The Ultimate Guide to Raising Confident and Courageous Girls: Horsemanship and the Equestrian Sports for Girls

Helping a girl develop an interest in an activity she's passionate about will contribute greatly to her self-esteem and help her to become more confident. Many girls express an interest in horses at an early age. As a child, the margins of my notebook were filled with galloping horses. The shelf above my bedroom window was home to the seven Breyer horses my parents, who were not wealthy people by any stretch of the imagination, gave me as birthday and Christmas gifts over the course of several years.

I'm no physicist, but as a lifelong horsewoman who's taught many children to ride over the years and as the mother of a confident and courageous 10-year-old girl who's an avid equestrian, I'd like to share with you this fundamental principle of the universe--

Horse + Girl = Energy

You probably won't see it in any science books either, but it's as basic as Sir Isaac Newton's Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica. This is a recipe for a confident girl. An equation for building self-esteem and courage in girls.

The sheer number of women in the United States who are involved in the equestrian arts demonstrates that there's something special going on here. In her AMEA paper, Women and Horses ~ What's It All About?, author Mary Midkin from Equestrian Resources (EQR) found over 75% of the members of all equine-related non-racing organizations in the United States are female; over 80% in the American Horse Shows Association (AHSA) alone. This percentage, however, does not indicate the higher number of females involved in pleasure riding. She estimates at least 500,000 females in the U.S. are enjoying horses as a sport or leisure activity and says that is a considerably conservative number.

So what exactly do horses teach us? And how can we help our girls become confident and courageous by encouraging them to become involved in horsemanship and equestrian sports? Many parents, upon hearing the benefits for the very first time, are simply amazed at how a horse can boost a child's self-esteem. The opportunities for a girl to learn and grow in equestrian sports are priceless--

Just the feeling of being on horseback can promote a girl's inner-growth process and help her become more confident. Riding a horse is an intense physical and mental process, stimulating both body and mind in a world where girls are increasingly disconnected from and dissatisfied with their physical selves. They learn not only to ride physically in harmony with a one-thousand-pound horse, but also mentally. Riding is a thinking sport.

A 60-pound girl certainly cannot rely on her physical body to get a horse to do what she asks, but she learns to use her mind instead to control the horse and to build a harmonious relationship. Riding requires both a physical and mental "presence" and builds a confident core inside each rider. This is why horses are not only being used in the riding disciplines today, but also for physical and mental therapy.

Horses can serve as a link to the natural world for girls in today's high-tech society where the bulk of the population now lives in urban centers. Because a relationship with the horse develops both the mental and physical skill of the young equestrian, riding and caring for horses can help a girl re-evaluate and reconsider the preconceived ideas of beauty imposed upon her by teen magazines and television. As a girl learns to match the movements of her own body to that of the horse's as she rides, she becomes more confident. Her self-esteem blossoms. The horse gives the girl the opportunity to fully realize the beauty and worthiness of her healthy, functioning body, regardless of shape, size, or color.

Horses live in the very distinct here and now. A girl who is involved in the daily care of a horse is offered a glimpse of the deeper undercurrent of beauty that exists in the everyday world and offered an opportunity for a more confident growing up. Mucking stalls, de-tangling tails, feeding and watering, caring for a sick animal--all of these activities ground a girl in the simple pleasures of being responsible for and taking care of something other than herself.

Colonel Alois Podhajsky, Former Director of the Spanish Riding School in Vienna, sums it up nicely--

"Equestrian art, perhaps more than any other, is closely related to the wisdom of life. Many of the same principles may be applied as a line of conduct to follow. The horse teaches us self-control, constancy, and the ability to understand what goes on in the mind and the feelings of another creature, qualities that are important throughout our lives. Moreover, from this relationship with his horse the rider will learn that only kindness and mutual understanding will bring about achievements of highest perfection."

Horse + Girl = Energy. It's as true as Einstein's theory of relativity. Raising a confident and courageous girl in today's world is indeed an achievement of highest perfection.