Hi!
Welcome to our web site, Horse Kids Advocate.
Like everyone else in the world, we are on a journey with our kids. We want the best for them, and we want them to grow up to be happy, successful, responsible, caring, and contributing members of society. And through our kids, we learn more about our own value system, as we try to teach them life's little lessons.
Our latest discovery is horseback riding. It's actually more than just the riding. It's all things equestrian. It's the horses, the environment, the gear, the learning process, the friendships, the events, etc. So this site is dedicated to horse kids, equestrian kids, the parents, and the inevitable learning journey that occurs whenever you start something new in life. We hope you will come back often, and even contribute your own horse kids learning experiences.
It's still a bit of a mystery to me why our kids took to it so immediately, but the benefits were also evident very quickly. Horse kids gain an incredible amount of confidence, as they learn to handle, control, and get repeatable responses out of an animal many times their size. And just as importantly, horse kids learn responsibility - grooming, feeding, and exercising what is essentially a large pet for them, along with maintaining the stall, looking after them when they are sick, etc., is an immense responsibility, and they just seem to step up and do it, because for them, it's not learning life's lessons, it's just plain fun.
So what's the downside? The only thing we've identified thus far is that there is a learning curve you have to go through as parents, right along with your kids. Terminology, horse anatomy, riding gear, barn talk, competitions and events, ....you name it. Not quite as challenging as a foreign language, but you get the idea. Horse kids just seem to absorb it all so quickly, while we adults end up learning from them, at what certainly feels like a much slower rate. (I'm pretty certain I ask them more questions than they ask me ;))
Bottom line is if you find a better way than horseback riding for kids to develop confidence and responsibility, and have this much fun doing it, please let us know. We'd love to hear from you.
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