NEWS&VIEWScontinued...
of her 18-year-old daughter Cassie asking if Cassie could share her thoughts on what it is like being a minority in the horse community. After chatting with us on the phone, Cassie sent us her comments on growing up in Maryland’s horse community and her ideas on how equestrian sports can become more inclusive.
I have been riding for 10 years and started
riding because my mom had ridden all her life and was also in a 4-H club in Florida. When my mom bought a horse out here in Maryland, I taught myself how to trot, canter and jump. I would ride down the driveway at the barn where we boarded our horses and trot back up. I did that every day we would go to the barn to feed our horses. Growing up we didn’t have money to get
weekly lessons from a trainer as the barns we boarded at didn’t have room for more students. Eventually I would be able to get a lesson ev- ery once in a while. As I got older, I started a working student job at a dressage barn. I would get a lesson on one of the horses and work off the lesson by turning out, feeding, cleaning stalls and cleaning out/refi lling water troughs. I like riding and horses in general because
each of my horses has diff erent personalities and are always happy no matter what is going
Cassie Reid shares her thoughts on being a minority in the horse world.
I now compete in eventing and jumpers and
being a minority in the equestrian community is a little weird for me. I feel uncomfortable if I go places because I obviously don’t look like my mom. My hair is curly and I’m not fully white.
on in the world. Also, riding is a very freeing sport and once you’re riding, it’s just you and the horse and you don’t have to worry about anything else.
I only feel included in some places and going to a horse show is sometimes hard as people will look at me diff erently and talk to me like I don’t know what I’m doing. When it comes to discrimination, it’s not put out there in a way that is openly racist, but if I were going to walk a course or warm up, I’d be told to do something diff erent than non people of color. I fi nd that organizers are very open no matter what. When it comes to other competitors however, they seem to be more standoffi sh when looking at or talking to me. I feel good that “Black Lives Matter” is get- ting more attention than it has ever had be- cause we are getting noticed more. We aren’t normally seen as people who can do sports predominantly white people compete in. So I think now, we will be seen as everyone else instead of being outsiders. To others in this sport, I would say, treat us like it is your daughter or son riding. We are all there for the same reason and that’s to ride, compete and have fun. You wouldn’t want your child feeling like they shouldn’t be doing
something just because they look diff erent. And to other minorities in the horse commu-
nity, I would like to tell them, don’t let another person’s opinions of you stop you from riding. continued...
AS SEEN ON SOCIAL MEDIA - 2019 EQUIERY PHOTO CONTEST REVISITED With just one month left for readers to enter our 2020 Equiery Photo Contest, we took a trip down memory lane by posting some of our
favorite 2019 entries as our daily Facebook banner image. T e images sparked some great comments from our Facebook followers as well as encouraging readers to enter this year’s contest... which is still open until July 10! Here are just a few of these photos and comments.
Simply put, this photo by Liz Zander of Dicker- son can be summed up by the comment “Gor- geous!”
It turns out that Ocean Ready, pictured here at Irv Naylor’s Still Water Farm in Glyndon, is now with young rider Delaney O’Neil in training to be an event horse. His fans posted comments such as: “He’s a cool dude!” and “He’s a great horse” while Delaney’s mother posted, “We re- ally love him. He’s great at everything.” The photo was entered by Emma Riegel of Reisterstown.
TO ENTER THE 2020 EQUI- ERY PHOTO CONTEST, GO TO
EQUIERY.COM AND
CLICK ON THE PHOTO CON- TEST BUTTON.
DEADLINE IS JULY 10! 10 | JULY 2020 | THE EQUIERY A MARYLAND HORSE COUNCIL PUBLICATION
This photo of Anastasia Martin and her pony Maggie was submitted by Rachael Martin of Bowie and was the winner of our “Portraits” category in 2019. The photo as our FB ban- ner image sparked lots of love with com- ments like “So much love in this photo” and “Adorable!”
800-244-9580 |
www.equiery.com
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