A little bit about myself

A little bit about myself.

Basically I would describe myself as a hobby rider with ambition but no money.

I’ve been riding for many years, and like so many others started riding as a child at the age of 10 in Hungary. I rode throughout my teenage years and competed from time to time, first in show jumping, and later in my early 20s in dressage. I took a long break (9 years) from riding, and took it up again at about 30.  It took a very long time to be able to start riding regularly, and for the first few years I helped out in local stables in Ireland (where we were living in those days) to get some riding, as lessons would cost about 35 – 45 Euro at that time and I had no money to have my horse.

I helped out for about 3 years for the odd lesson at a local dressage yard, and for the chance to ride maybe twice a week -  however as I was getting more serious about riding once again this was not enough. My (long suffering) husband and I finally decided to bite the bullet and buy a horse (a 15 years old retired Friesian carriage horse). From then on I had to balance the cost of keeping a horse and taking riding lessons to help me improve. For the next three years I had a number of horses – due to the fact that I was extremely unlucky – I had to retire two due to injury (unrelated to training or riding), lost one to grass sickness (after only 12 days), and had to sell one, a discarded German PSG dressage horse (and son of Donnerhal) whom I acquired cheap due to the fact that he was just too difficult to ride; and I soon found out that that he was way too difficult for me to manage.

I was utterly demoralised, and didn’t know what to do next. By this time I knew that I wanted to return to competitive dressage, and wanted to have a ‘real go’ at becoming a decent dressage rider, however we couldn’t afford to keep a horse (especially as the ones I had owned seemed to have had endless health problems), and keep up with proper lessons – which are a must for me to advance further. The only way we could have afforded both (horse and lessons) would have been for me to work 9 to 5 full-time, and also take on a lot of overtime – which would have made it impossible for me to ride every day… Catch - 22

Two years ago I decided not to buy a horse, and went on to loan a one instead – again a minefield, trust me.  I soon learned that people who loan horses are vulnerable to criticism and blame if anything at all happens to the horse even if it is not their fault. Sometimes even if nothing happens loaners can be blamed– which I found out when riding a horse I recently took on loan. He spooked when a bird flew up from a bush next to the arena – perfectly normal I would think, however the owner – not horsey himself – insisted that his horse (9 years old) has never ever did anything like this and till that day he never ever spooked, therefore I must have made him upset in some way….

4 months ago I left my job (as a careers adviser), and took up a job working for a local racehorse trainer – working for a lot less money, however getting a lot more job satisfaction.  While riding racehorses couldn’t be more different to dressage, there are certainly many things I can learn about, such as how to start and bring on young and headstrong horses. Also the fast paced work out in the fields and gallops is something I was a little scared of, therefore neglected in the past. I felt that I had to have complete control over the horse and the situation, and had real trouble being able to just being able to let go and enjoy more fast paced riding away from the safety of the arena, which is something my new job certainly helps me learn to do. It’s scary at times, but I do it, and I know that it is something that will help me become a much better and accomplished rider in the years to come.

Finally after years of trying hard I also managed to find a fantastic trainer who trains up to GP, and who seems to be able to teach me something new every time. This is where I am at the moment. Have a great trainer, but no horse; and have a great job that allows me to ride, but not dressage.  There are some horses that I might be able to ride and maybe compete – I’ll tell you about them in the next few posts, which will hopefully allow me to ponder my options.

Well thank you for reading all this, I hope I didn’t bore you with my long-winded story, and if any one of you readers have a similar (or maybe a different) story to tell, or anything else to add please feel free to comment.