The "Legs" That Keep Us Stable

Our columnist observes that the support structure for our human athletes is strong, but our sport horses could still use a little improvement.

Just like every other sport, our base is composed of our athletes. Yet it’s impossible to lump every competitor into a single category. In addition to professional rider/athletes, we also have our amateurs and juniors. Each of the three categories is critical to the current and future health of our sport, as well as the industry that it supports. They are akin to the three legs that support a stool—each is equally essential to providing for stability.

The organization of the sport in the United States does an excellent job of providing for all three groups of human athletes. Separate divisions exist for each, along with several well-established sub-categories within each group to account for the various levels of experience and to permit riders to “move up” in level of difficulty.

Throughout my decades in the sport, juniors have been provided their own classes at our shows. Our predecessors obviously recognized early on that if junior competitors were to be able to enter the sport and to progress they not only would be over-faced by being thrown directly into open competition, they would not have the sort of rewards along the way that draw newcomers into the sport and keep those in it enthused and eager to progress.

Virtually every junior rider is supported (sponsored) by his or her parents. It’s not only the children who need to see evidence of progress and successes along the way, but just as importantly their parents if they are to continue to provide the sort of increasing financial and moral support that our young riders require.