What does it mean to be an equestrian? Is this a sport, a hobby, a lifestyle, or something different? While these are all typical questions about this uncommon activity, I have been developing my own answers for each of them from the time that I was four years old. I was riding (at the time a pony named “Little Dude”) and I was learning about what I would later understand to be a never-ending passion of mine.

So how do you go from every little girl’s dream of owning a pony to riding competitively?

The easiest answer to this question is time and patience. Like anything in life, we can only become better by practicing.  As we go into a little more depth, the question you must ask yourself is “Would you like to try?” This is where everything starts. Maybe you decide “yes” just like I did about 14 years ago, and you find a barn that teaches lessons. If the answer to the question is “no,” then this article will give you a little more insight into why someone would say “yes.” Often, we can be so quick to dismiss an option we do not understand or something we believe we are not interested in even though we know nothing about it.

Finding lessons and going barn hunting may sound relatively easy (with the help of your handy friend Google) but there are some big questions that surround this sport. As a beginner, my biggest advice is don’t fret about the details just yet. You need to get started and go from there, however there are some very big choices that will impact how someone navigates the horse world. Think of equestrianism as a kingdom, as if to use Linnaeus’ hierarchical system of classification, and other kingdoms might include football or painting. Then there would be two phyla, which might include English and Western. There are some other branches that would not fit into this classification but for simplicity, we’ll focus on this thought process.

Both English and Western are types of riding. The biggest difference is the type of gear or equipment (which is called tack) used by both the horse (or mount) and the rider (or equestrian). There are more fundamental differences in each of the sub sports of both English and Western, but this is probably the most important. These differences arise from where they developed.

The English riding style is more European in nature and some areas where developed for soldiers to improve in the battlefield. Dressage, a sub sport, was meant to train both horse and rider for war and to be able to have very succinct movements that would allow for a greater degree of efficiency while fighting.

The Western style of riding comes from the need to manage large herds of cattle and other types of livestock. This could be related to the terms “Wild West” and “Cowboys,” where the purpose of the horse was to more efficiently move and watch over a herd of animals. For this reason, the saddle (the main piece of equipment used on a horse) tends to be heavier and involve more leather because it needed to be comfortable for a rancher to be in for many hours. By contrast, the English saddle is much lighter weight as it was meant to be light and not inhibit any of the horse’s movements.

In the horse world, there tends to be a divide between English riders and Western riders and their styles of riding. English riders cannot fathom how a Western saddle could possibly be comfortable and they tend to feel less connected with the horse. Western riders cannot fathom why someone would choose an English saddle. The debate spans across many different topics, but the important thing to note is that while there are very big differences both boil down to the same fundamentals. The riding may be different, but the horsemanship is not. The horsemanship should be understood as a fundamental ideology for how a horse should be taken care of. This means recognizing that you have a partner and you are working together. Your partner has needs just as you do, and this begins to explain the concept of horsemanship.

From these different phyla, there would be classes for English: Dressage, Jumpers and Hunters, Cross-Country, Polocrosse, Foxhunting, and many more. For Western these would include: Gaming, Roping, Western Pleasure, Reining, Rodeo, etc.

Each of these sports has its divisions, which are run by different organizations. Each of these organizations have slightly different rules and purposes. In this respect, equestrianism acts very much like many sports under a general umbrella. However, this sport is different from any other in that it could not be accomplished without another living, breathing animal. This means that for many equestrians there is no true “off-season.” Can you imagine a never-ending loop of football game weekends? While there can be main seasons for some sub sports, most riders never stop completely riding. This is when the saying from the horse world “this isn’t a sport, it’s a lifestyle” becomes very true. This isn’t like biking, where if you don’t ride one day then you don’t pump up the tires or do maintenance checks. Horses require food every day. Horses get depressed when they don’t have a job.

While it is impossible to delve into every aspect of equestrianism, this is the start of what it means to me. This is a sport, this is a hobby, this is a lifestyle, and this is something different.