EnJoy YourSelf:

The

United States Equestrian Federation 

"Sportsman's Charter"

(Preface to the USEF Rulebook):

"...That sport is something done for the fun of doing it and that it ceases to be sport when it becomes a business only, something done for what there is in it;

...That amateurism is something of the heart and spirit - not a matter of exact technical qualifications;

...That good manners of sport are fundamentally important;

...That the Code must be strictly upheld;

...That the whole structure of sport is not only preserved from the absurdity of undue importance, but is justified by a kind of romance and enchantment which animates it, and by the positive virtues of courage, patience, good temper, and unselfishness which are demanded by the Code;

...That the exploitation of sport for profit alone kills the spirit and retains only the husk and semblance of the thing;

...That the qualities of frankness, courage, and sincerity which mark the good sportsman in private life shall mark the discussions of his interests at a competition."

...And a brief word by Teddy Roosevelt, Paris 1910:

"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit goes to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly, who comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does strive to do the deeds...who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself in a worthy cause; and who, at the best, if he wins, knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, but who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory, nor defeat."

And a brief note from a poet: "The future enters into us, transforming itself within us, long before it happens." -- Rainer Maria Rilke, German Poet