My Blog

Jenny Miller

Section 57

10-22-07

Classification

Learning from Something Priceless

            Did you ever think a childhood hobby could teach you about so many quality traits?  Living in the country, I have been lucky enough to have beautiful horses to care for and ride right in my backyard.  Along with this comes huge responsibility and dedication.  Without it, having horses would not be possible.  Growing up with horses has really instilled in me the importance of responsibility, organization, and perseverance.

            Being raised with horses has taught me all about responsibility.  First of all, I have learned how important it really is to care for an animal and to keep it healthy.  When we are young, we don’t realize that some animals are different than us in that they must depend on humans for their survival.  I believe that my family has given our three horses an exceptional, loving home for many years.  In that time, I have grown up to be a well-educated teenager with big responsibilities.  Secondly, the environment of the horses’ living conditions must be kept safe and clean.  If they are not, the animals could end up in dangerous situations and hurt themselves.  Lastly, my horses are not only pets.  They are actually athletes.  Because I compete in the sport of dressage, my horses are a very important part of my success.  I am always checking them to see if they have minor injuries, and I also have to monitor their diet and food intake.  Just like athletes, it is necessary for the horses to consume what their bodies need according to how hard they are being worked.

            I have also learned better organizational skills while growing up with horses.  First, I have had to manage my schedule for training and riding my horse with my school, homework, dance, and work schedule.  On top of that, I take riding lessons from a professional who lives about one hour away.  Taking my horse to her barn once a week has become a regular thing now.  Secondly, keeping the barn and all of its endless contents safe and organized is very important to me.  If anything is misplaced and accessible to the horses, I can be sure that they will grab a hold of it and shred it to pieces.  I am speaking from experience.  I couldn’t even begin to count how many times my horse has “played” with my belongings!  Another thing that has taught me how to be an organized person is money management.  Summertime is horse show season, and as anyone could imagine, these shows are quite pricey.  My parents don’t exactly want to dish out their money for just anything, so I am always looking into what shows I would benefit most from.

            I think that persevering through many things in my life has taught me a lot.  First of all, I have stuck with the sport of dressage for many years.  It was necessary for me to be motivated in order to progress in dressage.  If I ever wanted to move up into the higher levels of difficulty, I had to be consistent with my training and riding.  Unlike other sports, dressage has two athletes who both need to train equally.  Secondly, I have had many faults in being consistent with my training, I’ll admit it.  Whenever show season is over, I am normally happy with how well I did that year that I give my horse a little time off.  But with that comes the beginning of a new school year.  I always get so busy with homework and such that there is literally no time or daylight left in the day to complete my training.  Realizing my consequences, this is where I fall back on the progress I had made earlier that summer.  Getting back into the flow is always tough, but it needs to be done.  I believe this is how I have learned to solve problems.  I have analyzed situations and figured out what the next step must be to get back on track. Lastly, I have also realized that it is hard work to be a motivated person.  Whenever I get frustrated, I just think of how these skills will help prepare me for the future.

            Responsibility, organizational skills, and persevering are all very important things that I have learned just by growing up with horses.  Even if they call for major responsibility and dedication, I believe horses are worth everything in the world.  Until now, I have honestly never realized how much I have learned from my childhood hobby that has grown into a part of me today.