“No doubt about the future of the horse industry.”
There have been bleak forecasts for horses as the general market has deteriorated, many ranchers no longer find horses essential for handling cattle and general cost for maintaining a horse for pleasure purposes has skyrocketed.
Any alarm about decline in horse popularity can readily be put at ease as the future generation of horse enthusiasts is ample in number, and equally high in dedicated appreciation, with the greatest knowledge and ability ever.
Verification is easy just by attending about any family horse activity. The horse show started at 8 o’clock Saturday morning, early we thought so it’d be done before the heat of the day.
Wrong in our original thinking, the show did not end until after 9 o’clock that evening. It wasn’t because the show had hang-ups, or poor management. Quite the contrary, it was very well organized and went at a steady pace for more than 13 hours.
Reason the show took so long was a blessing in itself: large numbers of entries in the 10 and under youth classes.
There must have been two dozen little cowboys and cowgirls entered in that age group, and every one of them participated in every class they could.
To their credit, and their parents as well, the youngsters and their mounts were ready upon call, so there was no waiting for stragglers into the pen. However, in the racing events, it generally took most of the riders longer to complete the barrel race, pole bending and other competitions, because they just don’t go as fast as older .participants.
Additionally, nowadays parents are allowed to lead their children who are just too young to know the patterns and safely ride their horses without assistance. Obviously, that takes considerably more time, too.
Now, this was one day, but it’s been the same in at least a dozen horse shows we’ve attended this year. The six and under division has even had the most entries at a few shows.
Amazing the talent of these little riders, and their horses, and everybody is having a fun time.
Reminds us of Psalm 78:4: “We’re not keeping this to ourselves, we’re passing it along to the next generation.” Moreover, Proverbs 1:33: “Now you can take it easy, they’re in good hands.”
+++ALLELUIA++