said my FANCY mid-life crisis horse. After all, it wasn’t about getting “a” horse it was about getting “the” horse. The if-not-now-when horse. The horse who would Go Places.
Anyway.
In drafting the email, I wondered about how much to say and what tone to take. Decided to go full me and let the chips fall. In case you hadn’t guessed, “full me” is information overload.
Stay safe. Stay sane.
Katherine
Virtual Brush Box 
Eagerly awaiting more.
Please tell us more about the clutching of pearls at the USEF.
ditto
Looks like what I read was posted to Instagram Stories, which is temporary, which is annoying. I was vague bc I did not dignify the kerfuffle with the energy of tracking down who said what to whom. I don’t need to find the dog once I’ve seen the poop.
Looks like there will be – possibly? – required diversity training for USEF. Or perhaps, people are worried that there might be. A big noise in dressage got up on their hind legs because … How dare you make me do this (maybe you’ll learn something?) … The problem isn’t me, i.e. I’m not a racist (how nice for you, that doesn’t mean there’s not a problem) … It will upset the lovely insular world of dressage (well yes, that’s rather the point) … also SafeSport! (sigh) … I’m paraphrasing here. I saw the screencap but didn’t look too closely once I’d identified the smell, see above re poop. Basically, standard form indignation.
The person who reposted the message & commented doesn’t usually go political but felt strongly this time due to the weight of the name making the fuss. The reposter is riding FEI dressage, so I defer to their opinion of what is going on in the dressage world. Have reached out to that person for specific links on the subject. (My Google-fu failed.)
Thank you. Not everyone likes change. It is often seen as a take-away. Better to look at it as an add-on, perhaps even progress. It’s more work but worth it in the long run. Even in the tight, white world of dressage. Especially?
My father once said that he had seen the first horseless carriage in his home town of Flushing and had seen a man walk on the moon. He felt that that was enough change in his life. Perhaps that is why we are mortal? So we can allow the next generation to build on our foundation?
Your father, my mother. And a new century. And I thought things were changing in my 60+ years.
Reposter pointed me in right direction. The poster is Peggy Fackrell. These posts mention the issue.
The Plaid Horse: 8 Things I Don’t Understand about USEF, Klemm
The $900 Facebook Pony: Here for the Comments
Link to rant FB: PF, April 25