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Criticism

What is it with horse people? Or is it people in general? This thing about putting someone down?

A while ago I saw a post of a father proudly posting a photo of his daughter and her horse, at their first attempt at the piaffe. It was a lovely photo of a young blonde woman on a brown horse, and obviously the woman was in heaven.

Well, the criticism came down on them like a ton of bricks! No, it wasn’t criticism, it was nastiness. The poor father was obviously horrified, as he clearly was just proud, plus the horse died soon after the photo was taken.

So my question is….What is wrong with horse people? We all know how hard this is, how much blood, sweat, tears, frustration, hours of hard work, getting out there in all kinds of weather, it takes to then all of a sudden have this profound moment of beauty, when the horse offers you this gift, as only horses can…And then to have people giving negative comments, from the bridle to the bit, to even the colour of the shirt she was wearing. Why? Why can’t we be happy for someone, for doing it sort of right, for having a go because maybe it could happen, for being brave?

Off course, when you go and look on the fault-finder’s page, you see no evidence whatsoever that they can do it better, or even really know what they are talking about.

I don’t think criticism is really the problem, for the people who know and really understand how hard and incredibly long this road is, will often give positive criticism, like great job, but try to help your horse by doing a bit more of X to get his hindfeet under more, or whatever. That is criticism that will not kill the try.

So to those eedjits that have just negative things to say about someone who is willing to put themselves out there, I have a message…if you are not in the arena getting your butt kicked, (pun intended!) you have no right to criticise, I am not interested in your feedback. Move along, stay quiet, and stop stealing our joy!

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