Buck teaching at an Area VII clinic. Thanks to Katie Bornholdt-Peery for sending us the photo back in January.
Hello EN, it is my pleasure to introduce a new series brought to you by our generous sponsor World Equestrian Brands. The series is going to feature (as the title suggests) “you oughta know” advice from some of the top riders from around the country. Whether about horse care, training, or competition, this advice can be anything they feel is central to their riding or our sport and horses as a whole. Our inaugural post comes from Buck Davidson, who was kind enough to take the time to talk to me about what he thinks makes the best riders the best: dedication to their program.
From Buck:
“One of the the things I’m a big believer in is getting into a program and living it. People who are successful seem to stick with something and see it all the way through. I don’t do just one lesson with people, it doesn’t really interest me. I think the reason it doesn’t interest me is I don’t think people get any better doing that. You can’t have the honest conversation that really has to go on to be a better rider, and that’s the biggest thing, I think. I was obviously with my dad and I can promise you I didn’t always get told what I wanted to hear, but I feel like I got that advice, and then help from Aaron Vale and then that was since 1999…again with Aaron it’s not like he just tells me what I want to hear. You need to experience it and see it though, and as long as you trust someone that they have your best interests behind everything….The biggest thing is that the guys who keep getting back up are there at the end of the day. In my career, I’m not going to name the people I’ve seen who could have been a lot better, but they went to my dad, they went to Phillip, they went to Jimmy, they went to David, and down the road everyone probably says about the same thing, but you have to have that relationship with someone to really have an honest conversation. If you know that somebody is just cashing your check because you took a lesson, you’re probably not going to get any better….You have to stick through the highs and lows of it and come out the other side a lot better rider.”
Check back for more installments soon!
