08/08/2018
I’ve got a bone to pick and it might surprise you to know it is with b-l-o-o-d-y trail riders. I get quite a few trail riders coming to my clinics and so I have enough experience and ammunition to make a legitimate complaint.
Actually, I have 2 complaints. The first is easy and I can deal with it in one short paragraph, but the second deserves a rant.
Okay. First up, about half of those that mainly do trail riding describe themselves as “pleasure riders”. Stop it. We are all pleasure riders! I hope we all ride for pleasure – even professional horse people. Being a good horse person is hard and dangerous work, so if you don’t love it, the other rewards (financial, accolades, ribbons) are not sufficient enough to make it worthwhile. So trail riders should stop trying to appropriate the term “pleasure rider.”
Now the second and more important reason I am cranky at trail riders is their attitude.
Whenever I meet a new student at a clinic I ask them what do they do with their horse. I would say 4 out of 5 of the trail people say something like, “Oh not much. I just trail ride” or “I just like to potter around on the trail” or “We are not serious. We just like to ride out in the bush (forest).”
They tell me they trail ride as if they have to apologize for it. It’s as if there is some sort of shame to being a trail rider and they are the second-class citizens of the horse world.
Well, I’m going to tell you that trail riders are not second-class horse people. They are the WARRIOR CLASS of the horse world.
I have come across plenty of people who have had long and highly successful competition careers that wish they had a horse they could safely ride on a trail. They practice their exercises in the safe confines of a riding facility where the most startling and unpredictable thing that can happen is that the horse gets its tiptoes wet on the water jump or it has to cope with a judge placing a rosette on its bridle. Heaven forbid those precious gold-plated ponies with their diamante browbands would have any sort of challenge that would cause their makeup to run.
To train a good trail horse is proof of a person’s skill as a horseman or woman. Creek crossings, steep descents on slippery ground, swampy ground, branches brushing the sides, carcasses of decaying dead animals, inconsiderate car drivers and bike riders are the things of nightmares for many horses trained in other disciplines. But for a good trail horse and their rider with a spine made of tungsten they are nothing more than another point of interest on their sightseeing tour.
To be able to calm a horse that is losing its manure on a trail is a badge of honour that is worth more than any blue ribbon. When on the other side of every new turn in the trail lies in waiting a horse-eating emu, it is the experienced trail rider that will see them to safety. When behind every bush hides the shadow of the grim reaper ready to unleash mayhem and death, it is the trail rider that will slay death.
Nobody should ever apologize for being “just” a trail rider. Stand proud. Be the best you can be at what you do and you will never have to feel second-class to any other horse person. Remember you are the WARRIOR CLASS.
