04/22/2025
Instead of questioning your trainer why your kid is not excelling as quickly as desired in their riding, maybe look at how much your kid practices. If you’re only willing to commit to one lesson a week for example, that’s 4 hours per every 30 days on average. 4 hours out of 720 hours a month. Now let’s look at a year. 48 hours total. On average your kid then practices 2 days out of 365 days per year... let that sink in.
Our sport is much harder than most and takes a lot of practice and skill, but for some reason people do not look at it this way.
For example when I ran track, we practiced minimum 5 days a week for 2 hours a day. I put the sweat and time in to improve. Chorus - practice daily. Cheerleading - daily. Football - daily.
Now add into this the fact that our sport is one of the few hobbies that cannot be practiced at home. Golf, cheerleading, football, basketball, soccer, dance, band, chorus, gymnastics, etc, etc… can all be practiced at home.
Lets take a look at competitions. On average, highschool football has 8-10 games, soccer 18 games, basketball 25-35, track 7-12 meets. There are two parts to sports: one is learning the sport in practice, the second is learning to compete.
I understand our sport is expensive. However, I find it imperative that as a parent you look at these numbers... I am good at what I do, but I can’t work miracles.
The saddest thing I see is kids losing interest in their passion for riding because their parents do not support them in riding and competing more, even when they financially can do so. I was so blessed to have parents who decided it was worthwhile to invest in my passion. Did we really have the money to do it? Absolutely not. Were sacrifices made? Absolutely- from both them and me. But was it worth it? Absolutely.
I was a barn rat in every sense of the phrase. I did everything I could to earn extra rides and money towards my own horse and competitions. I was at the barn 7 days per week riding but also working, helping, and LEARNING. I sacrificed time with friends, vacations with family, schooling dances… you name it. When I got the opportunity to compete, I groomed by day and braided by night. Not only was this recognized by my parents, but it was also recognized by my trainers, barn owners, horse owners, and fellow riders.
I rode any horse I was given the opportunity to ride- The bratty pony needs a schooling? Done. The wild TB needs a hack? Done. The true and seasoned lesson horse needs a light hack! Perfect! I can work on me.
As trainers we always have horses that need to be hacked. “But I want to jump,” I hear so often and the biggest thing is that these riders don’t realize jumping starts with flat work. Come work in exchange for ride time. Drop your stirrups and practice what we do in our lessons. Make yourself stronger and watch how much quicker you excel. All jumping is is flat work with sticks in the way.
We need to truly change these mindsets in our industry. Parents and riders, let’s be honest with your expectations and what it takes to gain those extra rides and open opportunities you couldn’t otherwise afford.
