Cactuskate, thanks for initiating the thread. First as background, my husband and I stumbled into the equine community several years ago on my (then) six year old’s insistence that she wanted to ride. Since then I have watched with awe, pride, oftentimes fear, as she has developed into a confident, fearless, dedicated and talented young rider. Our youngest attended his first show at 6 weeks and we have bought horses on the ‘infant litmus test’ - if we approached a horse with baby in arms and the horse remained stock still, ears pricked forward, nose thrust out to explore, we purchased it. He now, at 3, has expressed a desire to ride - albeit as his ambitions are great, he wants to ride a friend’s GP horse…
Overall, our family’s pursuit of equestrian sports has been a wonderfully enriching one. I have, however, been disillusioned and dismayed by many things in the community - first and foremost, the stink of elitism and as a consequence the fact that the sport is accessible mostly to the well-to-do. In our experience, this isn’t the case in Europe, where equestrian sports enjoy healthy sponsorhip and mass media coverage. Local shows are fun, rollicking affairs where the focal point of coversation isn’t someone’s trailer, horse or breeches. Yes, there’s elitism in Europe but it doesn’t approach the degree in North American. Let’s not go into the whys and howcomes here but I have concluded that the sport needs to be opened up and more children and young adults given the opportunities afforded to too few kids. Hopefully, what results, years down the road, is a more accessible sport representative of more of the North American population. I am encouraged BTW that there are trainers, organizations and individuals who have already initiated programs on a large and private scale.
In all likelihood our program will be a private Canadian foundation, structured to serve two related purposes:
- Send inner city kids 8-13, who have been deemed to be at risk, to horse camp for two weeks. Let the kids wake up to the smell of fresh hay, not urine in the stairwells; give them the chance to enjoy an environment where the loudest sounds are those of animals, not gunfire. And, of course, enable the kids to gain the confidence that a horse can inspire.
Here I stumble - doesn’t feel right to abandon the kids who want to pursue horses after two weeks at the camp - do we then pay for them to attend lessons, or do we scrap the idea of a camp altogether and just underwrite lessons for a group of kids. I like the idea of a camp because I think the experience would have a greater benefit, but then what do we do with the children who want to continue…anyone with ideas, post them please.
- Establish a ‘scholarship’ fund for talented kids 14-18 without the financial means to be more actively involved in the sport, via lessons, clinics, showing, and an exposure to the ‘business’ and marketing sides of the industry. My idea has been that the foundation would own several talented young horse (4-6) who would be assigned to a young rider, the horse/rider combo would then be placed in the barn of a trainer over a summer and all associated costs for the horse/showing would be underwritten. I know that many kids are already ‘enrolled’ with trainers as working students but am concerned at times, as someone else commented, that it constitutes indentured servitude. I’d like to hear from people who have served as working students - was the experience meaningful, did they feel exploited, would it be better if there was an umbrella foundation which paid for the out-of-pocket costs. While not all would end up as GP riders and pro trainers, the idea has been that perhaps it can lead to a career path not otherwise contemplated - i.e. farrier, vet, professional groom, equine masseuse…I’ve also thought it would be wonderful to send the best to ‘a summer’ abroad to show in Europe. But I’m probably getting ahead of myself here.
The obligation on the part of the recipient would be to remain in school at least through high school, maintaining good grades. I’ve seen too many working students abandon their education and the reality is that many will not succeed in the industry as a pro (what happens if they sustain an injury at 18?) and an education will at the least give them more options than those available to high school dropouts.
So the above, in a nutshell but long post, is the foundation, in some incarnation, I hope to launch in 18-24 months. I’m still undecided whether the foundation should maintain an active hands-on participation or serve as more of an administrative foundation/network which writes the checks. I’m sure over the intervening months there will be much debate and arguments - though I’m feeling quite debate-fit after my brief time on this board.
I emphatically believe that any of these ideas can be implemented at a grass roots level: perhaps riding camps can offer two kids each summer a ‘free vacation’; local trainers can adopt the eager, talent but financially strapped and offer free lessons, access to horses; perhaps local businesses can establish a fund each summer to sponsor a young rider’s show season; perhaps tack shops can donate equine apparel to one young rider who can only afford to show but can’t afford to keep up with the latest equine fashion trends. I’m sure there are many who are already doing this quietly and I applaud you for your efforts.
Anyone wishing to offer their ideas, please do so. I’ll keep all updated over the ensuing months.
