(“In our business sincerity is the most important thing.”)

Not to be overly grumpy but some things I encounter in the dressage world offend my sensibilities. Maybe yours too?

I don’t think of myself as a Pollyanna. I am even pridefully cynical sometimes. But other than jokingly, when people refer to a horse they’re riding in rude, derogatory terms, it makes me very unhappy. From this I will exclude the occasional mean horse who intentionally wants to hurt you. Otherwise, hey, they’re just horses, and if you are going to be around them, then they are deserving of respect.

It also makes me miserable trying to teach people who equate training with dominating. Again, I don’t want to sound all sappy, but people who merely “compel” their horses are dumb riders. Of course there is a physicality to the way we ride, but I prefer to use it to explain to the horse what I want from him. Like one of those thousand piece jigsaw puzzles that you lay out on the dining room table and try to solve over your vacation, finding the keys that unlock the horse’s understanding is much of what makes the work fun and satisfying. A meeting of two minds is way better then coerced behavior.

More unfavorites: Pretense. And unless you are Joan of arc, self-righteousness. It’s bad enough if it is self generated, even worse if it springs from a PR guy’s attempt to manipulate my emotions. Who approved that line in the Rule book about the horse being a “happy athlete?” Probably the same people who put smiley faces all over the bottom of dressage tests.

I’m sure you’ve heard this before: “In our business sincerity is the most important thing. And if you can fake that, you can get just about anywhere.” Riders whose intellectual dishonesty or lack of self-awareness prevent their actions from matching their words make me really grumpy.

And last on my list: Greed. This applies to people, who for their personal aggrandizement, push a horse beyond his capabilities and make him less than he was in the first place.

It’s a good thing I’m on my meds!