Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Online Forums

I have a hard time posting personal things about Milo and I on open horse forums and have tended to give up and just browse. I hate posting things for a variety of reasons; its too hard to explain the training that Milo and I are at and what we do and dont know (and it seems everyone wants to talk to you like your incompetent and dont know how to ride), people only have a video or photo to reference you from and again, dont know you personally to have a true opinion of, and I end up just defending myself and my horse (I get my feathers all ruffled because people accuse you of not knowing stuff or worse, your horse is in poor condition). I try not to get defensive, but people misconstrue what you say and I end up having to back track....not to mention the original help I am seeking never seems to even get a solution.

So not that I got that rant out, here is what started all of this. I posted on the only online horse forum I am a part of (after not posting or being on for at least a year) about exercises that might help our stops and rollbacks. I hesitated to post the recent video of our reining class because I felt it didnt show where we truly are at - there were a lot of things that effected the performance of that particular run. I explained our situation and after a few commenters decided to post the video as some reference for readers. I explained some of the circumstances that I felt contributed to the less then spot on performance. I pretty much got told time and time again that Milo looks stiff, unhappy, and generally not 100% sound. Without totally going off on how these people dont know me or my horse and my responses have been greatly ignored, because, apparently, the $3000 custom saddle I bought, trainer, and body specialist, dont mean anything because these people think they know whats best for my horse and I

So my question is asking you guys, who frequently read our progress, some have been following for years, do you think Milo looks unhappy, unsound, stiff, etc? I know I have stiffness in my body and occasionally Milo does (and when he does I am quite aware of it and take the necessary steps to accommodate/fix it), but does he really look as bad as these people are saying he is...? :(

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I almost never post on on line forums - they seem to be full of trolls whose only purpose in life is to bash other people. They're pretty useless in my experience.

I also think you have come a very long way with your boy and are making excellent progress. Posting videos here is a better way of getting advice (didn't find the link to the video you were asking about) - maybe fewer comments, but higher quality.

Melissa said...

I was there at the show and I saw a happy horse that loved doing his job. My experience with online forums is that a lot of the negative people on them don't actually ride their horses. They are too busy spending their time on online forums bashing other people who actually throw a leg over their horses. Don't let the turkeys get you down!

Mare said...

I've been reading your blog for awhile, and you and Mr. Milo have some so amazingly far, don't let other people who know absolutely nothing about you or your horse make you think otherwise. They aren't worth your time.

I personally have learned to avoid posting in the forums. Most of those people have nothing better to do than criticize others and bashing horses and riders that they know nothing about. the blogging community is so much better...we have more of the bigger picture to give advice on and we don't bash--only support!

Chin up, you're doing wonderful (though i understand how disheartening situations like that can be)!