Think of equestrians like other athletes:
Just because they might not own a basketball or a soccer goal in order to play doesn’t mean that they aren’t a soccer or basketball player. Just because you don’t own a horse doesn’t mean you aren’t an equestian.
Just because they aren’t as good as an idol in their sport doesn’t make them any less of an athlete. Just because you aren’t as good as your equestian idol doesn’t make you any less of an equestian.
Someone who simply plays non-competitive baseball in their free time is NOT a baseball player. Someone who just rides trail horses at the local boarding barn, no matter how often, is NOT an equestrian.
You are an equestrian if you work as often as you possibly can with a horse to improve your team and reach a goal. Once you reach that goal, get another. The cycle never stops. An equestian doesn’t take their sport lightly, and neither does any other athlete. Don’t say you’re an equestrian if you just let the horse carry you around. You are the reason so many people don’t consider horseback riding a sport.
Lmao fuck you man. You’re the reason people think this sport is so elitist. Like who gives a fuck if someone “just” trail rides? They’re still an equestrian because they love horses and spend time with horses. And I find it ironic your post is about not doubting yourself as an equestrian unless you do it for fun and this it’s just fake and you aren’t a “real equestrian”. Like fuckkkkk you and stop being such a cry baby gatekeeper.
Hi guys, I’m gonna have to delete this blog cause my horse got sick and she’s not able to be a competition horse so I’m not an equestrian anymore 🤷🏼♀️
i guess i’m not an equestriana anymore bc i can’t afford it :( how sad
I started riding horses 23 years ago. Probably longer than OP has been alive. By their definition I’m not an equestrian or an athlete because despite having bred my own sporthorses to ride and having a resting heart rate in the 50s, I don’t put a lot of effort into performing my sport in any competitive sense, because fuck that shit, I put in a lot of work to become qualified in a specialist field of employment, why the hell would I bother becoming an elite in my sport as well? I’d rather unwind with a trail ride and maybe enter encouragement shows when I’m not so busy.
If I want trophies I can enter a national competition in my career field (which I plan on doing this season after finishing my PhD) which would further boost my CV and increase my future income. If I leveraged a win in that for an additional $5,000 / year in salary (not a stretch), that’d pay for the yearly upkeep of one of my horses. And I’d continue to benefit throughout the life of my career.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
From Dictionary.com
Equestrian (noun) a person who rides horses
Here’s the crazy thing about sports, they were not invented so that they could be profited off of and professionalized. They were invented as a way to pass the time, have fun, and hone potentially useful skills (or in the case of American football— to simulate warfare for the generation following the Civil War that had no wars to go fight).
You can be a professional basketball player. You can also be a rec league player who works 50 hours a week behind a desk and plays for fun. You can take both just as seriously. You can also fail to take either seriously. There are professionals in any professional sport who are no longer doing it for the passion of the game. There are amateurs in any sport who have the passion that could’ve propelled them to pro status if everything had aligned perfectly.
You can be someone who loves basketball, knows every damn thing about basketball from history to effective strategies and whatever else who doesn’t play or cannot play. That doesn’t make you less invested in basketball. That doesn’t mean you can’t be as involved in basketball as a player, maybe you’re trying to coach or be a sports writer or a team manager or maybe you just want to coach your son’s team. Technically you’re not an athlete but that doesn’t mean you’re not (to create a new fucking term) basketballrian. Or… basketball fan. Enthusiast? No, clearly basketballrian is the best term.
It doesn’t matter what the sport is. It’s meant to bring enjoyment and you can get enjoyment from a sport in many ways.
For some people, that’s pursuing a professional career.
For others that goal-driven, showing/competition driving amateur involvement.
But for others that’s just trail-riding on a borrowed horse once a month.
Or giving lessons but never riding.
Even just owning and loving a horse who is not going to be ridden and is basically like a big goat that costs more money. No one gets to bogart the sport. Anyone can and should be able to enjoy it on whatever level of involvement they want and still get to call themselves an equestrian. While equestrian might denote “a person who rides horses”, over time the term has clearly evolved to connote “a lover of horses”. In short, who gives a fuck if you like horses and think they’re pretty neat-o then congratulations you are officially an equestrian, you get a secret decoder ring and a lifetime supply of salt.
