It’s a really unsettling feeling when you realise your new, uneducated horse is way over your pay grade.
Sure…it’s never a nice feeling when there’s a mismatch with ANY horse, but when they have ZERO education the situation gets much worse.
A cheery lil conversation with my friend Renee, letting y’all know where my head’s at right now.
Now – if you’re wondering what went down, here’s how the story so far has unfolded…
1. This person (we’ll call her Jemima for shits and giggles) experiences a surge of confidence and starts daydreaming a little too vigorously. Some people call it ambition… but really it’s just a mild case of delusion.
2. She begins to feel more capable than she actually is and dreams about training up a young, green, wild, off the track or otherwise ‘challenged’ horse to become a superstar. It’s pretty much like every single horse movie you watched as a kid, with this gal as the main character.
3. Fueled by this delusion – the young, green, wild, off the track or otherwise challenged horse is purchased from the online racehorse auction for the princely sum of $600.
And while the first few weeks usually present some challenges, the main character knows there must be some friction at the beginning because it’s all part of the movie journey.
4. It’s not until the months tick by, that the main character realises that the challenges are not, in fact, being overcome.
It appears that this particular young, green, wild, off the track or otherwise challenged horse does not wish to participate in this movie.
No corners are being turned and the training montages are MIA.
Instead, the main character’s confidence starts peeling away…they second guess their ability and soon enough they start mentally kickboxing themselves for thinking such a thing was even possible.
5. But it gets worse. So much worse….
The shame-faced main character realises they are responsible for a horse that is probably unrideable, potentially unlikeable and is starting to feel a bit dangerous.
They realise that there is incredibly limited outcomes for horses like this….
Conscience has a lot to answer for…. and so too, do stupid daydreams.
See, educated, safe, competitive or well bred horses usually have a long list of people lining up to buy them.
They have a bright future and people value them.
And even an uneducated, young, green, wild or otherwise challenged horse, if they’re a pretty colour, might get passed around from person to person as a ‘project’…Which gives them a fighting chance at surviving our superficial world.
But the uneducated, mass produced, boring brown ones… well they’re the ones that are forgotten or fill the doggers trucks.
Because there’s NO shortage of these horses around… and a REAL shortage of people with the skills & motivation to train them.
6. Soon enough the main character cant even bear to acknowledge how stupid she was… Every time she sets eyes on the horse, she feels a surge of panic, frustration and regret.
She thinks for the 60000th time that it’s time to stop riding entirely.
But even if she does that, it wont solve the problem of the horse in front of her 😩
The chance of the young, green, wild or otherwise challenged horse going on to have a pleasant life, at its current state of education is nearly zero.
She starts to wonder how much more money she should spend on training, lameness diagnostics, saddle fitting , farriery and bodywork before she can say ‘She tried everything…’
7. She realises, realistically that she MUST continue with the training because that’s the only thing she can improve.
She can’t change his colour or his breeding but she can change his level of education.
It’s either that or consider humane euthanasia.
Frightened and remorseful as she is, she realises that sending him to the sales or advertising him ‘Free to good home’ is unacceptably irresponsible.
She realises, with a soul crushing level of shame and embarrassment, that her own stupid ego has no place here… and there is nowhere else to go except right back to the very, very beginning.
Read the next instalment here.