There’s been a lot of talk of millennials lately, and most of it isn’t good.

Millennials (those born after 1980 but before 1995) have been accused of killing off industries, of being an entitled, egocentric generation of selfie takers, of being too sensitive to exist in the world without their parents constant coddling. Perhaps worst of all, they’ve been charged with wanting everything handed to them with little to no effort on their part!

I’ve done a little research recently on this subject and can say, decisively, that it’s all true—millennials are totally ruining it for the rest of us.

Here is but a small sample, for your consideration:

Reed Kessler

USA’s Reed Kessler starts off this list. Her lowly list of accomplishments is a prime example of just how lazy this entire generation is. At 17 years old, Reed was wasting away her days riding horses and qualifying for the 2012 Olympic Games. She proceeded to do a total disservice to millennials everywhere when she became the youngest rider to ever compete in Show Jumping at the London Games. Reed continues to waste her talent even now by running Kessler Show Stables in both the U.S. and the Netherlands, and selfishly spends her time working as an ambassador for JustWorld International, a charity that revolves around education and healthcare in developing countries. Despicable.

Lucy Deslauriers

Eighteen-year-old Lucy Deslauriers was recently the youngest competitor in the $100,000 Suncast Jumper Classic at the Winter Equestrian Festival and the $86,000 Fidelity Investments Classic at the American Gold Cup, where she somehow managed to put in a pair of clean rounds, despite being a millennial. Surely, her success can’t continue though, since her sense of entitlement just oozes through every interview. I mean, listen to what she said in a recent interview with Horse Network: “In this sport, if you want to get to the top, you have to be ready to put in all the time and all the work necessary. It’s an every day task, so when I’m not at school I just try to do as much as I can to do my part and hopefully make it to the top of sport one day.” Worst of the worst, am I right?

Bertram Allen

©Stefano Grasso/LGCT

It’s not just the girls who are a constant disappointment to their parents here. Ireland’s Bertram Allen has little to show for his misspent youth aside from a double clear on Ireland’s Nation’s Cup team at age 17. By age 20, he was only ranked fifth on the Longines FEI World Show Jumping Rankings. I mean, who wasn’t ranked in the top ten at that age?

4. Sӧnke Rothenberger

©Hippo Foto – Dirk Caremans/FEI

The millennial curse has even invaded the oldest of equestrian sports—dressage. Case in point: Sӧnke Rothenberger. The 22-year-old German has only a team Gold medal at the 2016 Summer Olympics and several team and individual medals at the European Championships to show for his life. C’mon, Sӧnke. Why don’t you toughen up and really work at something for a change?

All the Members of the Area I/IV Scramble Team

©USEA/Leslie Mintz Photo

What’s worse than one crappy millennial? A whole team of them! The Area I/IV Scramble Team (Cornelia Dorr, Lily Geelan, Melanie Rousseau) paid for the high cost of transporting multiple horses across the country to the North American Junior and Young Rider Championships (NAJYRC) 2* in Kalispell, Montana this past July by cleaning stalls, fundraising, hosting silent auctions, and selling hats. In other words: they asked for handouts! Still worse, they did it while playing with horses all summer so that they could “qualify.” Once at the NAJYRC, they were basically handed the gold medal after only beating the second-place team by a mere 17.8 points. Really girls, you just couldn’t make it an even 20 points? Where’s your work ethic?!

Honorable mention: Chayni Chamberlain

©Chayni Chamberlain Facebook page

While not exactly a millennial, Chayni Chamberlain shows that Generation Z is no better than its lackadaisical predecessors. Chayni beat 114 qualified entrants to win a spot in The American Rodeo’s Barrel Racing Final back in 2015. Chayni, who was nine at the time, was the youngest of over 500 competitors, and ended up seventh-place overall. What is this world coming to, when a third grader expects to just show up and win at the most significant barrel racing competition in the world?

I could go on. But frankly, it’s too depressing. I’m sorry to say I’m left with no hope for our future generations.


About the Author

When Aubrey Moore isn’t riding her horse Flynn, new pony or doing near-constant maintenance on her truck, she can be found with a glass of wine in hand, chatting happily with her cat Frankie.