Riding Schools Are Losing Students
I recently saw an article about riding schools having fewer and fewer students. It made me both sad and concerned. I truly feel sorry for today’s young people who don’t get the chance to experience the excitement, sense of community, and empathy that come from spending time with horses.
I have previously written about many of my experiences with different horses, and I am far from finished. There are so many wonderful memories—not only the time spent with the animals, but everything surrounding it. The planning together with other children, searching for horses that needed a groom. We cycled, rode mopeds, or walked long distances to different places, knocked on doors, and asked if the horses in the fields needed some care. We learned humility and gratitude—just being allowed to be with the horses meant everything, and even more so if you were lucky enough to go for a ride.
Perhaps I partly blame our own generation. After all, it is us who raised our children, who now have children of their own, growing up in a very different spirit.
When I was a child, you had to manage most things on your own. There were no parents who “curled” us or drove us everywhere. If we wanted to do something, we had to make it happen ourselves. That taught us initiative and responsibility. We didn’t have mobile phones, and television was limited. We did have a landline, which could be used for mischief sometimes—especially when it was dark and no one was home. You could call a number, maybe a classmate you didn’t like, and say something completely crazy like, “This is the police!”—or just giggle hysterically into the receiver. But you had to be careful; phone calls were expensive. It cost 25 öre just to make a call, and then the meter kept running. If you called too much, Dad would see it on the bill, and then it definitely wasn’t fun to be a child.
At the riding school and the animal shelter, it was easy to make friends—not like at school, where many kids were just mean and teased others. You could tell that some of them had no real life after school. I was so grateful that I had all my animals to enjoy and belong with.
Back then, riding schools were fully booked, and being a groom was something everyone wanted. It was a status symbol. Because of that, riding schools never had trouble attracting students.
I believe that being allowed to manage on your own and becoming skilled at something your parents didn’t really understand was incredibly developmental in every way. When I had children myself, I noticed how cautious I became. There were rules and requirements for everything before they were allowed to care for or ride horses. Perhaps I took some of that initiative away from them. None of my children ride today, even though they had ponies of their own. I often think that maybe I was too protective and supervised too much.
Children are just like horses—they read us. If a mother is nervous about her child riding, then the child will naturally become afraid as well.
My parents probably didn’t think much about the risks. They weren’t knowledgeable about horses at all. Looking back, I sometimes think about how badly things could have gone, but as a child you don’t reflect on that. That awareness is probably what later makes you want to protect your own children.
I truly hope things will turn around, and that children will once again have the opportunity to grow up with animals—especially horses. Being around such a large animal requires humility, respect, and understanding. Let children make their own experiences. Let them get dirty, play in the mud, and grow into strong individuals. I believe you gain a very different perspective on life if you are not constantly being “curled.”
I know how difficult it is as a parent—I’ve been there myself. But if children are not prepared for adult life, things can go wrong in other ways later on.
I sincerely hope riding schools survive.
We need them.
