My daughter (13 yo) went to Girl Scout camp a few years ago and fell in love with horseback riding, because of course she did. There is a year-round program there that I’ve been happy to have her involved with, occasional weekends that are mostly about leading activities for visiting Brownie troops, which is just shy of free.
But the camp is an hour and a half away, so it’s infrequent. There are stables in our city, and she is begging to take lessons.
I have mixed feelings on this. It is so expensive. I have 3 kids in 6 total sets of music lessons, and the combined cost (which I never thought was cheap) is less than riding lessons. There are working students programs, but they mostly seem to let kids who are already taking lessons do more, not cut the baseline cost.
I don’t think she’ll ever get that good – she won’t catch up with the people who have been riding since they were little. I think she’ll find that frustrating. I also don’t love that it’s rather dangerous, as sports go.
OTOH, we have generally tried to support our kids when they want to try an extracurricular, as long as they were willing to put in the work, and we could come up with the money if we wanted. My hope that this would die away has not happened in the last three years. Maybe there’s an intermediate step, where riding is a “fun occasional activity”, with the occasional lesson or trail ride, rather than a regular part of the schedule? Any thoughts?
(Very little related to college, I realize, but it seems like this is the kind of crowd who would have useful input.)
Have you heard of or looked into IEA? I think it’s a great happy medium. Riders get to show, be part of a team and build that camaraderie, but without the expense of owning or leasing a horse.
My daughter has been on IEA teams since 6th grade. It’s been an amazing experience for her. Each team needs riders of all level, from beginner (walk/trot) all the way up to jumping 2’6 courses. I would suspect one or more of the barns near you has a team, might be worth checking out!
Me also. I was in the same situation many years ago. It turned out to be hopeless. My older daughter was born to have a close and personal relationship with animals, including large ones.
I do not think that you do these things to hope to get into the summer Olympics. My daughter did join the equestrian team where she went to university. That was the limit on her competitive equestrian “career”. Having the large animal experience was one more thing to put on her resume when applying to DVM programs. Now her career does involve horses (and many other animals), but she is a doctor for the animals.
This made me laugh. My daughter’s interest in horses and other animals has definitely not died away. Quite the opposite. You never know how this will come out.
I think that you enforce a budget, require that they wear helmets, and hope for the best.
If you are born with the “horse gene” your love of horses will never go away. I rode as a kid, detoured into being a lawyer, but now have my own farm where I board retired horses.
Other resources to explore are Pony Club (an international organization that teaches about everything to do with horses, including riding) and 4H. I have a lot of experience with Pony Club, and highly recommend it.
Your 13 year old daughter, BTW, will definitely be able to “catch up” and ride well if she wants to (though this does take hours in the saddle).
You mention you are in a “city” which may limit your options. With any luck you’ll find a barn that a local chapter of Pony Club rides at, have your daughter take lessons, and once she’s shown to be responsible, perhaps can work off some of her lesson fees (not every barn does this, but some do).
The horse world does have a lot of bad actors, looking to take advantage of unknowledgeable people, so use your critical thinking! A barn near me is wonderful– starting at 13 they have a whole organized program where teens can work off lessons, and they try to make it affordable by having a wardrobe of kids’ show clothes that families borrow for free when they go to horseshows, just returning them clean. This saves a ton of money for families with a growing child that may only go to one or 2 shows a year. Look for places like this. Anything affiliated with Pony Club will have good values.
I was in identical situation with 3 kids. Love to horses and animals never disappeared. However, my daughter understands limited budget idea very well. She did a bit or horseback riding here and there. Not very much.
Fast forward to college. She wanted to have horseback riding opportunity in college. We found one with that option. Freshman year club was way too expensive… Softmore year she found out that one of classmates take lessons. Apparently school could cover half of the cost. Another half she pays herself (works part time.) She rides once a week and loves it.
This. If budget is an issue you can’t get away from that, but doing a sport just because you love it is reason enough. My family couldn’t afford riding lessons when I was young so I started as an adult when I could afford it myself - did I ever get brilliant at it, no, but I loved every single time I was on a horse (ok maybe not the once I got thrown lol), got my husband into it too when he arrived on the scene, and I still love going for outrides.
