Before Ronald Reagan graced the White House as our nation's president, he was well known as a Western movie actor, where he learned to ride horses and take on the guise of a cowboy, a persona he kept for the rest of his career. He once said, "There is nothing better for the inside of a girl than the outside of a horse." He actually said, "the inside of a man," but I like it better my way.
Studies show that a girl's confidence drops by 30% between ages 8 and 14. As the parent of two school-aged girls, that statistic terrifies me. One way, and somewhat by accident, we've discovered to combat that alarming number is by having our girls work with animals and, in particular, ride horses.
Putting a 50-pound first-grader on top of a 1,200-pound animal and handing her the reins might sound asinine to some parents. But for us, and probably for many of you, teaching that girl she is the boss of that great, powerful animal teaches her quite quickly about her capabilities.
I once read about how during the filming of the Lord of the Rings movies, Peter Jackson, the director of the trilogy, came to breakfast on set and thought he was surrounded by the men who would make up the extras for his Rohan army. Then, he heard them talking and realized that Rohan's army was actually women in the guise of medieval soldiers. During casting, the production team looked for extras for the army who had horses and were excellent riders. The ones who made the cut were mostly women.
Last month, we moved our cattle to a new pasture. When my husband made assignments, I got relegated to the task of opening gates, while the girls got the privileged role of pushing the cows on horseback. I watched my 6- and 9-year-old daughters work together on horseback, the older one instructing the younger one how to gather up a stray mama cow and push her back into the herd. They love to run their horses, but they know that when working cows this way, it's best to move quickly and quietly. They know our cows deserve our respect as much as our horses do.
One of my girls' idols is Amberly Snyder. When Amberly was 18, and an up-and-coming rodeo athlete, she was in a car accident that paralyzed her from the waist down. Despite this challenge, she continues to barrel race competitively at professional rodeos across the country. Her story is told in the Netflix movie Walk, Ride, Rodeo, and my girls have watched it at least a hundred times. They've named one of their barbies Amberly. This barbie has both a wheelchair and a horse.
Last Friday, my girls, Cora and Clara, barrel raced in the junior rodeo of the Caldwell Night Rodeo, arguably Idaho's most famous professional rodeo. We kept the day sheet, where the junior rodeo kids were listed after the professional athletes. I know the girls hope (as do we) that this rodeo is the first of many professional rodeos they participate in. On the first day of school earlier that week, they told me that when they grow up, they are going into business together to be horse-training, barrel-racing veterinarians. I hope they always dream that big.
I know there are jokes in the equine and Western industry about "horse girls." About women whose horses live better than they do. About women who complain incessantly about the ground. About women who "need no man" other than their horse. I guess folks can say what they want, but I'll take the jokes for my girls if it grows their confidence.
