02/07/2026
I can so relate to this. I was the kid with the backyard horse and hand-me-down equipment who worked my tail off for the 2nd or 3rd of three at the county fair. Every once in a while, I would get that glorious blue ribbon, and it was magical. I’m not sure that my childhood competition is even involved in the horse industry anymore, and I now am on a first name basis with some of the best carriage drivers in the world! Funny how it works out. 🥰
Ten years and vanished---
It’s a familiar scenario. A Young Rider bursts onto the scene like a Fourth Of July rocket.
Well funded, well horsed, well coached, often confident to the point of being cocky, he or she comes across as the greatest thing since sliced bread.
The kids in the trenches are struggling while Jed and Jane are flying. Now a decade passes, 8 years, twelve years, fifteen. Where are Jed and Jane? Once in a while you see them still flying high, household names in some riding discipline, but more often it will be “Jed who?”
And one or two of those scrappy underfunded, overlooked kids might well be kings and queens of the castle.
So, kids and especially parents, a word of advice. Tone it down about just how glorious you are. It’s a marathon, not a sprint, and many of today’s stars are tomorrow’s forgottens.
And for the gritty ones? Keep scrapping if you can.
