Ammy vs. Pro
So, the old Pro-Ammy debate. Or, the old Ammy Whine. You know the one: “I want to teach a few up-down lessons a week and I can’t do that because I’d have to give up my ammy status and turn pro and wah-wah-wah it’s not fair!”
Actually, it is fair. It is entirely fair. Because—and this is important—if you are receiving money for just one up-down lesson a week, you are running a business. A small business, but a business. At that point, every time you step into the show ring your ride is about more than just you and your horse. It’s also about showing off your abilities to potential clients—or to your current client(s). Even if there’s only one, and that one is your neighbor little Suzie, who worships the ground you trot on. Other parents, and Suzie’s parents, will be watching you ride. They’ll evaluate the skills you show. If you do well, maybe those other parents will approach you about teaching Jimmy. If you do poorly, maybe Suzie’s parents will think about finding a new instructor. You might not be thinking along these lines, but other people will. Even with just one student, every time you walk into the ring you are representing yourself, your horse, and your business. That’s a professional concern, and it has no place—absolutely none—in a ring with amateurs, who have no business concerns. None. Not one student, not one horse they are training (except their own).
I realize a lot of would-be up-down instructors don’t think of it as a business. They think of it as side income, something to help them level the costs of participating in an expensive hobby. I always wonder about that, because… do they tell their students that they don’t view the lessons as a business? That they think the up-down lessons are so… I don’t even know the word here… unimportant… that they want, on the one hand, to take the students’ money for teaching but on the other hand have the rest of the horse world say “It’s ok, you’re not really teaching. You (or your students) aren’t good enough to qualify you for Professional status, so be an ammy.”
Would you want to ride under someone like that? And I don’t mean someone who, maybe, chooses not to show but is a great instructor, so Pro-Ammy status never comes up. I mean someone who wants to teach, and get all the money and benefits of teaching, but then walk into the ring and claim they aren’t professional. What: “I’m good enough to teach you, but I’m not good enough to show against anyone else who teaches.”?
I don’t… get it. You teach and you’re a professional, or you don’t teach and you’re an ammy. You can’t teach just a little bit and still be an ammy, because no matter how people try to justify that, it comes across to me as… entirely unprofessional.
Everything has consequences, right? One of the consequences of teaching a few up-down lessons a week is that you now have a business to represent. You don’t get to stop representing it just because you want to show as an amateur. So you decide: is amateur status more important than the income a few up-down lessons might bring? If it is, you don’t get to teach. Period. You get to be an amateur, but that means being an amateur. If the income is more important, than you lose your amateur status. You get to be an instructor, but that means being a professional. In all aspects—not just the ones that put money in your pocket.
(This rant brought to you by the letter “If I see one more discussion board topic about an amateur thinking they should be allowed to teach lessons and stay an amateur, I’m going to scream” and the number “I am still young enough to see things in black-and-white, but I’m old enough to know there’s lots of gray in the world, so I’d be happy to discuss the other side of this issue” and the conundrum “So why is it I’m happy to discuss this on a blog but not a discussion board, anyway? Oh, right: less trolls.”)
Girls Horse Club says 23 February 2007
For what it’s worth coming from someone who’s not into the whole showing thing, your rant makes a lot of sense. Plus your writing is fun to read. There’s something to be said for having a soapbox of your very own.