Sorry Scotty!
I didn't mean it as a personal attack, far, far from it.
I just don't understand the issue with the cowboy hats and the image that they portray.
I do totally understand you wanting to wear a hard hat and I don't think that that is an issue at all and everyone would understand and respect your decision to do so.
I'm the same as Liz in that I ride my mare (english- though we are attempting western and nearly have "whoa" sorted!
) in a baseball cap (me not her...) but when jumping, riding on roads or in company I wear a riding hat. Like Liz said we all choose our own risk levels.
I think it's great that an equine journalist such as yourself is interested in western as it would be really good to see more of it in the equestrian publications. As per the article re cross training on this sites home page it is something that all riders can benefit from and it's always good to broaden your horizons and try new and different things.
Seconding (sp?) Liz's comments on the shows and standards I put a post on a previous thread about the WES show I finally managed to attend (to spectate) and it didn't quite match up to my expectations and my friends found it totally boring and left but not before banning me from mentioning western to them again (my master plan was to get them interested so I would have people to ride/school/travel/compete with) so that was the end of that. However I got lots of positive replies to my post saying how good the shows are down south (I'm in Scotland) when they are bigger.
Unfortunately neither myself or friends are in a financial, time or horse-sitter position to make it down south for a day or 3 but if these shows were given better coverage in the equestrian monthlies it might encourage people so that all shows would have a larger turn out and higher standards. Am I just rambling again or does any of that make sense?
Also...I'm totally going off subject but once I get started... are there/is there a western monthly magazine? I know that there used to be Western Riding but I've never heard head nor tail of them since last years Super Summer Edition (which was tops by the way
). There seems to be a gap in the market as you can't expect the monthlies to have western every month the same as they can't have trec/endurance/side saddle/etc.
Also..while I'm randomly rambling on these forums don't seem to get busy like the old site used to. Don't get me wrong, I totally LOVE this site and it is brilliant but the old site seemed to have new topics nearly every day and there were always lots of replies and chat going on. Is everyone just busy riding now the nice weather is here?
Anyway, that's enough from me today...I will shut up now...well for a wee while anyway. Jx
