May 15, 2025 3 min read Mental Health Week

Power in Community: What Pressure Really Looks Like

You can love horses with your whole heart and still feel crushed by the weight of this world.

That’s not a contradiction. That’s the quiet reality for a staggering number of people in our industry. According to the latest Riders Minds survey, released as part of Mental Health Awareness Week 2025, 80.5% of equestrians have experienced poor mental health in the past three years. That’s not an anomaly. That’s the norm. And it raises a question we can’t ignore any longer: what is it about our world that makes pressure feel so permanent?

For many of us, pressure doesn’t arrive with fanfare—it creeps in. It looks like 4am alarms that you don’t question. Horses that come before food. Work that doesn’t end when you leave the yard. And somehow, it’s all accepted. Not because we don’t feel the weight of it, but because we’ve been conditioned to believe that carrying it makes us better, tougher, stronger. But strength isn’t supposed to cost you your peace of mind. Not like this.

What we often label as dedication is, in truth, a nervous system on high alert. Our brains are wired to scan for patterns—what gets praised, what gets punished. In equestrian life, pushing through pain, staying silent, never stopping—these are the things that earn respect. So we adapt. We quieten our doubts. We downplay our exhaustion. We learn to live in a state of pressure so constant, it begins to feel normal.

But it isn’t normal. And it isn’t sustainable.

For some, the pressure is financial—endless bills, uncertain income, and the constant balancing act of doing right by your horses while barely keeping your head above water. For others, it’s emotional: feeling isolated at a yard, silenced by status, or made to feel like you need to earn your place every single day. Then there’s the invisible pressure—the perfectionism, the fear of judgement, the sense that unless you’re excelling, you’re failing.

We carry this pressure silently. We function. We compete. We turn up smiling. But underneath, many are unravelling—and doing so quietly, because that’s the way it’s always been. Because talking about mental health still feels like breaking some unspoken rule in too many spaces.

That’s why statistics like those from Riders Minds matter. Because they give us permission to stop pretending. They say: you’re not the only one. You’re not dramatic. You’re not weak. You’re reacting to a world that has demanded far too much, for far too long.

This is why community becomes not just comforting, but necessary. Community that doesn’t flinch when you say you're not okay. That doesn’t ask you to explain why you're struggling. That doesn’t equate your worth with your results.

This is also why Equitas created our Mental Health Booklet—a resource written specifically for equestrians who are navigating exactly this kind of pressure. It doesn’t claim to have all the answers, but it does offer space. Perspective. Support. It's available to download for free, any time, from our website. It’s there when you need it, no questions asked.

Because while kindness is powerful, it has to be paired with truth. And the truth is: we’re asking too many people to carry too much, in silence, for too long. That’s not a system worth defending. That’s a red flag worth naming.

So here’s what we’re saying: pressure doesn’t make you weak. It makes you human. Naming it doesn’t mean giving up—it means drawing a line. And only by naming it can we even begin to imagine something better.

Visit Riders Minds for support Equitas’ Mental Health Booklet is available for free download from our website.