“Youth involved with horses gain advantages in the areas of decision making, communications, goal setting, problem solving and critical thinking.”
American Youth Horse Council News Network
The benefits of horse riding are numerous. Being involved with horses teaches life lessons that can lead to successful school work, careers, and relationships with others. I want to encourage parents not to hesitate to get their children involved with horses. As a hobby or sport, horses can become a life long passion. It is an investment in your child’s future and a pathway lined with invaluable life skills and lessons.
In my teaching career, I ran into many youth who didn’t fit in at school, recently lost a parent, felt unworthy, had a sick family member, weren’t fitting in with school sports or music departments, and struggled with grades, etc. I could go on. Parents would often comment, how being involved with horses helped each child with various struggles they had been having. The friendships found at the farm allowed them to have something in common with a group of kids with the same goals. They became more motivated, confident, courageous, driven, independent, and had something to look forward to that made them happy.
Horses can be expensive, but there are many ways to work around some of the expenses. Many barns offer extra lesson time to kids that clean tack, feed horses, muck out stalls, etc. Becoming a working student is the best way to work off expenses and learn the hard work and ropes that are part of the horse world. Some nonprofits need volunteers to help at the barns and even with programs. They are giving them a chance to be involved with the community and horses at the same time. When they get to be a good enough rider, there might be owners out there that need help with babysitting their horses, exercising their horses, showing horses, etc. Students can find jobs at horse shows. They can earn money by braiding, grooming, mucking stalls, and more.
Another plus to being part of the horse community is how addicting horses can be. Once involved, youth find most of their time and energy spent with horses and avoid negative influences. And I can tell you most girls would rather be with a horse than a boy! Working with horses can be through ownership, leasing, or only lessons. It will be their responsibility to make sure the horse they are riding is cared for properly, if only for the lesson time. Being part of a horse community during their youth, children enter into young adulthood prepared to face the many challenges of being on their own for the first time. They will have acquired the maturity level needed to be disciplined and dedicated to complete their educational goals or be well prepared to enter the workforce with a good work ethic.
The equestrian business will be seen and experienced as a rider becomes more involved with a horse at the barn. They will develop many skills that will help their careers in the future. They will have fun and not even realize they are maturing into remarkable, caring, successful, and good citizens right before your eyes.
I want to add something that might not sit well with a few people. I am the type of person that believes a child that is involved with horses need to do the work. That means they need to catch their horse in the field, groom and tack up, clean up after themselves and their horse, and put them back home. Showing appreciation to a rider’s horse is paramount to a horse connecting with his rider and loving his job, as well as teaching a rider how to be thankful to anyone that deserves it. Add extra time to their lesson to give them the extra 1/2 hour or hour to do the things involved in good horsemanship. If they don’t want to clean up after their horse or clean the horse up after riding, they might not want to be involved with horses. Another way to look at it is that the instructor and parent may need to give the rider more time to find the love of horses that will help them develop a bond that will teach them the meaning of appreciation. Horses are not for everyone. But, my experience shows that horses are for most of them.