I was shocked in a conversation some time ago, which so pointedly encompassed the naming of names of certain ‘celebrity' equestrians. To be honest there was no point in the naming of names and I didn't know what to do with the information given to me or how to respond to it. It was as if the chef presented the most perfect main course dish and served it on a dish complete with sparklers, music and self-tossing confetti. No purpose really to the ‘display', and in the end it seemed to me to take away from the main course.
Did I miss out on the learning curve of how to drop names? I did lead a rather ‘disconnected' adolescents in which much of the traditional social webbing that many equestrians develop was lost on me. I didn't attend high-school, and the years of schooling I did go through I managed to permeate every clique and group available. I tend to see things from the horse's point of view, no one horse is more important in the herd. Whatever their position is, it is necessary and likely of impermanence.
Looking in through the windows of the horse world I see a mashup of equestrians trying so hard to copy. To be like the horse celebrities they see at every venue. If you happen to rub elbows directly with a certain well-known there are oohs or ahhs to accompany the discovery. Your own skills as an equestrian are pre-judged by who you have or haven't worked with.
It is a quality deeply seated in the world as a whole however, and not simply exclusive to equestrians.
The more media gets involved and digs deeper into the personal lives of celebrities the more apparent that they are not without their own faults and challenges. Being celebrity does not disown you from being human. Celebrity has for some time been the modern version of greek deities.
In Classical Dressage many of the ‘Masters' are looked at as though being flawless, if you are in the camp following that particular one. But the truth is we will never know, all is speculation. Even those amazing riders who are still alive today, we cannot know more than we do – the rest is assumption and expectation. I've known a number of ‘higher ups' in my own time and in getting close to them have been able to appreciate their humanness all the more. To see that I am closer to them than I might have realized because they make mistakes just like I do. They experience the emotions of fear, pain, joy, excitement, anxiety, anger… just as I myself do at times.
What if instead of name dropping, copy-catting and deifying… we were to turn the looking glass inwards on ourselves and discover our own aspirations? I theorize that it would open the world of horses to being less-cliquish, more creative and more horse-needs oriented.
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