It's past time to end the "pony envy"

[magical thyme]

106. I learned FEI movements on somebody else's fully trained horse

which enabled me to learn to teach never ridden, rescued horses dressage all the way through FEI. That 1%er gave me free education in a skill I wanted to learn. The "select few" you refer to are anybody who showed up and worked hard at their riding. The 1%er didn't decide which specific individual rode; the trainer she entrusted the horses to made that decision, based on what the rider was ready to learn.

And that was back in the days when a middle class woman took a rescued, off the track thoroughbred, trained him up herself into a horse the German's called the best in the world, and took him to the Olympics.

Now, 1%ers give nobody free education; they take it away. And it takes sponsorship from 1%ers to even get your hands on an "Olympic-caliber" horse.

There is no more doing it on your own because now they own everything. The current crop of 1%ers, including the Romney's, wrecked it for everybody else.

Olympic competition is a sport of the 1%. Dressage in and of itself is not. That is all. Sorry it is too fine a point for you to understand. But do carry on in your contempt.