It’s a Sport!

Want to make my daughter, Emma, angry?  Well, of course you don’t! But if you did, this is what you tell her:  Horseback riding is not a sport. Smoke will start coming from her ears! You see, she has been fighting that battle for the past ten years.

Emma has been taking lessons for the last decade. She has also showed from time to time. Last summer she won many awards for her riding. She deserved every one of them.  She works hard, comes home exhausted, and always looks forward to the next lesson or show.

But some people, mostly boys but not all, seem to think that horseback riding is easy and that it is just sitting on top of a horse who does all the work.  Nothing could be farther from the truth.  Riders are not just sitting on top of a horse….they are controlling a horse. They are controlling an animal that weighs more than a thousand pounds! They are making the animal go at a particular speed, in a particular direction, and making it jump over fences.  The horse has its own personality and sometimes doesn’t want to follow directions. The rider has to make it happen.  During summer shows, the rider is dressed in thick riding pants, wearing a jacket, and wearing a helmet. Sometimes it is ninety degrees at show time.

I have seen riders fall and have to go to the hospital. I have seen bloodied faces when the rider falls face first into the gravel.  It’s a sport.

So why do so many people disagree?  Let’s start with boys. There are very few boys who take horseback riding lessons.  So, to them, it’s just a girly thing.  Ridiculous. Then there is the fact that it is not a “school” sport. Most people don’t know what goes into making a horse jump over fences at an alarming rate of speed. That’s because it is not a sport like football, basketball, or baseball, where everyone knows it well.  Lastly, it goes back to people making themselves feel better by putting down others.  I wish that would stop.

So, horseback riding is a sport. It requires strength, coordination, courage, and stamina.

Today is Emma’s last day of school, finally. She will be a sophomore in about two hours. Please don’t make her angry.  Thank you.

Hot one in the Lehigh Valley today. Enjoy!