[[ 1212 horseillustrated.com horseillustrated.com || october 2019 october 2019 ]]
Silencing
the Haters
A
t the age of 2, I stood on the top of a hill
at my grandmother’s company picnic.
From my vantage point, I could see pony
rides being given down at the bottom. I
looked for my parents and then I made my
escape. I ran as fast as my little legs could
carry me. I ran down that hill toward those
ponies, screaming the whole time, “Need to
ride the pony!” And ride the pony I did.
From that moment on, I was hooked. I began
lessons at the age of 7, and here I am 25 years
later, the proud owner of four beautiful horses
and just as in love with the equine species as I
was at the age of 2.CHALLENGES
I’ve also always been plus-sized.
In elementary school, I was forever the tall-
est child in class, and the heaviest. No matter
how I ate, no matter how much I did or didn’t
exercise, I remained heavy.
To some, being plus-sized and being an
equestrian don’t necessarily mesh. I grew up
with a trainer who was one of these peo-
ple. She taught me a lot, but she also left me
with some deep emotional scars due to her
near-constant body shaming.
I vividly recall a lesson when I was around
the age of 10. I was riding a 14-some-
thing-hand Mustang pony that I had enjoyed
dozens of times. On that particular day, my
trainer, for whatever reason, decided that I was
suddenly too big for this pony. She stopped the
lesson out of the blue, had me dismount and
follow her up to her house.
When we got to the house, she pulled out a
scale and made me get on it. She then proceeded
to tell me that I could no longer ride that pony.
That was the fi rst time I really began to
understand that I was different, that I may
have a harder time gaining acceptance in the
equestrian world because of how I looked.
I was once told at a show that if I lost some
weight, I would probably place higher.
How is that acceptable? If a rider is properly
matched to their horse and rides well, that is all
that should matter in the show ring. In the years
that have passed since the day that I was forced
off the pony and onto a scale, acceptance of plus-
sized riders has defi nitely improved; however,
there is still a long way to go before we are seen
simply as equestrians and not as plus-sized.your horse life
Learning self-acceptance can be a lifelong quest
for any rider, but it’s well worthwhile.BY KYLIE STANDISH