Anything Fun

Having always regarded horses and equine activities as a bastion of the upper class, I never thought that I, a member of the middle class, would have anything much to do with horses. But, in 1981 my adorable daughter was born and before she even learned to talk, she became smitten with these creatures.

I didn’t really worry about how I was going to afford horses, training, equestrian clothing, etc. because I thought she’d outgrow this infatuation eventually.

In elementary school, my daughter did not do well. School personnel as well as other child experts labeled her as being mentally slow and advised my husband and me that college was out of the question for her. We were unconvinced, and we decided to prove that they were wrong and our daughter was perfectly fine.

Her first riding lesson took place when our daughter was 10 years old. We watched in wonder as perched atop the horse, she transformed from the shy, introverted persona that she portrayed in school and became the self-confident champion that we had been sure lurked inside.

The cost of her riding became quite unmanageable for us in no time at all and we suffered more than a little making sure she stayed atop that horse in the following year.

But when she was in sixth grade, we were offered a deal. In exchange for riding lessons, she could work at the stables doing everything necessary, including grooming horses and helping less experienced riders.

Fast forward six years to her high school graduation day. She earned top honors in all her subjects and a full scholarship to one of the finest colleges in the country. At seventeen, she finally replaced her first love, an old horse named Merlin with her first boyfriend on her notebook, however, her boyfriend had a firm understanding that he was there only because he was so supportive of her passion for horses.

Our daughter graduated from college with a 3.8 GPA and she never cost us a penny after sixth grade. She worked at the stable faithfully throughout her school years.

We look back over our daughter’s growing up years and her educational career, and we realize that her passion for everything about horses, and her love of riding not only helped her be successful in that field, but in school and every other area of her life. The determination and work ethic that was required for her to follow her passion taught important lessons, and her willingness to earn her own lessons from an early age, showed her the way to achieve by hard work in a way that many other parents have wished their children possessed.

We are so glad that we didn’t allow our belief that horses were not for our daughter because it was just too expensive a habit to be maintained on a middle class income. We feel so fortunate that we took the plunge and started to try to provide those lessons. Horses did teaching that no experts in any field could do, and they did it without saying a word.

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