Where Have All The Cowboys Gone?

There is a growing concern within the horse industry about the future of our pastime. After a short decline in horse ownership with the invention of the automobile, the pleasure horse industry has always been healthy until recent years. Now with fewer and fewer people living in rural areas and the encroaching development of the growing cities, horses are becoming more and more of a rare sight.

While my mother's generation saw grandparents with backyard ponies for the kids to ride on weekends, I grew up in a world where horseback riding lessons were an inconvenient and expensive indulgence. What about the next generation? Who will run the organizations and fight the battles on behalf of our equine friends in future years if it is becoming less and less possible for youth to be involved with horses? How will they learn to appreciate the responsibility and pride achieved when working to become a partner with such a noble and responsive animal? Horses have a presence and demeanor about them that inspires respect and adoration. Can you buy your kid a goldfish and expect it to teach these lessons? I don't think so.

But I don't have a solution. People who can still afford this pastime are trying to pass this on to their children, and maybe, hopefully, they will be enough to ensure that horses survive and are appreciated for their contribution to life in this country and the people we have become.