I know someone with an S26 whose entire college search is centered around where he will be able to get the best riding opportunities! (Bonus for the parents: they are often cheaper than some of the other “names”.)
Yes, there are plenty of very good universities with an equestrian team. At one point I drove up to an equestrian event at Dartmouth College (actually at their equestrian center, which is slightly out of town so I never got to the heart of the college). Assuming that I am remembering properly, there were teams from Dartmouth College, UNH, U.Mass Amherst, UVM, and multiple other universities. Of course you can get a good education at any of these schools. I would expect that many universities in other parts of the country would also have equestrian teams.
I am not sure about opportunities to ride that do not involve being on the equestrian team. This does seem like a reasonable thing to ask about.
By the way, at least two of these same schools (UNH and UVM) also have a CREAM program, which is where students help to take care of an actual dairy herd.
Keep looking for barns. You never know what you’ll find. We went to all of the “fancy” barns only to find out a few years in that we have the cheapest option only a few miles away that I hadn’t heard of. It ended up being the best barn for my daughter who liked to ride, but didn’t want to be competitive. Very focused on kids and the experience rather than stuffy and she didn’t require a minimum number of lessons a week.
Pony clubs are great if she loves being around horses and isn’t looking for 1:1 lessons.
In the end, as my daughter got older, she didn’t want to commit to a scheduled time and now she just trail rides on occassion. She enjoys not having to “perform” or perfect anything. Perhaps she’d be happy with a trail ride package?
If you’re ever looking for a fun family vacation and you live in the Northeast, Rocking Horse Ranch is great if you have a kid who loves trail riding. And it has enough to keep the kids that don’t love riding busy as well. It seems expensive, but it really is all inclusive. We left our wallet in the car and never needed it. My kids rode multiple times a day.
I second (or third) the notion that it’s not about becoming an Olympic caliber athlete. I know a PT who pioneered a therapeutic riding program (modeled after a very successful program in Israel), three vets with horse patients, a wilderness guide, and a cop (regular beat cop) who gets flexed frequently for parades, events, opening of the UN, etc. where being able to ride competently is a qualification. And a very successful acquaintance who has built an insurance practice devoted to the racing industry– lots of liability as you can appreciate given how much time horses spend in a trailer being moved around the country!
Or just be a person who likes to ride. But there are a lot of adults out there who never lost their love of horses and found a way to mesh it with their professional interests.
Agree the price-tag is scary. I’d look to see if there are therapeutic riding centers near you- they are always looking for volunteers. The participants have autism, muscular dystrophy, are blind, have Down’s Syndrome, spinal cord injuries, etc. so although the ratio is typically one helper per horse, more complicated cases need two or more. And the volunteers get to help exercise the horses during their downtime. And also muck out the stalls. But you knew that…
And different types of equestrian. The colleges my friend’s son is looking at are all in cowboy country - not sure exactly what they call it (western riding? Ranch riding?) Montana, Colorado State etc. Quite different from the way I was trained in riding & showjumping.
Lots of great suggestions so far. Definitely check out 4H programs, IEA and Pony Club. IEA can be affordable, depending upon where you live. Our YMCA has great horseback riding lessons, and a YMCA camp in the Cincinnati area (Northern Kentucky) has a ranch camp. My daughter loved it, they have a junior counselor program where the kids work at the ranch and attend camp for free. And definitely reach out to local barns and explain your situation, you may find one that will allow her to work off lessons.
I am not sure where you are located and if any of this is an option:
Horse-centric summer camp - either day or sleep away. I always say the more horse chores in the camp and not just riding the better There is so much more to riding - you need to understand horse safety, care and put in the hard work and not just show up to ride with a horse ready and waiting.
Volunteer - is there a therapeutic riding center in your area? These non profit programs survive with volunteers of all ages and it would allow your daughter to be around horses and also assist others. Volunteers groom the horses, can do barn chores and assist riders by “side walking” in partnership with the trained therapeutic staff. I went back and read the string and saw @blossom posted this idea too.
