Reply to Does every rich girl become "good" at equestrian as long as the parents spend enough money?

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[quote=Anonymous]There are a lot of different subsets of equestrian sports, and while none of them are cheap at the highest levels, there are some where it’s easier to balance relative lack of skill with money.

The hunter circuit (Florida, Upperville, Madison Square Garden and other indoors) is the most notorious. Winning rounds look smooth, steady, and polished. This can be achieved through hard work, or by buying a fashionable horse, prepping it with lots exercise and/or calming drugs, and having the rider (wearing just the right clothes) hop on and get packed around. It’s often the discipline of choice for girls who want to jet in on Thursday and go back to school on Sunday. Junior hunters (those under 18) have several high-level awards that kids can spend their time chasing, and there’s a sense that you gotta spend the money now because time is running out. This is not an Olympic sport.

The jumpers prioritize speed, so you do need to learn how to ride as the fences get higher, or you’ll, you know, die. But a large checkbook buys a lot of spring, and can help cover a multitude of sins. (Bought too much horse? Put it in full training with a pro and just lesson on it occasionally.) And there are more options for riders once they age out of the juniors, including the U.S. Equestrian Team.

Dressage is also a Team/Olympic sport. You can definitely buy your way up the levels to a certain extent, but because the horse relies on the rider for cues, lack of control of your own body is going to be very apparent to the judges.

Eventing (the third arm of Olympic equestrian competition) used to be very much a “hey, kids, let’s put on a show!” discipline, but it’s evolved over the years with various rule and format changes. Still, this is probably the grittiest, most welcoming and low-key of the competitive English saddle disciples. (Fox hunters — not to be confused with the show hunters above, but that’s a whole other TED Talk — are not competitive. They are often rich and/or drunk.)

I know very little about Western competitions, other than there’s a crazy amount of money in running barrels. Rodeo scholarships are definitely A Thing at some schools.[/quote]

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