The Proud Horse Girl Podcast : Episode 6

Feb 25

In today’s episode, I chat with an old friend, Megan Schaller of @greyjumper. Megan and I rode together early on in both our riding journeys and have stayed in touch over the years, and have reconnected more over the last year. Megan has owned her horse Kira for 6 years and has leased many horses prior to that. This year Megan faced the difficult decision of having to retire Kira. I knew that given all of Megan’s experiences in the horse world and her open and authentic attitude that she would be a wonderful guest to have on the podcast!

In our conversation we chat about everything from retiring your horse, anxiety in the show ring and drama at the barn to perfection on social media and what inspires Megan to be so authentic. She is refreshingly honest about her anxiety and puts out a really positive message, that we all need to be more authentic on social media and more positive to each other, since after all, we all just love riding! I’m hoping this conversation might spark you to be more positive and uplifting, so next time you are ringside, tell the person leaving the ring that they had a great ride, Megan and I guarantee that it will make their day!

Show Notes

“I started, riding in 2011 just before my 11th birthday. So it's going to be coming up on 10 years for me this year.” (Megan, 2:18)
“So I didn't have much time to find a horse and with my anxiety and stuff, my mom thought it would be better to look at purchasing a horse instead of leasing.” (Megan, 3:29)
“I wouldn't say it was love at first sight or anything. We fought a lot for a long time. But I wouldn't change anything for the world.” (Megan, 4:07)
“We went to Thunderbird and I had some of my best rides. She was so, so happy. Her whole attitude changed.” (Megan, 5:04)
“I think in my gut, I knew.” (Megan, 5:38)
“The vet kind of said, you know, I don't want to be the person to say, you need to retire your horse, but you know, I don't think she's going to hold up to long-term work.” (Megan, 6:25)
“So I decided to let her hang out in the field. She's not broken, she's not dead lame.” (Megan, 6:58)
“I really did not want another grey. But it just kind of happened to go that way.” (Megan, 8:26)
“So I'm a full-time student right now.” (Megan, 8:59)
“Even on top of all of this, I'm still riding usually five days a week.” (Megan, 11:23)
“I've learned a lot of patience through horses, for sure. I've never, per se been a short tempered person but I think riding teaches you that if you ask one way and they don't understand, you need to find a better way to ask or a way that they understand more.” (Megan, 11:59)
“Social media is a tough place and I think a lot of people know that there's a lot of cyber bullying.” (Megan, 15:40)
“I think that creates insecurities and other people because they see all these other people just having perfect lives and perfect rides all the time. And it makes you feel bad because, well, maybe you just had a bad ride or, you know, your horse isn't as nice or you know, you have cheaper tack, you know, just things like that.” (Megan, 15:59)
“Everybody knows that not everybody has a perfect life, but when it's all you see online, it's hard not to believe it.” (Megan, 16:43)
“Part of me just wants to be the most authentic version of myself I can be, but I don't think I would be able to do that without my support system.” (Megan, 17:22)
“I have a lot of anxiety around competing, but I do still love competing.” (Megan, 19:26)
“If you go in with the mindset of like, we're not gonna get around, you're not going to get around.” (Megan, 22:18)
“I definitely wish more people would understand like anxiety, depression, things kind of along those lines, because as somebody who, you know, has anxiety, it definitely is hard, especially when you've got different triggers.” (Megan, 23:49)
“Support each other. Times are hard enough right now, whether you, whether you agree with what somebody is doing or not, it's not really your place.” (Megan, 24:28)
“At one of my shows in 2019, I came out of the ring and somebody that I didn't know, told me that I had a good ride and it was such a good feeling, it made my whole day.” (Megan, 25:57)