I hope someone in your family is writing all that down.
Your stories (and pictures) would make such a nice book!
Then a sequel with the new little big fellow.
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This child is going to go far in life! It will be interesting to see how many colleges vie for her.
oh “the ten year old” who rode NATRA is out and teaches Biology at an inner city school…she was accepted for the position when she agreed to also be head tennis coach… never played tennis, but her first year coaching she was selected by her peers as regional coach of the year. She carries her spirit with her challenging these kids just not apply junior college or state universities but think larger…she has gotten a few into Ivy League colleges (without paying any money under the table). She currently for “fun” is a distance runner… marathons and ultras (50k and 100k) also a team member on those 175 mile runs … this was from having a horse fall with her breaking nearly every bone in her right foot, first surgeon was talking amputation so we discharged her taking her to another hospital were the surgeon was able to piece her foot back together… he then told her she would never walk correctly again… she is running 3:40 marathons
oh and she is the girl’s robotic coach also …their school is looked down upon since being in the middle of city…but in the last competition her girls beat all the surrounding schools
our other daughter who did the other stuff when to a small private college back east, came back to end of being the training officer for the pharmaceutical company she was working for. She was the company’s youngest ever training officer… but she ended up in the position because of several things… in her first days there she had to stop the head lab tech to tell them they were calibrating the test equipment incorrectly then showed them the proper way. Her degree was in Chemistry and the small school she attended had the latest greatest lab equipment …some of her classes had as few as four students so everything was hands on. She later was doing a test on a product that failed the test, second test failed again… she was telling me that a senior VP was demanding a repeat test as her not passing the product was going to cost the company hundreds of thousands of dollars… her position was quality assurance … she was telling me her concerns, I suggested for peace of mind that she set up a video recorder of the test so she could review her steps to just make sure she was doing everything correctly… this test passed. She reviewed the footage to see what she did and why this passed when the first two tests failed…there comes into view this VP who agitates the test sample thus making the sample pass.
So she hands this footage over to CEO … who then terminated this senior VP. CEO selected her to be training officer. she like teaching the multiple nationalities but not corporate life so went on to teach high school… then became pregnant. She surprises me with the announcement and I commented to her that as much trouble she was to raise she should have twins… and she did. After teaching some she with our son’s encouragement started photographery so she could spend more time with the twins
and our two sons is another story
fantastic!
you must be so proud, and what is so great is that at this point in your and their lives you can stop for a moment of being a parent and enjoy the incredible and interesting people they are.
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One of my daughters went, at 16; with a friend, to Clonshire Equestrian Center in Adare, Ireland. They had a great time. The other went, with a friend, to Chris and Jane Bartle’s Farm in the UK for a riding camp. She also had a good experience. This was many years ago, but it is worth checking out these programs and other programs. It is fun to train with Irish kids and experience their country. The Irish tend tend to enjoy kids and to help out, as needed. My older daughter also went to Germany as a teenager. She had a miserable experience, as the German instructors were very serious and the horse care was not very good.
Non wet blanket here. When I was 17, my parents let me go to Sweden where I had relatives, followed by a couple of weeks in England, where I had a US family I could use as a base. I did lots of traveling in England by myself on trains and buses. I booked my own hotels and ate meals on my own. At that time I was fascinated by English medieval history and was a kid on a mission to see it. It was an incredible confidence building experience. I knew then that I could take care of myself in the adult world. I could go somewhere and see something and be just fine. In fairness to my parents, I was a real goody-two shoes kid – did not smoke, drink, do drugs and was super serious about my academic work. I was not the type to get into trouble. Now all this happened in the early 1970’s when there were no cell phones or internet. I just went, went sent postcards to my parents and had a fantastic time.
I think going on a riding vacation is a great idea. A number of these places provide housing and food along with the horses. You don’t need a car. I hope the OP goes on this kind of vacation. It offers a great deal more in life experience than just riding horses (although that is fun, too.)
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I don’t think the “wet blanket” issue is whether people think an unaccompanied minor can handle the trip, it’s whether any legitimate business is going to include an unaccompanied minor. I would think the majority of them would not, for a variety of reasons mostly related to insurance.
Minor are unable to be legally responsible for many things, period. If parents are on the premises, there is an assumption of parental supervision and therefore decision making on the part of the minor falls to the parents to monitor.
To be honest, I would be surprised if there was any US-based tourism opportunity that would do this. An educational type program would be more likely and probably more appropriate. I agree that the majority of horseback tourists will be older people, so going alone as a 16 year old could be weird.
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16 is old enough if her parents believe she is mature. I went out of state to college at 16.
I agree that she should stay in the U.S. and think if she approached the ride organizer and they spoke with her parents and trainer, many programs would be okay with her attendance. They would want a release and power of attorney from the parents.