Are there any local camps (beyond the girl scout camp) that could use volunteers - it may not be all horses, but horses are part of the campers experience - ie: through the local parks department.
I rode and showed horses regionally up until college and then did not continue. The costs in our area (and most areas) became so prohibitive and it was not an option for our daughters to ride and compete at the level that I did as a child/young adult. My parents always joked that they bought me the meanest Shetland pony around ($95) thinking that would end my horse love quickly - 3 horses later (and keeping the pony until he died at age 24, as he quickly became a very loved member of the family) was proof that backfired!
My daughters participated in the options I outlined above and it got them their “horse fix” plus enough skills to continue riding to this day when the opportunity arises. Good luck !
Putting it here in case someone is looking for something in the greater Seattle area. There is a therapeutic horse riding program that can use some volunteers:
My daughter took riding lessons (very cheap) as a child, went to a scout camp with riding one year (and then they closed it) and then just dreamed of horses. My money then went to hockey.
But she talked her way into a job by telling them she had experience riding after college! (I’m like “did you tell them you were SEVEN when you last took lessons?” No!) She worked at the Terry Bison ranch in Cheyenne (sort of a famous place out here) and led trail rides and worked around the ranch doing all kinds of things like driving the train, cleaning, feeding the animals (not all horses). It is possible to be involved with horses after hs and college.
I’ve met kids going to Colorado school of MInes who continue riding through the Westernaires, which is a girls riding group here in west Denver. Some participate in rodeos but others in parades and the team riding events (shows). I’m sure there is a set fee for participating, a number of volunteer hours required to raise money, a number of work hours required at the barn as this organization has been around for a long time and has hundreds of members. Not sure how the college kids participate but they do. The barns are pretty close to the college so getting over there is easy.
My daughter did some riding camps between age 6-12, and would not stop talking about horses, begged and begged, and finally I found her a barn when she was 13. She rode for two years. Then gradually she stopped being interested and hasn’t ridden since. (Not the fault of the barn, it was a great program… she just became more interested in other things.) So it is apparently possible for this interest to die away, even though it hasn’t died away for most folks in this thread
I have a horse loving daughter who has been riding since she was in elementary school. The stables were across the street from her school so she could walk over for her lessons. We lucked out in the her barn was low key and while they did show it was in the local area. The owner of the property also insisted the riders learn all aspects of having a horse. They had no grooms and the kids fed the horses, cleaned stalls and got their own horses tacked up at the shows. She begged for her own horse and at 13 we half leased a pony, eventually we did buy a horse. Our costs were less than those at all the other local show barns but it is an expensive sport.
One huge gift during the teenage years was her barn community and trainer. Even when school social life was tough she had her barn friends of all ages. Her trainer was also a role model and trusted adult during the years she wanted nothing to do with her Mom.
When it came time for college she only looked at schools where she could bring her horse. She ended up on the cross country team and being a student director of the equestrian center which included living on site.
Fast forward she is now in her 30’s, a mother of a three year old. Riding is still her greatest passion and she already has her three year old in saddle.
D was convinced she could “ride,” because in preschool she rode a pony. She went to a scout camp (which I also attended). All the other kids had a LOT more experience with horses than she did but she managed to get on and stay on the horse and keep up with the others. In college, she went to USoCal, which actually has an equestrian program and decided to take polo as an extracurricular. She said indignantly, “Mom, it’s so unfair. The other kids have so much more experience on horses than I do! They know how to hold something AND ride a horse.” She found it fun and exciting and lasted one season. Fortunately, as far as we know, she didn’t get injured (nor did anyone else nor any horses).
She was similarly shocked that folks who signed up for fencing in college had some idea of what they were doing, as she just did it on a whim and because she thought it was “cool.” She did well enough for someone with NO experience and again managed to emerge uninjured. Sadly, they practiced late at night after all the other (more popular) sports were done with the gym, which wasn’t an ideal time to be returning home from practice.
There is so much more to riding - you need to understand horse safety, care and put in the hard work and not just show up to ride with a horse ready and waiting.
