10/30/2022
Truth
A meme that DOES exist, and a meme that SHOULD exist----
The one we see all the time is this---“Everything you have ever wanted is on the other side of fear.”
And one we don’t see---“Everything you’ve ever wanted is on the other side of fitness.”
This is truth telling at its most unpopular as it pertains to too many riders. Take most sports, track and field, soccer, skiing, football, lacrosse, hockey, so many others, and it is simply assumed that the athletes who participate will be fit and tough.
You do not expect to go to a track meet and see unfit participants, right? But you can go to many horse shows and see unfit riders.
Those SAME riders, if they would get anywhere near as serious about being athletes as do participants in almost every other sport would be far more competent, be far more confident, and have far more success than they will experience while being weak and out of shape.
Many years ago, in New Jersey, I was watching a dressage clinic being given by a former Hungarian military officer. He had a group of riders practicing the sitting trot. More bouncing, lurching, sweating, panting you never saw.
He lined them up, and announced in no uncertain terms---
“Ladies and gentlemen---May I respectfully suggest to you that dressage riding is not the last refuge of the non-athlete.”
Harsh? Or truth? Think about it----
The photo is of 75 year old Walt Gervais, a a life-long fitness proponent, about to head out on steeplechase in his first long format 3-day event. As an example.
