Losing Intrest? HOW!

There are several people at my barn who have lost intrest in riding. Their horses just sit in the field all day. This isn't terrible because then they ask me to ride their horses ( ), but I have no idea how someone can just say, " I don't really feel like riding any more". Honestly, I just can't wrap my head around it. My cousin has been taking lessons for a year and has decided that she's learned enough and she can move onto the next sport- karate...
After my first lesson, I was hooked- I couldn't wait to get back to the barn the next week. The longest I've been away from riding is 2 weeks ( Family trip to Italy ) and I was miserable. I even kept riding with a broken arm and a torn MCL...
I just don't get how someone can walk away from this sport and their horse (who they have a bond with?!). Can anyone here explain to me how this is possible? Because, frankly, it makes me mad to see people give up like that...

My guess is that some people just find that they have another interest or goal in life that surpasses their want to ride. Some might come back to it, but some people just go through phases.

I'm soon going to be out of town and unable to ride for a month and am already freaking out.

I feel so bad for you- a month would kill me. And even if you have another goal/interest- I can't ever imagine putting anything before riding. It just confuses me so much, but I guess everyone is different...

I personally don't understand how this happens as my horses are ridden frequently and are seen by us on a daily basis. My horses are boarded at a barn that is very close to me which helps. It's never a chore to see them and I always feel better after having seen them and cared for them. My daughter is in her late teens now and has lost interest in riding but it's mostly because her closest friend doesn't like horses. So, these things happen but she and her other friends will come with us to ride on occasion and help out with the daily horse upkeep.

I didn't lose interest in horses but my life took me in a new direction. My horses got older and were retired, and I went to college, got married, and had a baby. Now I'm in a position to board a horse near my new home so I bought a horse and am back in the saddle after about four years of not riding at all.

I feel like a piece of me that was missing has returned.
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I go to the barn everyday too. One horse I ride lost his owner to her friends. She's too busy doing drugs and partying to think about the fact that her horse has a tail so matted that it had to be cut :( None of my friends are into horses- they're all into ballet and twitter and other things that don't involve being outside and getting dirty, so it's safe to say I don't see them much outside of school. There was one day when my fingernails were dyed purple-ish from the bluing shampoo I'd used the day before. My best friend was horrified that I'd used my hands to get dirt out of an animal. I laughed so hard I cried. My other friend thought that a halter w/lead rope was called a collar and leash... Personally, (just from my experiences) I think staying involved with horses and at the barn keeps kids from doing stupid things. My school is known in the area as "Slingawhore" because of the stuff girls do to get attention- and I'm not even talking about what I hear happens at parties. The girls at the barn who stopped riding, kept up our school reputation...

This feels like me. I had to quit riding when I went to college because I couldn't afford it, and it took a long time before I got back into it regularly (like.. over 8 years!). The past three years that I've been riding again have been so fulfilling. I'm so glad to have that piece of me back.. and it's never going away again!

I understand taking it slow for a while and of course, family and college (although I would miss it so much), but the people I'm talking about just lose intrest and won't come back. Mostly teenagers, decided to get into the social scene and left their horse behind...

It's pretty easy to understand. Have you ever stopped liking something you once did, a hobby, or maybe even a television series, or a song, or a food, a subject at school?

It's just like that, horses aren't really much different, except for the fact that you are interested in horses.

I get that feeling often, like I don't want to do stuff with my horse. Because while its my hobby, its not my life. Other things come up, its not the be all and end all, and I'm glad of that because I feel that obsession can be a little debilitating and unhealthy.

I think for a lot of people, they only get into horses as a fad.

Take my cousin for example - he was interested in horses because I was. He took lessons, and his parents even bought him a gorgeous pony. Not even a year later, the horse was back on the market. It only ever got used when I was there, which was only a couple times every few months.

Sadly a lot of people make the commitment of buying a horse just because it's the cool thing to do.

Like Saskia said too, some people just don't revolve their lives around horse riding like many of us do. For example, one of my friends is a talented rider and has been riding for years. Recently though she has become very depressed and has lost all of her motivation to ride, even though she has had offers from people to exercise their horses, and even from one woman to be sponsored as a dressage competitor. She would have a top horse supplied to her and all, and yet she won't do it because she knows in her heart that she couldn't dedicate herself to it.

It's a shame when people give up on riding, but it's just something that happens.