The other day I was reading through the Facebook page for Equitation Lodge, the summer riding camp I attended as a child.
Post after post wasn't about ribbons or championships. People wrote about friendships, confidence, favorite horses, funny moments, and the joy of spending every summer at the barn. More than sixty years later, those memories are still vivid.
It made me stop and ask myself a question.
Are we teaching more than riding?
As instructors, we spend hours planning lessons, improving our teaching, and helping students master new skills. Those things matter. But I wonder if we're also shaping something much bigger.
Here’s what the campers remember:
- A horse who changed their confidence, or one that became a favorite they remember after decades.
- An instructor who believed in them, the one with humor, who taught 10 kids at a time.
- The trail ride and camp out.
- Falling off for two lessons in a row. (Me! I did that. Col McTavish, right into the same mud puddle each time. How many of you had a puddle name in your honor?)
- The sense of belonging.
- Learning responsibility (the horse always comes first)
- Discovering they were capable of more than they thought.
I don't remember every lesson I had at Equitation Lodge. But I remember Buckskin. I remember Snowball and Galahad. I remember Theory classes where we learned statements like “A good grooming is worth a feed of oats.” Grooming horses, group riding lessons, swimming twice a day, all with other kids who loved horses just as much as I did. It was the place in my young life where I was with “my people.” Those experiences didn't just make me a better rider. They shaped the instructor I eventually became.
Fifty years from now, what will your students remember?
They may not remember the dressage test, the course, or the score, but they'll remember how your barn made them feel. They'll remember whether they belonged and whether someone believed in them. They'll remember whether horses became a lifelong passion—or just another childhood activity.
That's why I believe we're teaching much more than riding.
I also wonder how many of the kids who went to Equitation Lodge went on to the A circuit. Not that the A circuit isn’t a qualified goal.” My guess is a surprisingly small percentage.
Not because they weren't talented. Because that's not what places like Equitation Lodge produced. EL produced lifelong horse people.
Thinking more, I realized Equitation Lodge and its mother ship, Thomas School of Horsemanship produced a controlled, pseudo “barn rat” culture. Every summer around 100 parents paid for their children to be steeped in an all-day barn-rat-life, which is one of the healthiest ways to learn about horses.
What did we do every day? Beginning in 1959, I attended Equitation Lodge for six years and while the style for riding clothes changed, the teaching and program did not. A bus picked me and my lunch up every weekday morning, and I don’t think I ever missed a day. After morning orientation we groomed horses, tacked up, assisted in lessons (sometimes leading the little kids), swam twice a day (one swim was with Red Cross swimming lessons), ate lunch, cleaned tack, had theory lessons, had a craft, a snack, and got back on the bus to go home in time for dinner.
Occasionally we had archery or shooting. Oh – and sometimes we played Capture the Flag. Even though I hated playing that game (In my mind it had nothing to do with horses) it was a team building experience.
When our session ended, we had a horse show right there at Equitation Lodge.
The experience was nirvana for a horse kid.
Success isn't measured only by how many students become professionals or compete at the highest levels.
Some students become:
- riding instructors,
- veterinarians,
- Pony Club leaders,
- therapeutic riding volunteers,
- lifelong recreational riders,
- horse owners,
- parents who introduce their children to horses,
- supporters of the horse industry.
Others simply carry a love of horses with them forever.
Isn't that success, too?
I think today's horse world sometimes forgets its roots.
Programs
Many barns advertise:
- championships,
- qualifying for championships or shows
- ribbons,
- college teams.
Those are all worthwhile.
But how many advertise: "We help children develop a lifelong love of horses."
That was really Equitation Lodge's legacy.
I wonder how many of those girls still smile when they smell leather, hear a horse nicker, or watch a child take a first riding lesson.
We hear lots of conversation about how the horse show world has developed itself into a sport for the rich, a topic which could have multiple posts. The real danger comes when that is all an instructor can see. There are far more students who live to attend programs like Equitation Lodge than there are those who succeed at the upper echelons of showing. And I dare say, their experiences carry more good weight into their futures than competing against the rich and famous would.
But I do know something else. Judging from the comments on that Facebook page, an astonishing number of them carried a love of horses into adulthood. I even ran across people that attended in 1959.
The goal isn't to recreate Equitation Lodge. The goal is to create the same sense of belonging, responsibility, and lifelong love of horses for today's students.
This is a huge part of the foundation of our horse world. I know this sounds impossible with all the barns that are closing these days, but they close because they have different goals. The horses we rode at Equitation Lodge weren’t fancy show horses. Well, some were retired jumpers and hunt horses. None of them were young. And some of those horses were still teaching kids ten years after I’d ridden them.
Lessons were taught in groups, with helpers, by a person who was comfortable with teaching lots of kids. (Many of the counselors and instructors were schoolteachers the rest of the year, so they were used to teaching multiple people at once. It’s a dying art among riding instructors.)
In case you mistakenly think this was a back yard program, Equitation Lodge was considered the premiere day camp on Long Island and during the rest of the years held shows with some of the largest turnouts.
The Horses World Has Changed
We’ve seen how quickly competition segments and separates itself. We need the programs that create horse lovers who carry it into adulthood. These are the moms who encourage their children into the same experiences. These are foundational.
When the love of horses sticks, it’s like a cocklebur in a pony’s forelock. And just like one cocklebur seems to multiply to ten, so does the love of horses.
Thomas School of Horsemanship has changed hands since I was a budding horse girl. Although their program has modernized, they are still a great example of what we need. Here is their website.
Equitation Lodge changed hands in the 70s but if you’d like to read the comments, check out their Facebook page .
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For further reading, here are two related articles: Why I love Group Riding Lessons and 10 Things to Improve the Future of the Horse Business.
I’m interested to learn what your riding lesson program emphasizes. Do you have an immersive program? Do you teach group lessons? I’d love to hear from you in the comments. And if you’re an Equitation Lodge alumni, please say hello!
We'll talk soon,
Barbara Ellin Fox
TheRidingInstructor.net