Amy Heidbreder

It seems my new blog pace is one a month. I’d like to get better at that, but in this season, life insists on being difficult to keep up with. I’m currently waging a tumultuous battle with the dreaded burnout. Not much has changed in the last month. My to do list continues to increase and my responsibilities continue to grow. A new development has manifested since my last blog: my boss resigned. You know what that means? More work for meeeee!!! I don’t know how well I am poised to take on anymore. The good news is I feel a bit healthier as I write this, because the last few nights I have prioritized sleep and forced myself into bed for a full 8 hours each night.

I wear a FitBit to bed and it gives me a sleep score. This past weekend I did not sleep well at all. I kept another horse worked. I had a long conversation over a perfect dinner with my best friend Sunday night, fit in a haircut, a grocery trip, tack cleaning, horse bathing and hours of watering my lawn in between it all. I got a gross, failing score of 55 coming into Monday morning, and LORD did I feel it! Typically, as my sleep wanes, I tend to become disoriented and I can even get depressed. Thankfully Monday night and Tuesday night, I got the best sleep scores I’ve ever gotten, and am grateful to feel a little more like myself as I write this.

It’s not only sleep that I have to thank for a bit of a renewed spirit. I read an opinion that put a little pep back in my step. It made me laugh and awakened a little bit of the fight in me. A bit of a kerfuffle between the World Equestrian Center (WEC) and the United States Equestrian Federation (USEF) is generating a stir in horse show world. The WEC is a fairly new entity with freshly built facilities in Ohio and now Ocala, Florida. Recently they embarked on applying to host a 12-week winter circuit at their facility in Ocala from January 6^th–March 28^th, 2021. They applied to host 12 USEF licensed shows and an FEI Nations Cup within that 12 week period, with an offering of over $9 million in prize money. The problem is USEF has this mileage rule. I believe the rule does not allow USEF licensed competitions of the same caliber to run within a certain number of miles of each other. There is another USEF licensed show with FEI classes that runs in Ocala around the same time of year: HITS Ocala. The mileage rule creates a conflict with these two shows. There’s also a conflict with prize money apparently. I’m not sure I understand it all, but USEF agreed to license 4 of the 12 requested shows. Undeterred and still determined to have a full 12-week circuit, WEC turned to another organization to sanction the other 8 weeks. They applied to have the National Snaffle Bit Association (NSBA) license the other weeks USEF would not sanction. USEF disagreed with this and thought it created confusion and put the welfare of the competitors at risk, so they withdrew all licensing for any competition during that 12-week period at WEC, and wrote a statement that sounded somewhat threatening and insulting as a response.

Ultimately all 12-weeks of these shows will be licensed by the NSBA, but in USEF’s statement, they clearly express worry over the welfare of everyone involved in those competitions. Welfare and safety were both reasons they cited for withdrawing licensing, and I don’t know if this was their intent, but the statement came off as a passive aggressive way of openly insulting leadership under the NSBA, suggesting that the organization is not capable of carrying the same standards of safety for horse welfare. The statement felt like a shot across the bow. So, what was WEC’s and a large sect of the USEF member base’s response? Basically one giant middle finger to USEF. WE DON’T CARE! There’s an opinion a woman shared on Facebook. With respect to the user’s privacy, I won’t disclose her name, but here is her opinion in full:

I laughed and pumped my fist when I first read it. Finally! Someone standing up for change. This post breathed life back into me, to realize there are thousands of others that feel the same way I do, and that now there are people with money, building facilities like the WEC and finally standing with the little people in some way for change. How long lived this will be, I don’t know. I can only hope this is the start of a huge movement that paves the way for adult amateurs to be successful in horse show world.

I understand, showing is not everything. I apologize if my show-oriented goals offend anybody, but here’s the thing, while showing may not be everything, it is something and it’s fun. I won’t apologize for wanting to have fun with my horse. And the reality is that the cost of showing will in some way affect any rider with aspirations to better their horsemanship and training, even if they have no intent of showing. I made a move to a new barn recently to invest in better quality care and training for myself and my horse. Within 2 months, the cost of board went up. It was just awkward timing for me, as I came in at the tail end of the facility’s need to make a decision in combatting rising expenses. For facilities, like the one I’m at now, shows are a part of those expenses—training for shows, selling show horses is part of how these facilities pay their bills. It’s difficult to sell a show horse with no show experience. Shows help increase value of a sales horse. The rising costs of showing are going to trickle down and impact the non-shower, especially if that non-shower still wants to become a better horse person, because in the grand scheme of things, better training, better footing, better amenities is typically goal oriented. The best trainers are investing in bettering their riders and facilities for purpose, advancement and return on investment, and most return on investment in the horse world exists in the show ring.

It’s a double-edged sword. While showing isn’t everything, in the same way, money isn’t everything, but money is needed to keep the lights on, right? Typically people aren’t pouring hundreds of thousands of dollars into an animal for it stay home and never be seen by public eyes outside their facility. In the same way, people aren’t lining their facilities with well-groomed footing, indoor arenas, hot walkers and treadmills for the horse that sits at home all year and has no formal job. Competition gives these animals a job, affords them the ability to earn a living and allows people to display their learned skills. Most people don’t buy a nice dress to wear it around at home, right? They buy it to be seen. Yes, we want to prioritize being good horsemen, but at some point what’s the point going above and beyond if we’re not displaying our skills, sharing, and possibly earning money in prizes. It’s like working a job and never getting a promotion. It’s like having Lady Gaga’s voice, but no one ever hears it. The show ring is a place for us to share, learn and earn. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with desiring to achieve in the show ring. Period.

I feel like we have to have a serious discussion about how to reduce the cost of this sport to keep it relevant, ESPECIALLY during a pandemic. There is no place for this squabbling of mileage rules and pettiness. Even I, at this moment, with a stable job, fear the expense of getting back into the show ring. Financially, showing hurts. I hope to soon land a more permanent side-hustle to help ease the impact and make a real attempt at showing again, but even the modest increase in my board has been hugely impactful for a rider like me. I am just one in a sea of thousands. This is a highly uncertain time, where it always seems like a second shut down is looming. What happens when the rich are no longer rich and the squashed little people are fed up, and suddenly everyone abandons their USEF membership for different opportunity?

I haven’t renewed my USEF membership for years. First off, I’m not showing and secondly, a 90 minute course on child sex abuse just sounds exhausting. I already have to do that and take an exam every two years at my regular job. I just had to renew my child safety training recently, and the thought of having to do that again just to show my horse…not at this time, thank you. Maybe next year. It just seems like every year there’s a new hoop to jump through, a new vaccine our horses need to even show up on show grounds, microchips, child sex abuse training. Is there any room for fun anymore?

Naturally people follow the path of least resistance. And it’s not that you should look for the easy way all the time. It’s more like being in a bad relationship. It feels like this is a time where collectively the working adult amateurs are realizing USEF isn’t for them, and maybe it’s time to break up. Maybe it’s time to demand better leadership, real change, or we’re taking our memberships elsewhere to an organization willing to stand up for us.

We’ll see what the future holds…