Privilege

While perusing Facebook the other day I came across an interesting article/blog that was shared by a friend.  (Yes, if you sift through all the hourly mood updates and Farmville requests there occasionally are legitimate things to read on Facebook).  It is a professor's thoughts on privilege and the guilt, consequences, and responsibility that come with it.  It really struck home for me and really should for anyone that even has the ability to read it because that means you are even in the smallest way privileged. 
Yes, we all know that someone has it worse off than us no matter how bad a day we have, and he does touch on the normal ideas of privilege like wealth and health but also the privilege of talent.  That the worse thing you can do with your privilege is waste it or be ashamed/ guilty of it, you were given that talent so make use of it. 
We as eventers are part of an elitist sport, (yes I know we are trying to change that image but we wear a top hat so we don't have much of a leg to stand on in that argument), so we are privileged in every definition of the word. 
Wealth- sure most of us are "poor" but only because we buy a horse and all the things that go along with it.
Health- this is a "chicken or the egg" kind of situation but we are healthy if we have the ability to go outside and ride our horses everyday
Happiness- we wake up every morning wanting to go to work, except when it's raining, then I envy the office job, but not for long
Talent- we all have it, but how we use it is what matters
I strongly recommend giving it a quick read, Professor Petriglieri explains it much better than me.  http://blogs.hbr.org/hbsfaculty/2012/01/privilege-a-users-guide.html

On to the horses!  2012 has started off great and the horses are better than ever.  I made a really big effort to give all of the horses at LEAST a month off this winter, most more than that, and it really made a difference in them mentally and physically.  It's tough, especially with the young ones that don't do a three day at the end of the year to give them that time off.  When you head south for the winter the weather is so beautiful that you feel guilty not riding them and like you are going to be behind the game, but I think at the end of the day it is more than worth it. 
Check in to Facebook and Twitter for competition updates and until next time embrace your privilege and enjoy it.