Sustainability is a Balancing Act (that we desperately need to start mastering)

Recently, I posted in the training group some of my thoughts about how anxiety and perfectionism can start to creep into neglecting ourselves as we strive to provide the absolute best for our horses. I thought it would be a prudent topic to examine further in a blog post. I’m seeing a lot of folks (myself included) struggle to feel like we are doing enough for our horses, whether that’s because we feel limited by financial, physical, or time restraints.

Let me give an example. For the past several years, my gelding has been boarded at Ardani farm and I KNOW he his 3 F’s are being fulfilled and that he’s getting additional enrichment. (Read about this concept coined by Lauren Fraser here. It’s going to show up a lot in discussion of ethology and evaluating management.) I still feel like I am not doing enough, because I am not consistently at the farm doing positive reinforcement training and doing in-hand work to help with conditioning. I additionally am consistently concerned that I need to scope for ulcers and have x-rays taken, which I cannot afford to do right now, especially as I do think he’s comfortable for what is being asked of him.

The other side of the coin is that if we constantly worry about how much we are showing up for our horses, we begin to neglect our own needs. I feel this especially pertains to people who are the main caretakers of their animals. We also have needs that extend beyond the bare minimum, as much as societal framing my try to convince us otherwise. Anecdotally, I have connected with many extremely conscientious equestrians that are neurodivergent, chronically ill, of marginalized identities and/or carry around significant trauma that leads to a mindset of feeling not worthy of the care or consideration that they are providing for their horses.

I think that its vital that we start having conversations and changing these narratives. Keeping in mind the adage that you can’t pour from an empty cup, and reminding ourselves that burnout, illness, exhaustion and the like is going to negatively impact the quality of care we can provide is a stop-gap, in my opinion. I know we want to do right by our horses. And I think generally, we as a community do a good job of that, and of supporting each other in our individual journeys of being better equestrians. What I’m wondering though, is if we can start noticing and showing up for our human friends that may be struggling with compassion fatigue or taking care of themselves before they burn out.

I would love to discuss further ways we can promote a better life balance for ourselves and our horses- We are always down to explore this kind of topic in the training group! It’s not just for R+ training talk for horses. On that note, one thing I am hoping to do in the training group soon is to start hosting lives where we can hang out and vent and build community with like minded people. Please consider joining if that’s something that interests you.