Reality checks

It has been very hard to keep a healthy diet while being away from home without cooking facilities. I even had to rely on McDonalds “healthy choices” sometimes. Last time I entered McDonald’s, I could see the CCTV screen switching between cameras. The problem was that I could not see myself anywhere.

I asked the girl at the register if she could see me at all. She said that she did not understand the question, so at least she could hear me. I know I may lack personality, but this was ridiculous....On the other hand, perhaps this is why I sometimes can´t even trigger automatic doors to open. Well, personality or not, I still have to live with myself and during the past months I was able to make important decisions, which is exciting (-for me, that is). It has been easier than I thought to quit all my little projects that took too much time and money. With no time left over there was more stress, and I am god at stress.

It all begun in the eighties when everybody got in to the new Danish invention "Time Management". Some genius convinced the entire Western World that this could make a lot of money. Well, the Danes did. Every employee in the country was brainwashed for three day, chewed and spat out with a daily planner in the hand.
It even had a "Friends" folder so we could book the time with friends efficiently. The Yuppie Era had begun.
Every young male and female was an investment banker or an art director and nobody seemed to really produce anything.

Now, 27 years later, I am finally at home in the evenings and during the weekends, cooking, reading and just resting. It is still hard to say no to these little extra jobs that I am asked to do all the time. In my case, they never paid enough to justify the stress involved. The sad part, which I secretly find the best part, is that I get almost no phone calls these days. This indicates either a very lonely life or a very happy one. But, it is at least "Real Time Management".
In the future, my training of horses and riders will be limited to Saturdays and at a nearby equestrian centre. This means that I will not travel for hours each week to different venues to make a few extra bucks.
Sure, the prospect of becoming a wealthy professional competition rider should have eventuated if I was as good as I say. On the other hand, most really good riders with many horses to ride and all, can´t even save up to a house. Appart from racing, there is basically no money in equestrian sport.
My mentor in riding and life, Event rider Petrus Kastenman, told me that "You will never win Olympic games but damn you if you don´t try", which I did.
Trying that hard is in itself a personal success, consequently, there is less need to become a star. This leads me on to a couple of myths circulating in the equestrian sport.

Myth 1: “If you train horses, it is best to buy a horse property”.
Many horse owners believe that if they had their own property, it would cut costs and save a lot of time.
This is not true. At least not for competitive riders. Since most of us would struggle to afford a property, almost no one would then be able to buy the necessary material and build the facilities for successfull training.
Most property owners with competition horses find themselves training less consistent because of bad weather, wet grounds and lack of good jumps. They regularly transport the horse away away from their “horse property” to access sufficient facilities, spending many hours plus car costs and petrol. Often, the only way to access good facilities is to participate in lessons where you also have to pay for an instructor. The cost for keeping a horse at an agistment place with an indoor school and jumping arena, is lower than having your own place and the job gets done! This means, you win more ribbons.

Myth 2: “A horse should not cost much”
or "My father never paid more than 50 bucks for a horse".
1 - "A horse should cost around $ 3000 "
2 - "A float cost app. $ 20.000."
3 - "A $ 40.000 four wheel drive is necessary to tow it".

This list basically needs to be turned upside down.

1: Horse: $ 40.000
-Or at least pay for a good horse that is going to do the job from the start!
Most of us buy a young horse or just a cheap one with problems that we think we can fix.
Unless we are professional riders, we end up spending thousands on help to correct the horses, sometimes before we can even ride them ourselves.












2:Float/Truck: $ 20.000
- A float only needs to be safe and good for the horses to travel in.
Unfortunately, many of us want to drive around in a float or preferably a truck that make us look very successful.
3: Car: $ 5.000 (additional cost)
-Your existing car can most likely tow a float and a horse already!
A few locations you go to, may be too muddy but these places can mostly be avoided, so it is not necessary to upgrade to a new four wheel drive.
Often it is enough to put a tow bar on the existing car or just upgrade to a slightly stronger one with a tow bar.

Myth 3: “I go to many instructors and pick the parts that suits me”
Gathering different training tips all over the place and then create a working training schedule ourselves, is almost impossible. And it is confusing for everyone.
Riding students or their parents don´t have the experience to judge which methods are best? Let alone to put it together to a working system, as well as to hop on the horse and adjust it to the individual talent and age of their horse.
FEI judge Eric Lette (“The conscience of World Dressage”) told me that consistency in the training is more important than going to all the best instructors.

Most instructors are very good, and anyone who sticks to him/her will find success.
The key is that the instructor must know when it is time to send the student off to the next level. This is how it often works in some European countries. The top riders don´t forget who started them out and the top trainers have respect for trainers at lower level. They remember their names and sometimes consult them about common students.
Another benefit is that there is less room for corruption in an Equestrian Federation with such a system.
In Australia we have a wealth of talent and the quality of our horses is good enough, at least until they their education begins. Most riders need to learn how to train a young extremely talented horse. It is different to training normal horses. The only way to learn how to harvest the talent of a super horse is to go to Europe and to stay there long enough to learn it.
By the way; to bring your own horse to a German top rider for 3 months and pay a massive amount of money, does not do it. Still, the main reason for lack of international success by Australian Dressage and Show Jumping riders, is a corrupted federation.

One that could appoint someone like Harry Bolt as an "assistant" coach. This is a man who has taken Germany to several Olympic Team Gold medals. It does not matter if he did not want to carry the main responsibility for Australian Dressage or was old or too expensive or not politically correct or something. Whatever the excuse, they should just have handed over the entire show to him, paid the money and then sat down to watch and learn.
And -there would have been enough commercial value in it to attract sponsors to cover the cost.


God only knows how our Event riders manage to do so well .
I guess it is because they are mostly free spirits and more fun.