Thursday, April 30, 2015

Thursday's Must Read - "Body Image, the Show Ring & Why Something Has to Change"

I'm working on a cute video for the blog from some video clips of me letting Digby take a spin in the round pen (spoiler alert: had a SERIOUS go button, paired with some feeling good freshness made for a fun time, but we had a pretty decent whoa none the less! Good hony!) from Wednesday.

In the meantime, I'd encourage everyone to read this blog post over at horsenation.com, regardless of how old or young you are, what you compete in, or if you don't compete at all. It's a fairly short blog post and it's 100% worth it.

20 million women and 10 million men suffer from an eating disorder at some point in their life (link to scientific research plus more stats found at nationaleatingdisorder.com) and based on statsitics in 2012, 43.7 million adults were listed as having "any mental illness" in the past year the U.S. alone (link to scientific research and more stats at http://www.nimh.nih.gov/). I personally know several equestrians and non-equestrians who have battled eating disorders, anxiety, depression and I've heard comments like those that are listed in the Horse Nation article. If you are blessed to have never suffered from any of the above, I believe it's important to support those who do, and even more so, encourage friends, family and bystanders to keep an open mind.

The program (a blog and FB page... for now!) she discusses, Riders for Well-Being, seems to be new but I'm eager for more content and contributions!

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