A few weeks ago I watched that movie The Social Dilemma about the horrifying damage social media is inflicting on society and ever since I’ve been fantasizing about just deleting my Facebook, Instagram, all the stuff. And then somebody tips me off to a group like shiteventersunite, which describes itself as such: “For all the crap eventers out there! We want your event reports about how bad your day went! No more ‘event reports’ like ‘Biggles and I would have been selected for the Europeans if we hadn’t have had that pole in the 80,’ ‘an unlucky run out cost us the win’ etc etc. No ‘unlucky poles’ here! Hands up if you need to sack the jockey!✋ … Share your crapness here without judgement.”
This weekend Horse & Hound published a wonderful interview with the creator, Cressida Kitchin-Townshend — you can read it here. The group’s popularity has exploded of late, and she guesses that its honesty really resonates with people. “I think people are relieved,” she says. “When you get back to the yard and people ask how you did, and you say ‘eliminated,’ or when people do event reports, I think there’s real pressure to say ‘my horse stopped at every fence but I still love him’, or ‘we’ll learn from it’; to be positive. There’s so much pressure to be perfect but it’s OK if it goes wrong. I might say I had an unlucky 12 faults but it wasn’t unlucky, it was because I rode like a muppet.”
It’s easy to take ourselves too seriously and lose perspective. Along the same lines, 10/10 recommend the Instagrams jog.it.or.drop.it and, of course, her royal highness dressage_queen_of_memes. Thanks for keeping it real out there, folks. Insanity in the middle 4ever.
U.S. National Holiday: National Mousse Day
U.S. Weekend Action:
Pine Top Thanksgiving H.T.: [Website] [Entry Status] [Ride Times]
Major International Events:
Portugal Winter Tour/Barroca d’Alva: [Website] [Entries]
Sunday Links:
Olympic riders back campaign to boost diversity in equestrianism
Equestrian events at Paris 2024 Olympics to be held at Versailles
Todd Minikus: Show-Jump Salvage Job
Now on Course: Amber Luce Comes Back from the Brink
From a Wheelchair to the World Equestrian Center: An Average Equestrian’s Quest Through Pain
Video: As one of three sisters who grew up riding together (statistically speaking, at least one of us fell off at every event), I’m sending up a cheer up for the Duda sisters who did very well for themselves at Twin Rivers at Twin Rivers H.T. a couple weekends ago!
