Instant Maturity

That is what a kid must develop to be a safe part of a riding program. That means that they have to do things that are not normal. A kid has to become a better person than society expects kids to be. They are floored when they first learn that the horse lot is a different world--that I expect them to move from being helpless to helpful, from selfish to selfless, from powerless to powerful--and worst of all that I insist that they do so NOW.

Kids come to the horse lot expecting adults to do everything that the kid finds difficult, or even merely inconvenient, for them. They are shocked to learn that it is their job to remember to bring their helmets,to know which saddle they use, to learn to saddle their own horses, and that saying "my bad" is not a sufficient response to irresponsible behavior.

It is normal for little girls to pout through out a ride if someone else has their favorite saddle or is riding the horse that they wanted to ride. It is normal, but it is not acceptable. Life does not reward the pouters and whiners and the sooner they move out of that stage of their lives the happier they become. It is normal for kids to stand back to have a grown up saddle their horses. The pride that they take when they not only saddle their own horses but help the newer riders is an important part of character development. Forming mean little cliques to exclude other little riders is normal. It is not acceptable.

Watching the transformation from being normal to being exceptional is one of the most rewarding parts of our program for me. If a riding program does not make a child kinder, more generous, more responsible, more compassionate, and less self centered then the program is failing.

If a program does none of these things but does produce little girls that win ribbons then it is doing something much worse than failing. It is trampling on human potential.

And that is a profoundly immature thing to do.