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So today it’s all over social media that a famous show jumping rider just sold her mare for $3,000,000. to another rich kid. And you and I know, without a shadow of a doubt, that hundreds of young aspiring riders will see this, and add it as one more example of the way that the system is rigged against them, and will allow this news to add to their existing sense of disillusionment about their own chances of ever becoming successful. There will be other kids who might give this news a flickering glance, and keep on practicing the sitting trot, keep on jumping the two foot fences to work on their eye for a distance, keep on trading mucking stalls in exchange for lessons, and the chance to ride more horses. And I can tell you, without a shadow of a doubt, that some day, 25 years from now, it will be one of these latter kids who will be the “big” rider, not the recipients of too much largesse, nor those who use the easy success of some as an excuse to shirk their own struggle.