I'm Gonna Die...
In the horse world, social media has made it easy for influencers to create a picture-perfect version of their lives — but a lot of it just isn’t real. Some riders exaggerate their skills, horse care routines, or competition results to look more impressive than they are.
Brands often chase big follower counts instead of real knowledge, which means people who don’t always know what they’re doing end up setting the trends.
The worst part?
Horses end up paying the price cause living a picture perfect "instalife" matters more than good horsemanship. So called influencers can also feel the pressure to hide mistakes or bad practices, just to keep up appearance.
All of this creates a twisted idea of what riding and horse care really involve, especially for younger or newer riders. In the end, it chips away at trust in the community — and that’s something the horse world can’t afford to lose.
Let's film it!
Not too long ago I came across a video with some kind of influencer stating he was going to die. The reason for this, his horse got spooked.
Fine, we all had those thoughts when our 160cm horse suddenly is 180 tall and standing there frozen and snorting underneath us.
Strange thing though, never ever in my riding career would bringing out a video camera [phone] to create content be the first thing crossing my mind in a situation like this.
In today's world that is exactly what people do!
Influencers, whatever those may actually be, young, old, men, women, children, adults, experienced, the inexperienced. All in the name of content creating.
Never mind they are in a pickle and could actually soon be facing a life and death situation. As long as the content is being created and put online they all seem to have a good day and "influence" more.
To me it is not influencing, cause influencing should be something good, in fact this other kind of behaviour just help people to act more stupid around horses by the day.
I know, and follow, a couple of influencers.
Buy Me a Coffee
Buy Me a CoffeeOne is a one hit wonder
You know the kind of person who had the one good horse during a couple a years and did high level international competitions with some great results, and turned that into a career by sharing her life on social media. I can respect that.
Still, some of the content coming out through the channels is plain stupidity as well as dangerous, and could get followers into serious danger.
Another is a total wannabee
She made some below average results on a horse that's been pushed way too fast through the levels at a young age and now has turned into a somewhat unreliable stopper.
This person sounds like she's a 1.60m level showjumper when she's in fact more of an average Joe competing on the 1.20-1.30m level.
She also charges people money to take part of her best tips to become a successful international rider.
International rider is the self acclaimed title she's given herself, and sure if you competed international you are an international rider, but question is if you're really an international rider, if you know what I mean.
The advice this woman hands out via her social media channels are frightening and, again dangerous, and eventually will cause serious body damage to either herself, her horse, or anybody else's body or horse.
The good rider
The third one is a good rider and have the results to show for it. She also have a huge fan base she developed over the years. Horse sense, and bringing the whole family into a what can only be assumed a self made lucrative business seem to be the foundation of the whole thing.
Never ever do you see any crazy stunts. There is no bullshit, there is ordinary horse life, the extra ordinary, and some amazing results from the sport to show for, but...
Recently this rider was presented with a Yellow Card for Abuse of Horse, which is in total opposite of all the above.
Should I/we be worried? I honestly don't know.
But truth of the matter is that many influencers present a very much curated version of their lives with horses, exaggerating skills, or competition achievements, and even their horse keeping standards,
All this does create unrealistic expectations for newcomers and can even distort public perception of what true horsemanship really is about!
Ultimately, this erosion of authenticity undermines trust in the community and risks setting dangerous examples for the next generation of riders and horse owners who look up to them.
