Admiration: Shocking, Laredo, Guusje, and their owners

I saw this video on YouTube, and I had heard a bit about this girl and her horse Shocking (love the name, don't you?) However, upon further investigation I realized that Shocking's owner pays for EVERYTHING (boarding, showing, lessons, etc. and she raised up the money to buy him in the first place). I know a lot of you adults are probably going "YEAH? And your point is, child?" My point is that she is SEVENTEEN. My age. And she manages to find time between school and being with her horse to raise up all that money. To be honest, I have nothing short of true admiration for this young lady.

I work off some of Greta's bills by doing barn chores (which do for fun and so I can feel SOMEWHAT responsible for her upkeep!) and some babysitting for the previously mentioned "frivolous things" haha. But seriously, it's my family that sponsors the basics. And I cannot thank them enough. To try and raise that much money at my age and still ride and still upkeep good grades in what will be all AP classes my Senior year? I cannot possibly fathom it.

So my topic today is admiration. I will show three short videos of people on YouTube who I strive to be like as a horse person. Not to necessarily turn Greta into my own Walden Pond and go to the extremes of "living to solely support myself (and Greta)," but to encourage myself to continue to work hard, to take a strong sense of pride and responsibility in horse ownership and riding, and never take things for granted. It's not all about ribbons and shows and fancy clothes necessarily: it's about bonding and the love of the horse and of the ride.

So here's the first video. This is Sydney and Shocking from Canada. Their YouTube account is ilubshocking:

Now, I don't know much about the finances of this second rider except that she does work for a lot of her horse ownership by working other peoples horses and showing them etc, but I do know that she has learned solely from books, YouTube, friends, etc. the sport of hunters and jumpers. And did I mention that she doesn't keep her horse at a "fancy riding school"? Or the fact that he's not a "fancy warmblood"? Laredo is the cutest little palomino Quarter Horse I have ever seen. And he can clear 4' fences. And they rock the local circuit all by themselves! So from Florida, here is Taylor and Laredo. Their YouTube account is Laredo454:

And lastly: this is one of my favorite pairs, and they inspired me to further my dressage career after Slugger, who I got my first pleasant whiff of dressage on. These two show that once again, dressage does not always require one to have to be a member of the aristocracy, to have an extremely nice warmblood, and to have Phillip Karl as your weekly trainer (but wouldn't that all be nice?)

While this rider now works as a model, that was long after she worked hard to get to where she is now. The video explains the basics of how Jolanda and Guusje came to be. What it doesn't say (and this from her website www.SuperGuus.com) that she had to strive for a year to convince her non-horsey parents to buy a horse they clearly did not like (I'm sure that is a familiar story for many) she had to find a place where she could keep Guus for a low price - which ended up being an unused cow pasture owned by a local farmer - and that up until a few years ago, her main guide to riding was The Complete Training of Horse and Rider by Alois Podhjasky, which is not a bad guide mind you.

Now they train under Marlies Van Baalen (one of the elite riders in the Netherlands who does NOT practice rollkur) and other riders, give clinics, and have ridden at multiple venues, including a demonstration at the FEI Dressage World Cup. I cannot wait until her published book about Guus is out in English! So, from the Netherlands, this is Jolanda Adelaar and Guusje. YouTube account is aaadriaaanaaa. Very sweet story: