Ride On Para-Equestrians!

 Although most of the current hype in the equestrian community is for the Olympics, a ground breaking event is also in the making. The equine para-olympics is one of the biggest yet least well known equestrian events in the world. Recently the para-olympic trials were held at the same horse park as the traditional olympic trials, after these trials took place the American equestrian para-olympic team was announced. The riders on the team include: Rebecca Hart, Jonathan Wentz, Robin Brueckmann, Erin Alberda, Mary Jordan, Kim Decker, Wendy Fryck, Jennifer J. Baker, Susan Treabess, and Laura Goldman. To learn more about these riders, click here. These brave riders will represent our country at the London Para-Olympics.

Although not many blogs in the dressage community picked up on the Para-Olympic riders, luckily one did. In her blog The London Eye, Jennifer O Bryant speaks about how we should not take our gifts for granted. She instead shows us that we should respect these para-olympians because they can do things we cannot even with our able bodies. She reminds us that we, the able, cannot complain about minor aches and pains when some riders are missing entire limbs but they still manage to reach olympic levels of coordination and skill. they are truly amazing.

Jennifer O Bryant is right on the money when it comes to para-olympians; they are some of the most talented riders in the world. Although they may only ride at the walk-trot speed they can perform movements that most of us struggle with. These men and women exemplify what being a rider is about: riding to be the best you can possibly be. While many of these riders are not physically able to do many things that we can, they can do many things we cannot. After watching a video of Rebecca Hart ride, I know she could wipe the floor with me if we ever went head to head. I also know that after I have learned about the challenges these riders face on a daily basis I can no longer complain that my foot has fallen asleep in the stirrup of that I have bruised my arm in a dismount. These riders have taught me that we should all strive to be the best we can possibly be!

Welcome Stephen!

Hello there! If you have found your way here then you probably already know what dressage is, however if you don’t, allow me to briefly explain it. Dressage is an equine discipline than is descended from French military equine training in the middle ages. Dressage was originally a series of movements aimed at making the horse and rider more flexible before they headed into battle. In dressage there are two main groups of movements: suppling and collecting. Collecting exercises are aimed at gathering the horses’ strength in their middle and gathering energy in their movements. Suppling exercises are aimed at increasing flexibility of both the rider and the horse. If you still don’t understand this sport, click here!

As many of you have heard Stephen Colbert has been talking about the olympics, in specific, the dressage olympic qualifiers. If you haven’t seen the video you can see it here. In this clip Colbert shares his sarcastic love for Rafalca, an olympic dressage hopeful who is owned, unfortunately, by Mitt Romney’s wife, Ann Romney. My point is not that Ann Romney is bad, but that she is not the best ambassador for dressage. Colbert announced that dressage would be his “sport of the summer”. Although he outwardly encourages people to enjoy dressage he wags a subtle finger at the Romneys and subtly suggests that dressage is an elitist sport.

Although many have been cheering for this show of support for our beloved sport in the prime time media, one blogger calls our attention to the fact that we should “be careful what we wish for“. It her blog, The London Eye, Jennifer O. Bryant tells us that Colbert may be painting our lovely sport as elitist and that it is a sport for the rich. Although she admits that the rare spotlighting of dressage in the prime time is never bad, she reminds us to be casus  of our  initial enthusiasm as we may be lured in to a false hope.

Although Colbert is poking fun at dressage, I truly believe in the age-old saying Any publicity is good publicity, or at least when it comes to a sport that is as little known in America as dressage is. My fellow dressage queens, we cannot be picky when it comes to endorsements from the mainstream media. We are lucky to get any at all, let alone one from the king of comedic news, Stephen Colbert. I believe we should spend less time thinking about all the ways Colbert will ruin our sport and think of how many new people will see the video he played of Rafalca piaffe and fall in love with dressage. Now is our chance to say to our friends: “I do that thing with horses that Stephen Colbert said was his sport of the summer!” or something to that nature.