29/05/2025
Accomplishment and Worthiness...
Recently, someone told me that another trainer wouldn't work with one of my teachers because, "She never shows what she can do".
I found this perplexing, considering the amount of educational material this teacher has put out and given the world access to. That's when I realized, it's not that she has not shown enough. Instead it is that what she has shown isn't impressive enough.
Despite an endless stream of preaching on the importance of the basics, they still go under appreciated...even by those who claim to appreciate them.
The world is still far more drawn to a poor piaffe than they are a quality walk done with rhythm and straightness. The world is still far more impressed by a poor flying lead change than they are by someone who can call out the phase of each stride by feel at the walk. The world is still far more impressed by the levels a poor rider has moved up than a rider who has tediously worked to develop body awareness and a good seat.
The world will say it loves the deeper work all while rewarding those who only ever work on the surface.
The oldest classical texts will remind us over and over how important it is to simply go straight. To not take contact too soon but instead slowly develop a horse who seeks it. To develop our own body awareness as to not block the horse and make our ask impossible to answer.
They remind us that it is the basics that are the difficult part. So why are we so resistant to revisiting them? And why do we have so little respect for the riders who are dedicated to them?
One need only to look around at the horses near them to see that we continue to lack understanding of the most important fundamentals of horsemanship and riding. One can see it in their muscle development, in their lack of soundness, in their places of resistance, in how effortful simple movement has become...
And it makes me sad, because we have access to some incredible teachers who can help us with it all...but they're simply too boring for most people to value enough to even be curious about their work.
So, you can find me with the "boring" people. The people who feel their greatest accomplishment is not a ribbon, a medal or even an audience. It is simply to be a rider who is worthy of being carried by such an amazing, forgiving creature - the horse.
- Terra
📸: Angela Booth, throwback to our clinic Connected Riding with Peggy Cummings' last year ❤️