TIPS FROM THE INSTRUCTOR

“Horses as Teachers”

By
Grace Ingraham, ex-Instructor

“We spend the first eighteen months of our children's lives teaching them to walk and talk and the next eighteen years telling them to sit down and shut up.”
-Phyllis Diller

In today's fast-paced, hectic world we sometimes get so busy that we become disconnected from the things that truly make us happy. We use the internet, video gaming, and other impersonal gadgets to both juggle all the myriad things we are responsible for, and to sometimes “tune out” from our hectic lives. In doing so, we often miss out on opportunities to have more meaningful personal relationships.

Horses provide the perfect medium to develop this type of one-on-one relationship. They inspire a sense of confidence and capability in children; teach them responsibility; help them get in touch with their own sense of individuality; help them develop communicative skills; and help people of any age redefine the importance of these qualities in their lives. Horses allow us a chance to relate to another living being in a way that we might never have thought possible. This, in turn, brings out the best and most unique qualities in us. The physical, mental, and emotional challenges of riding horses allow us to develop into more compassionate, patient, and generally happy human beings. These qualities can in turn improve every other aspect of our lives, and the way we relate to other people too.