“Ouch...” The life as a rider and a horse owner is often painful. And perhaps these examples might even seem trivial compared to some of the serious accidents in the sport. But here they are - 4 types of pain that most equestrians know about. Pain that non-equestrians simply cannot relate to. They might even think, what is the problem.? It is no big deal. Well, they just have no idea, do they?
Imagine having a closet filled with bricks dropped on your poor little toe. Ofcourse with one of the corners first - and then pushed back and forth before it is removed again. It feels like the pain stays with you forever. There is nothing you can do except breathe until those cartoon like spots before your eyes start to disappear. Then you check that your pinky toe is still connected to the rest of your foot. This is an excellent comparison you can tell to your non-equestrian friends if they do not understand the pain you are going through.
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It is so hard to get rid of the damn blisters in certain places especially if you wish to ride your horse as usually. You have probably tried being at competitions or training with these terrible blisters and your knees or hands, right? We suggest that you explain to your non-horse friends that it is pretty much like putting salt in an open wound once a day. This they might understand.
“Do you have a blister? No wait. I have... 1, 2, 3, 4, 5!”
Your non-equestrian friend helps you mucking out in the stall and is complaining about having a blister on a finger after the hard work. Meanwhile you can brag about 5 or 6 blisters on your fingers. Proudly you say that they are from all the different kind of chores such as mucking, grooming, carrying buckets and all the other stuff you do in the stable. However, you know that pain is part of the game.
In this situation we do not talk about your friend's hair. No, it is not like when one of the boys in school complained when you waved around with your hair and they got some of it in their eyes. No, this is the real deal: Horsehair so powerful that it can be used for to create strings for violins. This hair is whipped straight in your face right into your eye with about 200 kilometres an hour.
The worst part is that it only happens because of a fly bothering your horse. The result for you is red eyes, tears running down your cheeks the rest of the day. And yes, most of us have felt the pain to be so severe that we considered a visit to the doctor.