The Life Of A Professional Isn’t As Glamorous As Social Media Makes It Look

I was hiking with a friend and student of mine, an amateur rider who brought her last horse up to the FEI-level in dressage. Her next project is a young, athletic Warmblood mare who was, at the time, hissing and spitting about the application of leg, as the young and athletic Warmblood mares of the world have been known to do.

“I’d be a little panicked,” she said as we scrambled over hill and dale, “if I hadn’t known you for a decade and watched you suffer through Midge and Ella and Fender and Danny and Dorian’s five-, six-, and seven-year-old years when they were teenage dirtbags. And they all worked out. So I have faith.”

It’s a sentiment I hear often. I’ve been writing a blog for the “Chronicle of the Horse” for 10 years, a decade that has seen many a young horse come into my life, behave like a doofus for a while, then finally accept the rules of life and grow up to be a perfectly delightful international horse either for myself, an amateur, or a kid. I’ve also brought their stories out into the world through my personal blog, and at least once a week I get an email from someone who tells me that the stories of my idiot young horses growing up gives them hope for their rogue youngster. I love writing, and I’ve used the medium to share both the ups and downs of life as a dressage trainer, of which there are many.

Please click here to read the rest of the article as it appears on the Noelle Floyd website.

Article written by: Lauren Sprieser