Denny's Goals for Kids, continued...

21) Whatever your sport, learn its history, riders, horses, traditions. Your sport didn`t just happen, ready made for your enjoyment. Learn more, be ignorant less!
Yes! This! Why do we do things certain ways? Why does XC come before stadium? What is the long format of eventing and why did it change? Stace- would you do a clinic for us?!

22) Learn how to properly lunge a horse. Know all about the requisite equipment.
Something we should all know. We can learn this over winter, too!

23) Understand, as Bowdoin graduate Alison Springer does, that becoming a top rider and getting a top college education, are not incompatible goals.
Yep. A college education=something to fall back on. I have TWO degrees, even!

24) Become involved, either as a volunteer, or paid, in helping to run shows or events. The perspective from "the other side" is very different.
Another thing we should all try to do!

25) Learn how to work horses in longlines.
Another thing we'll be learning this winter. 

26) Try to get the chance to be a scribe for a dressage judge. Even "towering figures" in the horse world will be happy to help you learn.
I bet this can be arranged, too...

 27) Just because these are listed as goals for "kids", realize that you have years to attain your goals.
Good thing, huh?!

28) See if you can get a job on a real ranch, doing real cattle work, some time while it`s still possible. This might be the most fun goal of all!
Working cattle is some of the most fun you'll ever have off a XC course. I'll work on this one, too.

29) Ride your horse all night, from dusk to dawn. Do it someplace where a car can`t hit you. It`s pure magic!
Or at least a moonlight ride, at least once!

30) Go swimming with your horse.
Or A horse. I got to swim a horse in the ocean in Mexico and it was one of the best experiences of my life. Put it on your bucket list. 

31) Teach your horse to jump into water.
Yeah, this is on Ari's list, too.

32) Learn to drive a tractor. It will add enormously to your usefulness around any horse farm.
Hey, Jerrrrrryyyyy....

33) Help with haying. You`ll LOVE it!!! (Yeah, right!!)
Yeah, right.

34) Try to spend time with a equine veterinarian. Some will let you drive around with them. Learn lots of basics, lameness, colic, wound care, as much as possible, because sometimes it`s just you and the horse, until the vet arrives.
This is one of the best ones so far.

35) NEVER think some manual labor type of task is "beneath " you. ALL the greatest horsemen and women have a towering work ethic. They can do everything on a horse farm.
This is so true!  Everything from weed whacking to cleaning stalls to exercising horses. You have to do it all. Ask anyone who owns their own farm. When everyone else is snowed into their house, who do you think is breaking ice off buckets and turning out and changing blankets?!

36) Teach your green babies that the "Ditch Troll" doesn`t really eat them for lunch! But be ready for the gravity defying launch, "just in case!"
We're all jumping ditches this winter, too!! GET READY!
  
37) Unlike most addictions, tackaholism isn`t bad for your health, just your wallet! Learn all about tack, how it fits, how it works, what`s essential, and what probably isn`t. Especially learn about saddle fit, both for your horse, and for you.
Yep! Why do you use the pads you use? What did I (or Kate) check for when they checked your saddle fit? Can you adjust all your tack correctly? Can you REASSEMBLE all your tack correctly? I see more winter learning!