What's Love Got to Do with It?

Life on the Barn Side

What's Love Got to do With It?

Report from Horse Shows by the Bay

Watching all the work, support staff, owners, riders, trainers, horse show staff, amazing facilities, and money spent on all this, the question comes to mind “What's love got to do with it?” Nearly everyone who works with horses, either professionally or as a hobby does so because they love horses. When we get to a high level of competition that pure feeling can get lost or forgotten. I found this to be an interesting phenomenon, so I did a brief survey.

I asked a variety of owners, riders and trainers “What percentage of your horse's perfomance is talent, what is training, and what is love and affection? The answers varied widely, as did the definition of what love and affection is.

Paige and her Hunter Pony

The youngest person I asked, 11 years old, who has been with her pony for 6 years, said, without any trace of doubt. “Oh, it is 90% love and 10 % training! I love my pony and she loves me. I can even ride her backwards, bareback and at the canter!” At the other end of the spectrum, was an amatuer adult who said “We love our horses here. We don't make them go out when they are injured.”

One of the teen riders I polled

                                                                                     

One older rider rated it at Talent at 75%,

Training at 10% and Love and Affection at 15%. The teen riders agreed that it was Talent 50%, Love and Affection 25%, Training 25%.

 A couple of sucessful adult riders including Katie Lambert Boone, said 33%, 33% and 33%. All the adult riders wanted to make it clear that all are necessary. But consistently, Talent was voted most important, with Love and Affection equal to or more important than Training.

Gretchen

Gretchen, stable manager at one of the large stables lumped Training, Love and Affection all together. Her opinion was that only 2% would make it in competition without Love and Affection.

Luksor, a bit of a clown, loves people

                                       

A great illustration of this was Kara Andrew's horse 

Luksor. Kara was able to get him at an affordable price

 because he wouldn't jump water. Her training 

consisted of taking him to the water and “loving on him

 and reassuring him” until the day when she took him to

 the water jump and he said “Oh, you want me to jump 

this?” Now he'll do anything for her. 

Kara and the two young show vets

Kara's opinion is that Talent and Training are 50%  and Love and Affection

 are 50%. It was notable that all the horses in Kara's stable were very happy and relaxed and people friendly.

An unusual sight at big horse shows. Several horses in Kara's stable were napping, and those that weren't were at the front of their stalls looking for attention.

So after my brief survey it occurs to me that the thing that makes up a large percentage of a horse's chance for success is the thing that costs nothing. That all the other things we do and buy contribute less than the Love and Affection that we give, and in return we get all that they have to give. That's what love's got to do with it.