Wow. Yeah. It's Just a Fashion Show.

I haven't blogged in a while but I ranted elsewhere on the internet this past weekend so who am I to let a good rant go to waste? I shall paste it here.

I am so **** sick of hearing about the snobbery of the hunter/jumper world -- that it's just a glorified fashion show.

There is fashion in every discipline. Do you honestly want to tell me that I could wear any old thing if I wanted to compete at a high level in Western Pleasure? Saddleseat? Pleasure Driving?

In any sport, from baseball to competitive ballroom dancing, there are acceptable outfits and uniforms and wearing them shows that you respect and understand your sport (and in a horse show, that you respect the stewards and judges).

And the body type? Again, in any sport there is a body type that will give a participant a leg up. A ballerina is willowy -- a sumo wrestler is massive. A certain body type may allow someone to excel in sprinting but be lousy at throwing a javelin. Of course there are always exceptions but if you pick a sport that favors a body type that you don't have, you can expect to have to work a little harder. The body type favored in hunters and equitation is not just a fad -- the short torso, long legs and lithe body is the type that will make learning to ride a little bit easier. I see it again and again in my lessons, that the girls who are not blessed with this body type just have to work that much harder. When they are willing to put in the work, however, some of these girls can do just as well as the ones who had it a little easier. My own trainer does NOT fit the norm for body type and she won and won as a kid.

It isn't fair to dismiss the hard work of the kids who show hunters as a fashion or beauty contest. Drop your stirrups and jump a course with us before you judge the entire sport.