So What Do You Want to Do When You Grow Up?

Friday we donated two small horses that we trained to Tony Hooper of Suffolk, Virginia for use in his great program, Seven Cities Riders. Tony works with at risk kids on a range of life skills. As he says, the horses are the hook that brings the kids in.

Many kids that love horses are drawn to the idea of being a vet when they grow up. More kids, parents, guidance counselors, riding instructors, and 4-H leaders need to learn about jobs like Tony has created for himself. Lydia and Emily came along to deliver the horses to Tony. Emily is in her early twenty's and Lydia is sixteen. It might have seemed like an odd thing to say, but I mentioned to Tony that those two girls could run his program right now, all by themselves.

He understood exactly what I meant. I have younger riders that will be the same way as they mature. Those kids care about horses and people. They know how to work. I expect that some of them will develop the strength of character to have a profound disdain for material possessions.

Of course, running a program like Tony's is filled with difficulty and certainly is no way to get rich. In fact, the only real benefit to these type of positions is that they give one an opportunity to have a life filled with meaning.

A core of my little riders will grow up to understand that real success is measured not in terms of how many priceless cars one owns, but in how many priceless lives one saves.