Talkative Tidbit

Recently, I rode my horse to the local park to expose her to young, crazy kids, and a mother there said I was so lucky because I was getting to "live the dream of girls everywhere." I just wanted to address this because I feel like so many more kids could "live the dream" if they hunted for the right barn. Before I ever entered the horse world, I thought it was going to be a very small world without much to offer and many places to go. The more I got involved in it, however, the more I saw how massive this world is.

There are riding stables everywhere! You can even find them in large cities. Where I live now, it's all modern and city like, but there are pockets throughout where every street you turn on is laden with horse properties. So what's the point of saying this? With so many barns, the options are endless. You can choose to ride English or western, and then you can choose if you want to jump or work cattle or do pleasure type classes or more. Then it's just a matter of finding the barn you'd like to ride at. Some require you to have your own horse for lessons (places called "training stables" tend to be like this), but many provide their own well broken, gentle beasts as well as the tack and sometimes even helmets. Now find your price range. Most lessons last an hour and you can tack them as often or as little as you like, and prices can range from about $20 the whole way up to $100 per hour.

If your barn is somewhere in the middle, but that's too much money, then see if there's someone you can take the lesson with and split the cost. Say one hour is $20 for a private. A group then should not be $20 per rider. It should be $10-15 per rider. Staying this simple is easily affordable for the average family. If you have more money or time, then you can even look into leasing your own horse, and if you have a lot of time, then you can buy one. Keep in mind, however, that if you decide to buy a horse, you will  be the only one riding it, so you should make a rule to ride it 5-6 times a week so it can get love and exercise. And if you keep it on your own property, be prepared for spending a lot of time doing the full care of it. But if people searched for the right barn and prices, then many many more girls and boys would get to "live the dream," and that's what I would love to see!