Stacy Nold
Dr. Sonia Apgar Begert
English 101
6/16/14
Argument paper
John Keating said “Seize the day. Because, believe it or not, each
and every one of us in this room is one day going to stop breathing, turn cold
and die” (Dead Poets Society). Seizing the day and learning to
ride a horse can be a scary thing to learn, however it is one of the most
influential things you can learn. Stepping outside your comfort zone and taking
a chance is an important life lesson to learn even if you are scared. When on is learning to ride a horse, it often
changes the person in important ways. Even those lessons learned in a
non-traditional settings can teach many people many important life lessons. Some
people may be apprehensive to riding horses because they are afraid of being
injured and don’t understand the value of it, however learning to ride a horse
can help you build confidence, learn perseverance and hard work.
When people start ridding they fall
off and hit the dirt many times, sometimes with the horse landing on top of
them or even stepping on them. This is one of the biggest oppositions to someone
learning to ride. When learning to ride people learn to always get back on
unless you’re physically unable to. Perseverance helps make sure you keep going
in life. Learning to ride takes a lot of balance and leg muscles which, at five
you don’t always have. Hitting the dirt can be a daily thing, kids learned to
tuck and roll quickly. Always getting back on has taught teaches you to never
quit. You have to keep going and preserver not matter what. It shows you that
even if life knocks you down you get back up and keep going and try again.
Taking care of horses is a lot of
hard work. They are unable to care for themselves and rely on you completely. You
have to make sure they eat before you do. When taking care of a horse that
weighs 1000 pounds you tend to get frustrated at times. Horses can try to knock
you over and step on you to get what they want from your hands. Trying to get a
horse to cooperate and work with you and not just do what they want to do is
hard at times. As Erin Gurwell said in the move Freedom Writers “But to get
respect you have to give it”, even though she was talking about her and the
students relationship here it applies to animals as well. Horses though have to
depend on people for their needs but, will give you respect if you respect them.
This teaches you compassion and hard work.
Caring for another living thing is
hard back breaking work, however the relationship you build and the love you
get in return is irreplaceable. Hard work can allow kids to have something to
work for. Learning reward and punishment early is helpful. Horse do understand
and appreciated what the people taking care of them are doing. “You can’t make
someone want an education” (Margret Campbell) was said in the move Freedom Writers
but giving them something to loose and work for helps motivate them. Young people can benefit from learning to care
form something that cannot care for themselves. Working hard and getting no
verbal appreciation can be very rewarding. This love and trust is something
every person could learn from. This can make you a very caring and
understanding person.
When learning to ride you have to
build an unspoken bond with your horse. They have to trust you completely and
you have to trust them completely. It takes a lot to build this bond. You spend
hours grooming them, feeding them, caring for them when they are hurt. While
doing this you are showing the animal that you are the one that makes them feel
good. The trust grows from there. It takes years to understand your horse
completely. A horse cannot talk to you so you have to learn to communicate with
your legs, the reins and verbal commands. This is something that is different
for every horse that you ride. You have to adapt your skills to every horse
specifically. Everyone is different and respond to different things. Once you
learn how to communicate and have a mutual trust between you and the horse there
is nothing you cannot accomplish.
When kids are young they are
impressionable and influenced easily. Kids that choose to ride are making a
choice for responsibility. A lot of other kids that do not ride horses do not
understand why they would want to be outside working so hard to take care of a
“stinky” animal’s as it is put a lot of times. When you give a kid a horse they
have a lot to lose by getting in to trouble or having bad grades. By using the
ability to ride horses and compete as motivation to stay out of trouble and get
good grades, kids will learn to stay out of trouble. While kids with horses are
trying to stay out of trouble and keep their grades up others kids were not.
They will simply get grounded, then when that was over they would do it again. These
kids with horses will choose to stick with their horses and stay away from bad
influences. Having something to work for and strive to accomplish
motivates kids and adolescence to make better choices.
Learning to ride horse has help shape people into positive members of society. Some
people are scared to try, afraid to get hurt and don’t understand what you can
learn from it, however those people need to try and see the benefits and life
lessons that you can take away from this experience. You never truly stop
learning to ride. There are always new techniques to learn or skills to perfect.
The people you meet along the way are like nothing you have ever experienced.
They are some lifelong friends that could never be replace. Ridding has become
an outlet for kids. It allows people to think, to bond and to love without fear
of judgment or harshness. Once you start you won’t trade a horses for anything.
Having horses and learning to ride is one of the most memorable and most
influential experiences a person could ever have.
Works Cited
Dead Poets Society. Dir. Peter Weir. By Tom Schulman. Perf. Robin Williams
and Robert Sean Leonard. Touchstone Pictures, 1989. DVD.
Freedom Writers. By Erin Gurwell. Dir. Richard LaGravenese. Perf. Patrick Dempsey
and Hilary Swank. Paramount Pictures, 2007. DVD.
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