I see 'em at soccer fields, baseball fields, peewee football
games, sitting atop horses dressed like little cowboys and little
cowgirls.
In my opinion, there is really no safe age for a child to
start riding a horse.
In my opinion, there is really no safe age for a boy to start
playing football.
To put a small girl on a big horse, I don't care how old the
horse is, can never truly be a safe thing.
There is, in all circumstances, however, a "safer"
age.
If there are parents who, after going through the process
parents go through when it comes to allowing a child to do this or that, feel
that the pleasure a child can derive from riding a horse outweighs the risk, no
one should try to insert their beliefs, educated or otherwise, into the
parent/child relationship.
I think most folks probably feel about the same way regarding
many things involving their children.
However, society, whether it is in the local school system or
posted speed limits on public roads, does try to apply policies and
systems to help ensure the safer conduct of public life.
What "Little Man" did, at any age, was quite an
accomplishment.
What "Little Man's" ol' man, Matt, did was quite within the
policies of the AERC. Period. Matt loves his boy more than any of us with
keyboards out here in the realms of the
cyber-no-offense-intended-none-taken-world of Ridecamp.
Until the AERC changes its policies...that's how it
is.
I tend to agree with how it is right now.
However, providing "information" to the membership (which is
well within the purview and responsibilities of the AERC) regarding youth and
endurance riding is something that needs to happen.
Providing information is not the same as attempting to
legislate parenting.
Safeguarding children, by giving the parents of that
child, as members of our organization, the information needed to help better
determine when to allow a child to ride endurance, is certainly as
important as worrying about ulcers in horses.
As to at what age to allow participation, I'll leave that to
the lawyers, the parents of the child and the pediatricians out there who have
opinions based on study and experience. Regardless of what age eventually
is proffered as the SAFEST age (considering growth rates of children, exposures
to litigation, etc.), it will never be SAFE to put a child or an adult on the
back of living animal as powerful as a horse.
About the only things that can safely ride on the back of a
horse are the dreams of horsewomen and horsemen...and even then, it is a
risk/reward assessment left better to the individual than an
organization.
