Stick To the Old Ways If It Kills You

Yesterday I glanced out my front window and saw a couple of neighbor kids no older than six or seven riding down the road on thier horses, one of which had a young foal in tow darting along between the two big horses. Even in this laid back country community, I was a little shocked that this was allowed unsupervised. I can't imagine letting my children ride in such an unsafe manner no matter how good their riding skill at that age.

Of course there were no helmets, in this part of the country helmets are not considered appropriate, these two had on cowboy hats. But my main concern was the mare and foal, no matter how well broke she may be usually, mares can be unpredictable when they are distracted by their baby. We always make sure our foals are halter-broke within the first week, and if their mothers are to be ridden,(ours rarely are) the babies must know how to pony (that's be lead by the person riding the other horse). I could just picture that baby dart into the path of a car or truck and the mare freak out. What would those kids do?

I know in rural parts of the country, like eastern Idaho, it is a matter of pride to maintain the western way of life, the old ways of doing things. But isn't it just plain stupid to allow dangerous situations to occur just because grandpa did it that way back before helmets were invented? And cars( if there were cars at all) went slower on what were dirt roads then, and people just didn't know any better because there had never been any studies done to show how potentially harmful these things could be.

Words like 'quaint' and 'down-home' are all well and good but nowadays people should know better and use some common sense and better judgement. That's my opinion anyway and I guess I'll stick with it. Lord knows around here opinions don't change too quick.