To ride or not to ride…

Riding costs chucks of time, money and energy. Of all the sports a youngster could start, I figured it probably only outranks curling in the chances of it earning her a scholarship to college (but, it turns out I’m wrong! Check out my new scholarship blog post). And as parents likely notice, riding also puts their child in direct partnership with a very large and sometimes exceedingly foolish animal.

So why should you let your daughter ride?

Honestly, it is for those exact reasons listed above that I think anyone vaguely interested in riding should dive right in. Here’s why.

Riding is a serious investment. But it’s that investment that gives a rider the chance to develop dedication and life management. A friend of mine traded barn chores to pay off lessons, and I scheduled rides before school so I could attend track practice in the afternoon. Learning to balance time, money and energy while still in the safety of home is priceless.

Riding is overwhelmingly more likely to cost money than earn it, and for the most part garners little fame outside its own engrossed world; these absences convince me (if my own experience didn’t) that people ride because riding in itself is enough. One of my examiners in Pony Club was a seventy something year-old who swore she would ride until the day she died, because her daily jaunts with her ornery pony were the highlights of an already extraordinary life.

For all a horse’s flightiness, unpredictability and mass, a girl could find much worse companions. Few playground friends teach a child respect, strength or self-assurance as a steady school pony can. In riding, she has to be sure of her commands but honor her partner, because she certainly can’t outmuscle him! The confidence my own beloved Noah taught me alone convinces me every teenage girl should learn to ride: what are the odds you’ll let a stupid kid in high school push you around when you’ve learned to manage a 1200-pound goofball?

Exercises:

1. Even if she is young, let your daughter schedule her own lessons from the very beginning. You can sit down with a calendar and have her suggest when would work (with your advice if necessary), and then have her call the instructor and make the appointment. One of my moms showed me this practice—and I loved getting calls from my nine-year-old student! And you know what…that girl even reminded her mom one day of a lesson her mom had clean forgotten about. Talk about learning responsibility.