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January
2008 ... continued
The
way we live and the way we communicate has changed so radically
over the last few years that the way we have done business simply
doesn’t work anymore and for this breed it has meant a decline
in numbers and members. The enthusiasm levels are still there
at the top end of the markets in all businesses and that has
not changed, but how the middle and lower income families live
and prosper has; the base line being that in general these families
have much less disposable income. They also have a very different
lifestyle than twenty years ago, which is more seditary and the
great outdoors now comes on a computer screen.
As I watch some of the kids today I wonder about their level
of infatuation with the horse. I hear what they say and I watch
what they do and there seems to be discrepancy in the level of
commitment. I remember back in the days when all I wanted was
a horse and I would do anything to be around them. I walked over
a mile to go groom a friends, and I picked out stalls to get
rides, and cleaned tack just for the fun of it! We would ride
anything with four legs, including the dairy cows, of which my
grandfather disapproved, and we even rode the pigs when we felt
like a bucking squealing session! When there were too many of
us to ride the horses we’d ride the donkeys and yes they
could jump just as high as the ponies on a good day!
The horses were green, but we didn’t know the difference
and it didn’t matter, we learned to ride and fall off like
“Indians”! They bucked, they ran off, they refused
the jumps, they went where they wanted too and then they were
stars and do just what you wanted. We would ride over ten miles,
down a busy road to the beach and gallop along the surf. It was
a different time and parents didn’t watch your every step,
they left you alone to make your own mistakes and then they picked
you up and took you off the hospital occasionally! It was just
heaven to be with a horse, any horse! I don’t see that commitment
in many of our youth of today, and of course it may not be all
their fault either, how many adults just want to let their kids
go off on an unknown horse? They are stifled before they start.
If we don’t make an effort to bring new kids into the breed
and have them ride or even show from the ground up then it will
be difficult to grow. Most Arabians are perfect kid starters,
they are certainly more sensitive than anything I grew up on
and they usually love kids and have an affinity with them. We
have perfect sized kid starters too since many of our horses
are around 14 hands - 14.2 hands, so many of our competing youth
think that is too small, but if they learn that a perfectly balanced
horse is a great ride then the size doesn’t matter.
A new year and new opportunities and a time for growth, it’s
time to bring the Arabian back to everyday people and show just
how versatile they can be, and that doesn’t mean how many
disciplines they can do either. It means how many people can
they appeal to and how many can enjoy them in their back yard.
Joe Cassel always said the Quarter Horse Association had us beat
because they knew the value of the one and two horse owners.
Have a great new year - Joanna
……“When
I speak of love, I am not speaking of some sentimental or weak
response. I am speaking of that force which all of the great
religions have seen as the supreme unifying principle of life.
Love is somehow the key that unlocks the door which leads to
ultimate reality.” — Martin Luther King, Jr.
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