Camp can be expensive, but some organizations like City to Saddle offer camp scholarships to new riders. Ask a teacher, or another adult you trust - maybe a favorite aunt or uncle or even your parents - to help you look for and apply for scholarships.
Make sure you have your parents’ permission before you offer to volunteer. An adult your trust can help you find barns where you can volunteer. Some barns will let you exchange volunteer hours for riding lessons. See if that’s a possibility for your barn.
Your instructor or a horse camp counselor can help you choose the actual breed of your horse. It will depend a lot on your personality, how much experience you have, and how often you’ll ride.
Building the right fence can cost a lot of money. It needs to be sturdy enough to keep your horse in and long enough to enclose the full acre. Make sure you’re ready to talk about that with your parents.
You can ask an adult you trust - like a teacher or a counselor from horse camp - to help you find some good options. The cost of having your horse live at someone else’s barn depends on good the barn is. The quality of the staff and grounds, as well as the barn’s reputation will all affect the price of keeping your horse there.
You can use a desk calendar, a phone app, or even just a notebook to create your schedule. Color-coding your schedule might help. Pick 1 color for homework, 1 color for chores, and another color for extra-curricular activities. This helps you see how much time you have left over in the week. Track your chores by assigning each chore a day of the week. So your schedule might look something like this: “Monday - clean room. Tuesday - do dinner dishes. Wednesday - take out trash. Thursday - clean room. Friday - help with laundry. "
The legal age you can begin working varies from place to place, but 15 is a pretty common age. If you’re under 16 or 18, you might need your parents’ permission. You can check with your school to see what the requirements are where you live. If you’re not old enough to get an after-school job, there are other ways for you to make some extra money! You can try babysitting, picking up more chores at home for extra allowance (if your parents agree).
Your contract can say something as simple as “I [enter your name] agree to use my allowance to buy the bridle, saddle, and brushes for my horse. Mom and Dad agree to buy me the horse and pay for its housing as long as I keep up with my other responsibilities. " If you’re willing, tell your parents that you’ll consider your horse and the cost of caring for it your gifts for the foreseeable future. You can also write into the agreement that you’re willing to take on an after-school job to pay for your portion of the horse.
