What Does Your Horse View as a “Champion”?

The expertise of riders and the weight their words hold is so often valued based on competition wins and training prowess; in that the extent of useful output they’re able to convince horses to do, no matter how, is what defines a good rider.

In the same breath, people will exclaim that horsemanship is all about the horse and loving the horse first and foremost…

Yet, we’ve created a value system that weights usefulness of the horse, their ability to perform, how well they perform and the levels they can achieve above all else… even if all of the aforementioned are achieved at the horses’ welfare deficits.

If it really is about the horse — the rider who puts their entire show season on hiatus to heal a horse’s physical or behavioural issues should be applauded in the same way, or more, than the Olympian who wins gold.

The rider who chooses to take their horse back to basics, even after having competed them 1.20m, because the horse is fried and needs a breather, should be valued just as heavily.

Foregoing instant gratification and longterm dreams for the longterm benefit of the horse is a lot more difficult than pushing on, when many will encourage you to do so, and achieving said goals at the expense of the horse’s welfare.

And yet, it gets almost no recognition.

The more I talk about welfare, the more heavily people ridicule and chastise me for my “lack” of human-centric accolades.

Even when my horse was off for over a year rehabbing physical and behavioural issues, I met criticism for not riding as often… as if I would be more admirable to continue trying to push a horse who was telling me he couldn’t.

Knowing when to step back for the sake of your horse is a much more important skill than being able to ride an upper level dressage test or jump around a big course.

It requires a level of humility that is hard to grasp. It sets aside immediate (and possibly long term) goals for the long term benefit of the horse’s wellbeing, above all else.

And, it often means you’ll be ridiculed by your peers for doing so. You’ll be judged for your decision to set aside personal gains for the betterment of your horse.

It’s a hard thing to do and deserves far more credit than what is often given because doing something that is entirely thankless, apart from the silent “thanks” your horse will give you, is a lot more difficult than pushing a stressed horse to do something that the masses will applaud and congratulate you for.

So here’s to all of the “gold medallists” of horse welfare, who will likely never be put on a podium for their choices or create fan clubs of enamoured fans, but their horses will be forever grateful.