The Classism That is Jumping Out in the Horse World in 2020

2020 has been a literal hell of a year and we aren’t even all of the way through it yet. With all of the bad moments, I would say one of the only plus sides of this year is that it is helping expose a lot of the unfair aspects of society that we have become complacent about and haven’t talked about enough in the past. Obviously, this is happening on a major social level that cannot be ignored unless you’re living under a rock, but I want to talk about the sheltered, horse world aspect of this revelation. You see, more and more people are finally stepping up to talk about the major lack of diversity in the horse world and the classism that is rampant in this sport. Because of the influx of new, loud voices, it’s becoming harder for people who don’t care to sweep it under the rug and ignore it.

The pandemic has been one of the major factors that is highlighting this, in my opinion. Lots of people who rely on shows for work have lost their jobs and a lot of people are suffering, however, there is a core group of people who realistically aren’t struggling in terms of barely making ends meet, there struggle is a little different. For some, the most difficult part of the pandemic is the cancellation of shows, which results in their disappointment in a competitor. They’ve lost the luxury of showing and rather than acknowledging the current world situation, far too many are starting to lash out at regulations intended to protect people from the spread of COVID and the unfairness of cancellations, rather than why said cancellations exist.

Many major shows have been cancelled, with an awful lot of major show parks cancelling entire show series. These cancellations have resulted in a lot of public outrage, with a great deal of people commenting on the unfairness of it all. Most recently, this has happened with Pony Finals, which was cancelled so last minute that people had literally loaded horses and paid for hauling to go there. I’m sure you can imagine the level of upset and outrage that came out of this. I can understand how disappointed and pissed off people would be to have something cancelled so last minute, but at the same time, how hyper privileged do you have to be to plan to trailer distance to go compete with large crowds at a show venue, all while case loads continue to climb for a highly contagious virus? I think it’s irresponsible of all planning committees for major events to not cancel in advance as the case rate sky rockets n their area, but at the same time, parents of the children slated to compete should have been well aware of the current world situation, and we’ve got to wonder why people are even focused on competing right now.

Seeing full grown adults complaining about how unjust it was for their children not to be able to compete after there were COVID 19 cases at said park just doesn’t sit right. There’s people losing loved ones from this illness and it is so incredibly odd to see people making this about a horse show, or not being able to finish their junior career… The worst part is, these same types of people are often the ones who say that there isn’t a need for more accessibility in the horse world. That people who want more access just need to work harder, be taken advantage of in work for lesson programs, or not be a part of the horse world.

How can people feel this hard done by and upset by missing a single show or even an entire show season but not understand what the pain would be like for a talented and passionate rider watching wealthier children get to do the things they can only dream of doing? The children who are able to start preparing to go to, let alone attend shows like Pony Finals are incredibly fortunate no matter how hard they have worked for it and at its core, it’s reliant on them having parents or someone else who can support them financially to get them there. A lot of children aren’t fortunate enough to be born into this type of situation and it’s not realistic to expect an underage individual to be able to work enough hours on their own to not only fund a riding career through lessons, but also expensive shows. So, I suppose my question here is: if you can have sympathy for your upper level riders, for the junior and amateurs competing frequently on the circuit and for people who didn’t reasonably anticipate cancellations due to a global health crisis…. Why can’t you have sympathy for the people who never have even gotten the chance to participate on the circuit due to circumstances that have affected them for much of their life? Why can’t you have sympathy for the kids who will never get closer to horses than through a TV screen but desperately want to? Why don’t you care bout these passionate, horse loving people having access to the things you’ve taken for granted for so long that you think it’s the end of the world to lose them for one season?

I really think it’s time the horse world sits with the disappointment they’ve felt from their show season being disrupted due to COVID19 and consider how there’s people who will never get the chance to show as often as you do in one season in their entire lifetime. It can even be something as small as people’s disappointment to barns closing and their lack of ability to visit horses for weeks and months, something we are all guilty of taking for granted and it’s something that we’ve only had to deal with due to a GLOBAL PANDEMIC, not because of finances, health, family circumstance or some other pressing issue that affects people every day of their life. We need to come to terms with how superficial a lot of people’s disappointment is this year and consider how much worse it can be. It’s okay to be sad about the loss of your show season and I do feel awful for the kids who had this huge build up towards Pony Finals only to have it ripped away. But, it’s also on their parents and trainers to have been more realistic about the world situation instead of ignoring it.

Having the privilege to be so lackadaisical during a time where people are losing family, jobs, getting evicted and being unable to make ends meet and then trying to claim that privilege doesn’t exist in the horse world or that “hard work will get you there”….. It’s just one of the most ridiculous things ever to watch unfold when just weeks ago, there was an influx of articles about white privilege, financial privilege and the lack of access in the horse world and said articles were flooded with comments from middle aged and young people alike claiming they didn’t have privilege, only hard work. That there didn’t need to be more access in the horse world and people needed to stop being so lazy and needed to care enough to make opportunity for themselves. Now, the same types of people are wanting sympathy over quite possibly one of the most privileged dilemmas a horse person can have. We can’t constantly alienate certain classes of horse people through exorbitant prices, biases, blatant racism, transphobia, homophobia etc and then expect them to be sympathetic as they watch horse people pitch a fit over the fact that a health crisis has halted their show career for the season.

So, I suppose this is a lengthy way of saying that if you feel inconvenienced by 2020 throwing a wrench in your show plans, imagine how inconvenient it would be if you couldn’t afford to attend them in the first place. Then, next time, consider people’s feelings when you say there’s no need for more access and it’s just up to hard work. It’s about as baseless and stupid as someone telling you that if you worked harder this year, you could’ve evaded the pandemic and shown anyways. At the end of the day, we are all running our own races, some of us just get head starts along the way and it’s up to us to have some compassion for those who don’t. I’m hoping the inconveniences people have experienced this year will help to make them more empathetic towards others and create more opportunity where they can as well as requesting the same from their favourite show venues. There is no way around the fact that owning horses and showing is a luxury, you’re more often than not losing a lot more money than you make and the only way you can afford to do that is if you have disposable income to blow. This doesn’t mean you’ve not worked hard for said income, but you still have it while other people also work very hard while receiving less for the hours put in.

To those who have lost their show season solely due to the pandemic this year: That sucks but imagine if this pandemic time had extended your whole riding career? How sad would you be if the most recent time you showed would be your last because you simply could not afford to be there anymore? If you love showing, I’m sure it isn’t something you want to think about and I can relate. So, please, before you type up another senseless comment about how unpaid working student positions will pay exorbitant show fees for every motivated rider or that there’s enough diversity here already, try to put yourself in someone else’s shows. Try to consider what it would be like to not have the things you have but to want them desperately. Then, feel some empathy and use your privilege to spread the word and encourage others to use their empathy to make the horse world more accessible. You have nothing to lose but have the ability to change people’s lives and allow horse loving children and adults to have a grasp of the horse world more easily. A little bit of compassion goes a long way and it’s time we all realize how out of touch it is to be complaining about not being able to spend thousands to be judged on our riding skills while people are dying.