Quote:
Originally Posted by slewis
BTW, if anyone has ever met these guys, and I've met most of them, you'd find they are the biggest trash on the planet (with the exception of a few, and I mean very few).
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Long working hours, schedule changes, working out to maintain fitness, keeping weight with 1 meal a day, facing constant danger, facing the threat of serious paralytic type injury (not counting the usual strains, sprains, concussions, fractures), maybe getting to eat a piece of pizza or a burrito once every 5 years, gypsy lifestyle with lots of travelling away from family and kids, being able to remain in a good psychological frame of mind so horses will respond to you, working in every kind of weather from retina-burning sunlight to zero degree winter and muddy tracks----and due to short fields many sitting in the jockey's room with no rides, worrying about income.
Sounds like they have more work ethic, determination, resolve and discipline than the average couch-potato-complaining-horse-player and in most cases than the average working stiff out there in the world----and heck, there's a heck of a lot of "real trash" over on Wall Street, just because they are wearing a Rolex doesn't mean they aren't trash (and the drug addictions are pretty well storied).
Myself, I've always admired jockeys. Seem like truly disciplined, stoic people who know what it is to work hard and *earn a living* in the true sense of the word.
