Life........and Its Lessons

Part 1

The easiest thing about horses is the horses themselves. The difficult part is the people that surround them. I hear lots of comments about the horse community and its people and most of them are not good. There seems to be this blanket acceptance by many that horse people are not worthy of trust and its reasonable to expect getting scr*wed if one participates.

I prefer to believe that horse people are like all other people. There are good ones and bad ones. I don't think we have any more than our share of the bad people despite the political bull and the unscrupulous ones that are out there. Just because I bump into those less desirable situations from time to time doesn't mean I want to blame the industry. Individual people and their principles are the reason, not the horse industry.

The thing that puzzles me about the industry and this notion is the unspoken rule we don't talk about what goes bad. Despite the belief of many that horse people cannot be trusted, many of those very people will support the notion of not talking. The belief is if a person talks badly about trainers, breeders, buyers, you name it, it will only hurt the person who does the talking.

Anyone who regularly reads this blog knows I am not a proponent of this concept. I believe we need to share what difficulties we have so others might learn from them. This industry will never get "better" if those doing the wrong aren't held accountable for their actions. Speaking out is the first step in accountability.

I have been criticized and even warned for posting about my less than favorable experiences with others. I have also been thanked for it. I'm glad to see that at least some are appreciative of my speaking out. As for those that say I will pay, I am undaunted by such threats. The horse industry's dirty little secrets will continue to be pitfalls unless they are out in the open. I refuse to enable such things.

While I have posted about a number of issues I've encountered in the industry, I have not posted about a few others. Up to this point I have kept a buffer of sorts in place determining what I talked about and what I didn't. I have decided it's only fair to my readers to let them know that buffer has been there.

That buffer had to do with how close the involved parties were to me. It also seems to be situational. I have posted about some difficult things close to me.......but I have definitely left out others as I struggled trying to figure out how I would tell the story. Honestly, I have reacted some to fear of repercussions.

With recent events being what they are, I can see my use of this buffer is about to be tested. I find it extremely difficult to write when an elephant is in the room.........if you get my drift. The current situation affects my life so profoundly it is hard to separate it from my every day life. That means I either stop blogging or...........I spill the beans.

I have decided that I will not let the behavior of others prevent me from blogging. As for spilling the beans, I've also decided I will probably do that too at some point. First I will address the generalities of those things I've avoided posting up to this time. I would like my readers to understand some of the pitfalls I've encountered and the lessons I have learned.

To be continued.............

Buying



Visit Blog Village and vote daily for this blog Here They are now measuring the rankings by the number of votes out, so if you find my blog on the site, please click that link too to improve my rankings. TY