Late Night Delusional Mind-Spew

We inturrupt the Ten Days Meme to give you a short, maybe much-needed vent:

It's late, I'm exhausted, not feeling well, and thus possibly delusional. What I'm all about to vent will probably only be attributed to emotions.

But it really is something that's been bugging me for years, and I felt I had to get it out somehow.

Ok. Here's something I just DON'T understand:
Why will someone who says they do something like, football, have an interested and a respectful audience, but when I say I ride horses and am an artist, people suddenly turn into deuchbags and jerks?
Why does a football player get more respect than someone who deals with a 1200 pound animal?
Why does a football player get more respect than someone who can create?

Ok, now I sound like a jerk. I mean no offense to football players. That was just the first thing I thought of, because of the Ravens/Steelers game today (or yesterday, rather), and because this issue that I've been dealing with kinda involves my brothers, who both played football.

I just don't understand why I'm being laughed at and ridiculed for my interests, while they never were/are. Aren't mine as real and as interesting as anyone else's?

You may be thinking, "She just needs to lighten up and learn to laugh at herself a bit."

Well, 'You', I DO know how to laugh at myself. I have laughed at myself, and I know I will continue to laugh at myself - but the joke's getting old.
The time for me to be taken seriously is now.

Maybe people just don't understand. When I say, "I ride horses," people get this sort of pansy idea that the horse does all the work and all I do is sit there, and that horses are for sissy people. Probably because they at one time only liked them when they were but wee toddlers.

If only sissy people worked with horses, there'd be a lot less sissy people in the world. And by that I mean the horse would have taken over. As in, those sissies would be on their ass in two seconds, or running for their lives.
That doesn't mean that horses are big, mean, nasty monsters by any means. What I mean is working with horses means you can't be a pansy. You shouldn't be a brute either, but you learn where the middle ground is, where you become the respected leader and have a 1200+ lb animal following you willingly.
I should know that you can't be a pansy when working with horses. I've been one. It didn't get me anywhere I wanted to be, which was near the horse. I've been afraid of 'em, and horses don't respect a fearful leader. They respect a confident leader.
And it's impossible to just 'sit' on a horse. You use every single muscle when riding. Balance is the key to staying on.
Working with horses is probably the most rewarding and heart warming thing I've ever done.

So why aren't people respecting me for it?
Is it because I'm a fearful person by nature? If the horse won't respect a fearful leader, why should people? But I don't want to really lead people.
Ugh.
I guess the point I'm trying to make is the most I've gotten from people when expressing my interest in horses is that, apparently, I should be doing something better with my time. That if I had gotten into any other kind of sport, it'd be ok. But I chose the more expensive, dangerous, and dirtiest one.
I don't know....
For once, I would like to not have this heavy foreboding in my heart that when/if I talk to strangers about what I'm in to, they'll laugh. I'd like to not live in that kind of fear. I'd like - no, love - to not feel like I have to prove something to everyone I meet.

Has anyone else felt this way, especially about horses and/or art? Has anyone else ever felt like they've had to prove something to everyone?
Please, someone tell me I don't have to fight this battle alone.