By allowing your child to explore his or her interest in horses and horseback riding, you are offering them the opportunity to learn valuable life skills while doing something they love. Being around horses and horseback riding helps support healthy physical and emotional growth, and it teaches kids to work together, support their friends, and take on more responsibility.
Getting children involved with horses isn’t as easy as it used to be. Many factors like economic constraints on families, competing youth activities, ever-more-enticing online distractions combine to make horse involvement a less-likely choice for youngsters than it was just a few decades ago.
In addition to all that, there’s just so darn much else for youngsters to do these days. School sports, clubs, other extracurriculars. Music/dance/karate/gymnastics lessons. All the resume-padding stuff that enhances a college-entrance application.
Getting your child involved with horses can have many benefits, such as:
Keeping them out of trouble and focused on a positive activity;
Building their responsibility, confidence, and communication skills;
Building trust with themselves and others;
Being mindful and staying in the present moment;
Improving their physical and mental health;
Reducing stress and anxiety;
Developing positive traits such as responsibility, accountability;
Learning patience, level-headedness, empathy, kindness, and self-discipline;
Learning better communication skills by paying attention to non-verbal cues;
Teaching balance, flexibility, stamina, and coordination;
Encouraging exercise, which boosts fitness and strength;
Fostering friendships with other children who ride horses;
Helping children learn to set and achieve goals.
A study on the effects of horse riding involving 106 primary school children by scientists from The Tokyo University of Agriculture found that while in the saddle, a child’s cognitive ability is likely to be improved. The scientists found that the vibrations produced by a horse while being ridden have the ability to activate the human brain’s sympathetic nervous system.
But how will this increased cognitive ability affect your child’s scholastic achievements? It essentially means that children are likely to have improved memory as well as enhanced problem solving and learning abilities that can help them to tackle academic-related tasks more easily and do better in school!
The perseverance and focus needed to excel at horse riding can also spill over to their school work. As kids are ‘forced’ to concentrate and not let their mind wander when they’re riding, they are likely to apply this heightened level of focus in other aspects of their lives – including their studies.
Children learning about horsemanship can benefit in many ways, such as:
They can develop trust, anxiety reduction, and depression relief by forming a bond with a horse and overcoming their fears;
They can improve their crisis management, problem-solving, and concentration skills by handling unexpected and challenging situations with horses;
They can cultivate character, compassion, and responsibility by caring for and respecting horses.
Supporting your son or daughter’s love for horses can result in memories they’ll cherish for life and provide many of the benefits listed above. Here at Flying Bee Farms we offer two, very affordable, ways for your child to start reaping these benefits – during the summer months we have Summer Camp and at other times we have a program called The Presence Of Horses which is held on weekend days. This program covers Intro to Horses, Handling Horses and Ponies and Anatomy, Basic Equipment and Mounting, and Riding.
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