Killers of the Dream

Decisions being made by local governments across the nation are proving the deathnell of the dreams of prospective horse owners. Most such decisions are made with no malice and very little thought.

Over twenty thousand mustangs sit in government holding facilities because they lack adoptive homes. Horse prices have plummented leading to the belief that we have a surplus of horses. Some even advocate horse slaughter as a humane way to restore the economic balance in the horse industry.

The other side of the equation is that many kids today,and especially boys, lead shallow, vaccous lives. They often have never touched a horse. They do not even have any idea how badly they need to touch horses. And those are the kids without educational or emotional disabilites. Kids with such complications often find interaction with horses to be life altering experiences.

It is impossible to work with kids and horses for five years without running into many cases of kids whose futures were saved, whose lives were given meaning, and whose parents were given hope simply by having the opportunity to work and ride horses.

Anything that stands between the ability of a child at risk for serious subastance abuse is not merely poor public policy. It is patently immoral. What cold and malevalent heart would support policies that would make it more difficult for the parents of a child with autism to acquire a horse? What misanthrope would support policies that make it more difficult for an anxiety ridden, depressed teen to have access to the horse that might literally preserve the child's life? (Oh that someone would do a study on teen suicide rates among kids who are activly invovled with horses!)

Few local officals would knowingly ever make such a decision. The problem is that every ordinance, regualtion or statute, that increases the cost of horse ownership does exactly that. Overly restrictive acerage requirements are perhaps the worst example of such policies. Concerns that a future neighbor might complain of barn yard smells are a close second. Fencing requirements that focus only on costly aethetics are equally bad.

It is patently immoral for government to adopt policies that create a system that makes it impossible for working families to afford horses.

Of course, such officials often only hear one side of the story. They hear from the neighbor that does not like horses, but they do not hear from the parent who can honestly say, "If it was not for that horse my son would be dead or in the penitentiary." They do not hear from the parents who noticed a bigger improvment in their child when she began to ride than had resulted from all of the medication and counselling. They do not hear from the parents of kids whose grades sky rocketed after they began riding. They do not hear from the parents of kids who were on the edge of developing life constricting anxiety disorders until they gained real confidence from riding. They never hear from the parents of the young boy whose tendancy toward violence and cruelty went away when he learned natural horsemanship.

Even those of us in such families are amazed at the impact horses can make in kid's lives and it is unfair for us to expect governmental officals with no equine experience to understand without being educated by those of us who understand.

And let's not forget what horses can do for happy, emotionally healthy children. I state no heresy when I say that horses, "give them life that they may have it more aboundantly." No heresy, merely a fact.

The picture above is of a very happy little girl with her new horse that will make her life even better.