Disclaimer
This is a personal reflection on a recent experience in the horse world. It is not directed at any individual, organiser, or trainer, but rather at the broader patterns I see playing out in our community and beyond. My goal is not to assign blame, but to explore how social media outrage and cancel culture can impact opportunities for learning and dialogue.
Recently, I was preparing to attend a clinic with an international trainer. I wasn’t going to ride, just fence-sit, but I was excited to learn, observe, and take away what I could. Then came the controversy. A video was posted, opinions flared, and before long, the organisers and riders pulled out. The clinic dissolved before it began.
I’ve sat with this for a few days now, trying to process why it hit me so strongly. And I think it comes down to this: once again, a valuable opportunity for learning was lost – not because of cruelty, not because of safety, but because of outrage.
What a Cancelled Clinic Feels Like in Regional Australia
Living in regional Australia, opportunities to learn from a wide range of horsepeople are already rare. Unlike in bigger equestrian hubs, we don’t have endless clinics, schools, or international trainers cycling through. When something special comes up, it matters. So when it disappears, the loss feels even sharper.
The equestrian industry is also resource-heavy by nature. Horses require land, stables, arenas, transport, gear – things that take money and infrastructure. It means that access to education is often determined not by curiosity or passion, but by who has the resources to create or attend these spaces.
This is where I felt the sting: not just in losing one clinic, but in being reminded of the imbalance in our industry. Money and power often get to decide the direction, while less influential players are left out.
Why Pointing Fingers Doesn’t Help Us Learn
I want to be very clear: I’m not here to assign blame or take sides. If anything, I’m frustrated with all sides.
- I’m upset with organisers for pulling out without engaging all participants first.
- I’m upset with thought leaders who voiced their values so strongly that they influenced the decisions for everyone else.
- And I’m upset with the international trainer for using social media in such a polarising, non-nuanced way that sparked the outrage in the first place.
All of these choices, in their own way, contributed to shutting down what could have been a rich opportunity for learning.
When Nuance Gets Lost in the Scroll
A video clip, whether 60 seconds or 14 minutes long, will never show the full picture. Context, nuance, tone, translation, history… all of that gets lost when we rely on snippets. Yet social media rewards outrage, not curiosity. It’s designed to amplify division.
And when decisions are made based on those snippets, it doesn’t just create noise online; it has real consequences. In this case, it meant that small players like me, who simply wanted to watch, listen, and learn, were left with nothing.
When the Conversation Moves Away From Horses
What also struck me was how quickly conversations like this can expand beyond the original subject. Instead of staying centred on horsemanship, sometimes broader social issues or labels get brought in. While those issues may matter in their own right, in this case, I felt it only added more division and took us further away from what could have been a meaningful exchange about horses.
This is how outrage snowballs: by blending in unrelated issues, creating assumptions, and escalating division. What began as a discussion about collection and equipment turned into something else entirely, and for me, it felt like another unnecessary layer of polarisation.
Collection, Bitless, and the Power of Words
I can’t help but wonder if much of the outrage is really just a debate about definitions. From my understanding, collection in classical riding is defined very tightly around jaw decontraction through the bit. In that tradition, I believe, the bit allows jaw mobility to be checked and encouraged, and so by that definition, “true collection” can’t be bitless.
That doesn’t mean horses can’t go in beautiful balance, softness, and even self-carriage without a bit. It just means that within this classical framework, the word “collection” is tied to that specific idea of jaw release around the bit.
So for me, it’s less about dismissing bitless riding, and more about how collection is defined in that lineage of dressage. The way it was expressed wasn’t kind, and I can see why people felt offended by the wording here: saying it’s “bullshit” was not the best way to put it.
Which makes me ask:
Is social media really the right place for this kind of conversation?
These are teachings that trace back centuries, yet they’re being squeezed into short-form videos and one-line comments. Of course, the nuance gets lost.
So maybe the deeper questions are these:
- If we choose to use social media as horse people or trainers, how can we do it responsibly?
- How do we share knowledge with integrity, without stirring up controversy just to gain clicks and followers?
- Do we have to play the game of outrage, or can we choose curiosity instead?
What Happens When We Show Up as Beginners Again
I recently listened to a podcast where a trainer shared her approach when attending another professional’s clinic: she tries to stay anonymous, to enter the space as if she were a complete beginner. That way, she can absorb the teachings without the weight of her own reputation or opinions getting in the way.
Even when we think we know the answer, even if we’re “big names,” we still grow more by staying curious than by digging into certainty. Unless cruelty is involved, I believe every trainer could benefit from approaching learning in this way.
Why Horses Need Us to Keep Asking Questions
If we don’t stay curious, if we only surround ourselves with like-minded people in one discipline, and if we never question or explore outside our own circle, that’s where the learning stops. And if the learning stops, the horses will be the ones who lose.
It’s okay to have values and opinions – of course it is! But if those values come at the expense of curiosity and personal development, then they can actually hold us back. Growth often happens when we step outside of what’s familiar and safe, when we challenge ourselves to try new things, or even just to watch with an open mind.
Staying open doesn’t mean abandoning our values. It means being willing to keep learning, even when something challenges us. Because in the end, that openness can only serve one purpose: the well-being of the horse.
Strong Opinions Only Matter When Backed Up
There’s nothing wrong with having strong opinions – sometimes they’re necessary. But I believe that if we’re going to take a strong position, we’d better be able to explain the why, the how, the what, the when, AND the alternatives. And more importantly, we should have practiced them ourselves.
For example, if you claim a certain piece of equipment can or can’t achieve something, I hope that claim is backed by lived experience. Because otherwise, it’s only theory, and theory without practice is incomplete.
Strong opinions should come from having walked the path, tried different angles, and acknowledged the individuality of the beings we’re working with. Every horse is different. Every rider is different. No single tool, discipline, or tradition covers all of those stories.
That’s why staying curious matters. Certainty might feel powerful, but curiosity keeps us honest.
The One Lesson I’m Taking Away From It All
Before writing this, I spoke with some players involved: the voices I saw online, the organiser (who still hasn’t replied), and the master himself, or at least his team. What I took away is that each has their own truth. But what’s missing in all of this is dialogue. Not fighting on Facebook. Not withdrawing quietly. Dialogue!
Because here’s the truth: outrage on social media has real-world consequences. It’s not just clicks, likes, and comments. It can close doors, and take away learning opportunities from people who had nothing to do with the fight in the first place. People like me – the small players.
That’s why I feel so strongly that we need to choose curiosity over certainty, dialogue over division. To stay open even when we disagree. Because the horse world is too small, and our horses too important, to let outrage rob us of the chance to learn from each other.
My hope for this post is a more genuine exchange, not more controversy.
Written by Lisa (with the help of AI)
EquiKinder by Lisa Rothe – Where Horsemanship Meets Personal Growth
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