I get this because people in my wider wider circle post or talk about their riding, and people in the comments treat horse trainers like they're doing a public service, taking those poor lovely animals out for a stroll or a obstacle course run. And the hobby is such an Instagramable activity because posh people do it, therefore it's cool. There's something attractive to rich people about someone on a horse with tight horse gear clothes.
I need to stress it: riding and owning a horse is expensive af. Even the lessons are absurdly expensive. No one in my circle of friends or even extended family does it. And the hobby is basically just golf in terms of environmental costs. Horses require a fuck ton of water and create a fuck ton more of shit, and they require an ungodly amount of land. I just assume that the labour for feeding and cleaning is done by immigrants, and white people get to to do the cool jobs like training.
Horse people like to brag that many/most of the world's monarchies and aristocracy is really into riding. To me, that should be a massive slight. If Elizabeth and Charles's favourite sport was horsing, that should be a big red flag.
And what gets to me is how horse people are all like "I love my horses". Like I'm sorry, Brett, but if you loved that animal, you wouldn't put a bit in their mouth and make them carry you around. Horse injuries with riders are very common, especially spinal injuries because weight has been placed on where it wasn't designed for weight.
I get in trouble because I point this out and every middle class person in the room gets super upset that their lovely horse hero got their hobby attacked.
Note: this post is only for white horse people. I don't know about nor have an opinion on non-Western horse activities.
The brutal part is that horsemanship isn’t just a rich people hobby.
There are so many working class people who pour massive amounts of time and money into their horses (it’s bad to keep just one, they need a herd) and don’t even ride.
Horse people have to have massive cleared land and some kind of shelter for them. They’re always worried about if they have enough hay for the winter and watching the weather for big temperature changes that cause colic.
To get enough hay to last any amount of time, a horse persons gotta own, rent or pay someone with a big truck and trailer and have somewhere to put it. They can’t use legume hay (cow hay) or fermented hay (also for cows). New hay has to be bought weeks in advance so it can be slowly mixed in to prevent colic.
Horse people gotta use special vets who almost always have to make house calls.
If a horse person wants to take their horse somewhere like a better vet office a couple of counties over they gotta have a special trailer, the truck to pull it, the time to get the horse comfortable with it and the psychic energy to fend off a whole new category of final destination thought.
Horses can live 30 years easily. There are limited horse rescues and they have spotty histories because the animals themselves are so expensive to care for and the adoption rate is so low.
Imagine if all the people who adopted heelers or pits when they rented their first house with a fenced yard also couldn’t give their pets up for adoption when they got evicted or had to move for a job or just when the dog became too much for them.
Horses are incredibly smart and sensitive. I’m glad to have known the ones I have and still sad to have seen the ones go that I have.
I don't mean this to be argumentative, but what are the jobs of these people who have a herd of horses? This is more curiosity than anything, I'm very far from rural life.
Otherwise, everything you said is spot on.
One of my coworkers was a municipal hvac tech when he had horses. At first he said he quit riding after his kids were born and the danger of getting fucked up in fall was too much, recently he said he gained too much weight around the same time and that it wasn’t safe for the animals.
A regular I always run into at the hardware store has three big workhorses and works in construction. Every once in a while on a Sunday we’ll see him riding on a backroad.
My partner and I used to have two or three depending on if someone else’s was passing through, but recently we put down the last one. They don’t ride anymore after a fall and we’re both in the service industry.
One of their high school friends is a teacher with an old nag and a bunch of goats. Idk why she stopped riding but she doesn’t.
Of course, there are lots of examples of rich people with horses in the area but only one around us, a large animal vet with a bunch of quarterhorses. That person still rides.
I don’t use the term herd to refer to a big galloping stampede, but the handful that a person with their own facilities (pasture, barn, etc) would have to keep the animals themselves from going nuts from isolation and loneliness.
Tell me if I'm wrong, but it feels like not rich people in my area buying boats. Like they're fucking expensive, not fun enough to justify the cost, and you'll barely use it, but people do it because it's the thing that beautiful middle class people do.
I definitely don't mean to be pedantic, but I wonder how a prole could have a pasture and a barn, like is it generational wealth? Anyhow, you don't need to answer my questions, as I feel like I'm putting you out more than you deserve. I believe your assessment that working people buy horses.
Theres a lot of similarities between boat and horse ownership. You need a truck, it’s all hidden costs, there’s a bunch of safety problems.
People don’t buy boats because it’s what beautiful middle class people do, they buy boats because you can’t fish in some places/get wasted on the lake without em.
I mean, you can rent from the marina, but go out five times a year two years in a row and it makes more sense to buy the boat yourself.
Freshwater boating makes more sense when you’re in the area the tva went around making reservoirs in. When you pass that turn off for blacktown lake (named for the community of color that they flooded to create it) ten times a week on the way to and from work there’s a real draw to that kind of leasure.
I have a steel johnboat with a trolling motor and a tiny sailboat that both fell into my lap for free when friends needed to make space. They’re a lot of upkeep but it’s also real nice to drink a beer while floating around. I run into people my own income level mostly. Every once in a while there’s rich jerks but it’s not often.
They got their own lake lol.
There’s plenty of old barns and split up farms for sale. Usually the lot with the barn on it goes for less because unless you’re gonna use it a barn is a huge cost sink waiting to open up when it falls down and you gotta pay a crew to haul it off and replace all your crushed shit.
But if you wanna get a cheap/rescue horse, that three acre lot with a barn and a new construction 3/2 on it is looking good.
There’s also generational wealth, though not in the way we usually imagine it. What used to be a family farm that’s been split up and frittered away with an old tobacco barn in the corner of one plot.
Now the great grand nephew of that farmer can spend half his income from the state road crew keeping a couple of horses that would otherwise be on the train to Canada.
Plenty of old tobacco land is now pasture, hay or cattle if it’s not being developed.
E: you’re not putting me out. It’s hard to know what’s going on out in the countryside if you’re not in it. China had a whole cultural revolution about this stuff, the least I can do is engage with some questions about horses and boats.