It's hard not to do; I've made jokes about my equitation over fences before in posts with pictures to let people know that hey, I'm self-aware! I know I shouldn't be riding this way! But from here on out, I'm just going to go with it. Sometimes my riding is ugly; that's okay. I make mistakes, I work to correct them. Besides, if someone wants to tear apart my equitation on the internet, I don't think anything's going to prevent them from doing so. Because those people are crazy.
Does it bother you when you see someone post that? Do you post that kind of disclaimer? Do you even look at someone's position, or do you focus on the horse by default? (That's kind of what I do.)
23 comments:
I think a lot of people post that sort of disclaimer in self-defense. There are SO many nasty people on the internet that will rip a person apart for their equitation sins, and when you're self-aware of your own faults and/or are working with a trainer to correct them, it can be really, REALLY hurtful to have people comment on what you're doing wrong when all you wanted to do was share your horse and riding journey with the world! If you're asking for a critique, that's one thing, but many times readers will over-step boundaries and offer unsolicited advice. I personally try to avoid being a mean online rail-bird, and have never posted a "don't mind the eq!" disclaimer since usually my eq is pretty OK :-P
It does and it doesn't, obviously people are not asking for a critique of their eq. I too am very self aware of my failings as a rider, but I think mainly its more rough when people IRL tear you down behind your back than when strangers do it on the internet, or at least IME.
You know, I always look at the horse first. And honestly, unless the eq is Lillie Keenan-esque or totally, absolutely horrendously dangerous... I don't notice it. But you bet when someone posts a disclaimer like that, I'm looking! LOL
I just did a post about this on my blog too! People are so hard on themselves when they see photos of their own riding. I don't know why that is, but I fully support trying to be more positive about your riding. There are always going to be things you like and don't like about every photo, why do we have to tear each other or ourselves apart?
I think people get way too worked up about having "perfect eq" in the first place. Ride the horse. I tend to roll my eyes about the eq obsession, especially when so many people seem to think that stiff and posed is the ideal.
I'll confess, I notice people's eq. But not necessarily in a bad way. Its more of a "George Morris would be proud of her position" or "gosh, I'm glad that I'm not the only one who does that" sort of thing. And I'd NEVER comment on it.
I know, I don't understand the unsolicited, rude 'advice'! I typically assume that people with fairly common eq flaws know about it, because they have also seen their picture.
Yes, I'd agree with that assessment- way worse to have people you know and see criticize you than strangers.
I LOOK AT THE HORSE FIRST TOO! It kind of reminds me of something I'm pretty sure I saw on America's Next Top Model once; this girl was always saying something like "I look great except for my giant nose HAHA" and Tyra was all like "Girl, no one even noticed it until you pointed it out."
Or maybe I imagined that.
Yes! Positivity FTW! I definitely try to find complimentary things to say about someone.
I agree; I've always thought being an effective rider was more important than being a 'pretty' rider. The two don't necessarily have to be different, but sometimes people really prioritize the pretty.
I think we all have those thoughts!
I'm a super self conscious person by nature so I post a disclaimer. I need to stop though! Gotta remind myself how fabulous I am hahahha
the disclaimer seems like preemptive self defense, and i understand why ppl post it. i'm more likely to point out what i'd like to work on and leave it at that (or, conversely, if i'm seeing progress i'll probably point that out too). tho i also get a kick out of posting ridiculous pictures of myself, so there's that lol
but generally i try to be as objective about my riding as possible when looking at pictures. it's far too easy to get wrapped up in unproductive self criticism!
I always see the horse first, rider second. And if the horse is going well, hey, the rider is obviously not screwing up too badly. See: everything P Dutton rides.
That said, I am acutely self conscious of my own failings and I'm sure I've said that sort of thing before.
I look at the horse first. I usually only notice the eq if the person says don't mind the eq. Then I'm like, oh, what should I look for? Admittedly, I also say line myself this pretty frequently because my eq sucks.
I don't get it either. Mostly because my eq is NOT something I'm sensitive about. I pretty much know what I need to do better, and I don't need the internet to validate me in that way.
I just don't give a rats ass what people think about me so you most likely won't catch me saying that. Unless the point of the post is to recap a lesson learned or point out specific issues being worked through. But you will never hear the term 'eq' come out of my mouth because I'm not a hunter and not trying to be.
I agree with just about everything listed above in the comments. I just like to read, look at pictures, videos. See what everyone else is doing. It's not judgement zone on my part and luckily I don't have enough followers just yet to get those few nasty people to tear me apart. It's about my horse. Not about me.
I follow someone on instagram who says "Don't critique, you're not perfect either" and that is super obnoxious to me. No one is perfect, but we all strive to be better. So dumb, get over yourself.
See, most of the people that I've sees posting this are on Instagram and are people that I no longer follow, because they say "LOL don't mind my eq </3" or something like that and the picture is of them not releasing and laying on their horse's neck and having eq that isn't just technically incorrect, but actually making the horse's job uncomfortable. End run-on sentence. In most cases, the only thing I look at on a rider is their release, but only after I look at the pretty pony. It just bugs me when someone says to ignore their eq because....why would I ignore it? I'm not going to comment on it because I'm not a trainer, but you're putting a picture out there on the internet to share. End rant.
I don't really care either way. I usually look at the horse first and unless the rider is doing something really ridiculous I don't have much more then a thought for eq.
Personally I know my eq isn't great and if someone wants to say something then they better be nice about it.
I think that it's a lot easier to catch equitation flaws in a picture than it is to get one with a perfect position, so I try not to judge based on pictures. I also am not necessarily impressed by one showing a perfect position, it often takes a lot of bad ones to get that single perfect one.
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