I still doubt it. A release does not get them off the hook if they “allow” a minor to do something dangerous and she gets hurt (“allow” is in quotes because what ability do they have to prevent any of their tourists from doing something unsafe?). And I doubt many rider tour leaders want the responsibility of having power of attorney over an unknown minor. If she was in an educational setting she would not be “unaccompanied” and would be required to follow the rules of the instructor/leader. They are designed for this type of thing and have established legal and insurance protocols to protect themselves. And are probably priced accordingly.
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If this were true, then there would be no overnight camps for kids. Of course there is insurance for these types of businesses. And there are plenty of risk management strategies such as releases, obtaining health insurance coverage information, contact numbers, etc. We have a local show facility that insists that everyone entering a show sign a warranty that they have health insurance AND provide the carrier and policy number. So it can be managed.
I still remember a riding vacation I took in France about 20 years ago. There was a teenaged Belgian boy who was there alone for the week to ride. He did fine. None of the other European riders thought it was unusual. I realize it is different over here, but really, we are not talking about anything that hasn’t been done before many times over.
See my post just above yours where I said:
If she was in an educational setting she would not be “unaccompanied” and would be required to follow the rules of the instructor/leader. They are designed for this type of thing and have established legal and insurance protocols to protect themselves. And are probably priced accordingly.
If a tour company is in the business of providing experiences for teenagers, that’s entirely different. And, as I said - probably priced very differently as well.
A company that tends to serve adults or families is unlikely to say “oh sure, cool, I’ll agree to have power of attorney over this kid I’ve never met.”
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Even today a minor person can join the military at 17… then they have very few rights…and few if any one cared about their age
Back when I was in Asia we had command helicopter pilots who were 18, one was appointed command pilot on his 18th birthday, he had entered the Army at 16 which was acceptable then … he was a very good pilot
Legally, I guess there was some law passed to allow this to occur
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Kids are individuals too, not all cut the same.
Some are fine giving independence earlier than others.
They still should have someone to bounce ideas and opinions from.
That also helps at any age, is what helps guide our thinking.
If common sense comes young, well, it is there, no matter what age.
A friend used to say from his grandson, when I commented that he was at 17 already a very responsible adult, that he was born like that.
At 18 he had his own diversified business he had been growing for a few years while in high school.
I expect he was the only one in his class to do that.
Not many mature with that kind of focus that early.
I expect all this talk is maybe helping the OP decide where to look for that summer adventure, with more ideas to go by now.
Who cares?
I’m talking about whether a private business would voluntarily take on the legal responsibility of a minor on a riding tour.
My guess is that the majority of them would not consider it a risk worth taking, if they are even insured?
I fully agree that some minors are more capable and mature than 21 year olds. Or even 30 year olds. But from an insurance standpoint, they are not the same.
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Two comments:
You keep bringing up examples from 20+ years ago. The world has changed greatly. My sister and I often commented on that while raising our kids. We both agreed that we would never let our kids do some of the things that we were able to do as children/teens in the 60s/70s and we both felt regret about that.
Supervised programs designed for teens are entirely different from horse tours designed for adults. Camps and youth programs are set up to handle minors and have the appropriate staffing and insurance in place.The OP specifically said she wasn’t interested in youth programs/camps but rather wanted to take an adult trip. If I ran a horse trekking operation for adults, or even for families, I would absolutely not accept an unaccompanied minor because I would not have the staffing and insurance to handle the needs and liabilities of doing so.
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The military is an entirely different situation and cannot be compared to a private business offering recreational opportunities to adults.
And I will note that a huge frustration for young people in the military is their general inability to rent cars or even, in many cases, get a hotel room, because they are uderage.
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I understand that you may choose not to have staffing, but you most certainly can purchase insurance coverage if you want it. You also can take risk management strategies to ameliorate the risk. In theory you could charge a premium for an unaccompanied minor because of the additional staffing and insurance costs. I think it is entirely the choice of the business as to what market it wants to cater to.
Yes, it’s possible. But give one reason any legitimate business would undertake this risk?
If they have to charge extra for minors, it seems like they might as well open a riding camp for teens if they are going to pay for the insurance and deal with the legal hurdles.
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S1969, there are people who will take risks in this world that you may not take. It is that simple. You may not want to do it, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t other perfectly legitimate businesses who will do it. They may have risk management strategies, insurance coverage and a pricing structure that works for them.
Check out Redrockride.com. I did that ride in 2001 and I can say that it was an amazing experience and the owners would likely take very good care of you and make sure you had everything you need. There was one woman who traveled alone from England and we sort of took her under our wings so she wasn’t alone all the time. You might have to check their policy on unaccompanied youth though. I have no idea what it is, but the owners are very nice and easy to communicate with.
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