Why I'll Probably Never Show (and why I trail ride)

In the last few months, I've kind of changed my mind on the whole showing thing. It's not that I have anything against showing, or because people who show don't have a bond with their horse and etc. These are my simple reasons. :) In the future, I may end up showing, I doubt it, but it may happen. I would love for my future with horses to include something like rescuing, rehabilitating and then re-selling, or maybe even working with children/horses, giving lessons or something of that sort. It's not that I don't feel like my horse and I aren't good enough to show, and it's not even the fact that I don't have the ability to at the moment, it's just that I would rather be able to just ride without worrying about EQ, judges or going over jump perfectly, or not knocking down a barrel. I was talking to a friend of mine who shows, and he was upset over the fact that he has no care-free time with his horse. All he does is practice and show, practice and show. There's not necessarily something wrong with that, but that's not me, that's not what I want to do. There's nothing better-to me at least-than being able to hop on your horse and just ride, without worrying about anything. It's exhilarating to be able to have freedom. I decide what we do that day. As a trail rider, I feel like I have the best of both worlds, without the cost of showing and the drama and stress and anxiety. One day, we may jump some logs in the trails, the other, we may wrangle some goats back in a pasture. The thing I love the most is that I have so much time to just focus on Red, and our relationship.

I feel like trail riding is probably the most underrated discipline that there is. It's no better than jumping or roping and etc, but we do work hard. Our horses have to be trained to be trustworthy, and go through/over whatever it is in front of us. They have to be in good shape so they can handle the work. My version of trail riding isn't a fat horse going in a line, it's much more. But what I love about it is the calmness. No one is telling me to keep my heels down, no one is criticizing my horse. Of course, good EQ is very important because of safety reasons and more, and I do try to keep myself in a good position during the whole ride, but that's not my main concern.

From duderanch.Org

My mom grew up showing and doing rodeos, and maybe she's passed down some of this to me, but she was never a fan of it. I'm a lot like my mom, we have very similar views on horsemanship and horses in general. We both like tacking up and taking a slow ride on the buckle, maybe racing around or jumping a few things or whatever, but we don't like drama and stress. My horse is my way out of a crazy life, my escape from anxiety. I don't want horses to become the reason I stress.

I have no plans to show anymore, and I'm 100% content with that. My blog may not be as interesting as my fellow blogging friends, the ones who jump or even the ones who rodeo, and I will enjoy reading about their shows and root them on, but this is a way of living that I've really grown to love. There's really nothing better than tacking up and taking a ride through a big pasture at sunset, loping around and not having a care in the world, whether it be about ribbons or EQ.

 Source, CBC (Heartland)

It doesn't matter if you ride English or Western, have an OTTB or a fat Quarter Horse, trail riding is more than just a discipline, it's a way of life for a lot of people. :)