The land of opportunity

This week is my 52nd column in the Star-Exponent - that's right, I have been writing (drivel for the most part, some would say) for this newspaper for a year now!

I find it incredible that I should still be here, and still writing something each week about the sights and sounds we have witnessed, and the people we have met over our time in America. We have travelled thousands of miles during our time here (33,000 at the last count!), visited 40 states and ridden in 35 of them.

Most of the time we have enjoyed what we have seen and heard; we have seen stunning countryside, majestic wildlife, and incredible structures, both natural and man made. We have seen areas of the country abundant in riches, and others where we are quite frankly amazed to see so many people living at or below the poverty line in this, one of the richest, developed nations in the world.

Quite often we get the feeling that a lot of people are struggling to make ends meet and are scratching around to make a living, yet in all the areas of the country we have traveled, it has to be said that we have always received wonderful hospitality, kindness and genuine friendship.

One very topical item in this presidential election year that always bugs me  is how much money is wasted on political campaigning. I am staggered at the millions of dollars that are spent on choosing a candidate to represent the main political parties, never mind that spent on an actual election for the presidency! Just think how many hospitals, schools and, dare I say, veterinary clinics could be built with just the war-chest from the Clinton camp, never mind all the other candidates.

Just as in the U.K., these people for the most part have no experience in the job, and yet are handed $60 million plus to tell everyone why they should be made president of the United States! In my humble opinion, the very fact that they want the job makes them unsuitable for it.

In the U.K., the front runners are chosen from within the party and we all then get to choose the party we want in power, and we cap the amount each of them can spend on their campaigns to a sensible level.  Even better, we generally only have the campaign run for two or three months at most - simple, isn't it-

We have always kept a careful eye on the horse as we have travelled - not just our own horses, but looking at how other people in differing parts of the country raise and treat their equines.

Sad to say, sometimes we have not liked what we have seen, but we have done our best to try and understand that we are visitors in this country and "our way" is not always "the right way." Without a doubt though, there is a definite shortfall in basic equine education in some parts of the country, and often the poor treatment horses receive is not a deliberate act of negligence or ill will on the part of the owner, but merely a lack of proper knowledge about how to care for the equine in the first place!

It is much easier to keep horses in this wonderful country of yours, where vast areas of land can be owned by the aspiring rider relatively inexpensively. In the U.K., if one were lucky enough to find a house with ten acres or more of suitable land on which to keep a couple of horses, one would need resources equivalent to half the national debt in order to purchase it!

In essence, you need to think long and hard before opting to buy a horse, let alone keep and train it, in England. Boarding is an option if you haven't got the land, but that proves to be even more costly and time consuming with all the travel involved (Anita and I used to have to drive 50 minutes or so straight from work every night just to go and ride the horses for an hour), and what we had to spend on board each month would be enough to fund the mortgage on a half-million dollar house over here. Of course, in those days we actually had pretty good jobs and earned decent money, so we could just about afford it … but, mind you, only just!

Now, here in the "land of the free," the situation is so different, which is one of the reasons we are so enamoured with the country. In comparison to England, we can achieve our dream - we can have our 10 or more acres, our "little house on the prairie," our horses and the opportunity to still make something of ourselves - even at our advanced age! It isn't possible everywhere, of course, but there are a lot of areas where we could settle quite happily for less than the cost of a two-bedroom apartment in the U.K. (subject, of course, to Uncle Sam's approval)!

Now, all of this would have been a lot easier a year ago before we'd spent all our money on this crazy trip (and gas hadn't gone up by more than a dollar a gallon).

Then again, we'd never have been here in the first place if we hadn't, and we wouldn't have seen so many wonderful things and met so many wonderful new people in the process. Then  there are the memories, which , as we all know, remain priceless!

Until next week ….

David Snogles can be reached at david_hasbury@ yahoo.com