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ACTIVITIES
Saddle Up!
Horse Sense: How Skilled?
By Alice Cary, GORP Family Expert
While you and your family members don't need to be skilled equestrians to go on a horse-packing trip, it's a good idea for both parents and children to have some basic riding experience under their belts, in addition to camping skills. Check with your outfitter about the exact preparation your family needs for longer expeditions.
“As soon as [young children] are up on a horse...they're in control.”
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For a taste of what to expect, as well as stoke your kids' imaginations before the trip, check the selected reading list, Best Reads for Cowpokes, below.
A good many adults fear horses, deeming them skittish. Are children likely to be afraid?
"If they're not," Allen says, "they're brain-dead. Everybody should have some respect and fear of horses because they're big and powerful. But one of the things we've been successful in doing is re-directing that fear in a constructive way and turning it into confidence."
Because of their flexibility and youth, children are less likely to get saddle-sore than their parents. What's more, they can flourish, given the right steed and guide.
"Young children are at the mercy of big people," Allen muses. "They have to look up at everything. But as soon as they're up on a horse, they're looking down and watching the world go by. They're in control."
| Best Reads for Cowpokes For Kids
 Cowboy Country, by Ann Herbert Scott, Clarion, ages 4-8. A boy goes on a cattle drive and horse-packing trip to Devil's Canyon, learning a lot about the Old West along the way.
Cowboy Small, by Lois Lenski, McKay Books, ages 2-5. A classic for the youngest cowpokes.
Hold Your Horses! A Feedbag Full of Fact and Fables, by Milton Meltzer, HarperCollins, grades 3-7. An engaging account of the history of horses and humans.
Someday Rider, by Ann Herbert Scott, Houghton Mifflin, K-3. Young Kenny wants to ride with his father and the other cowboys; finally he gets to ride Sagebrush.
For Adults
Everett Ruess: A Vagabond for Beauty, by W. L. Rusho, Peregrine Smith Books. The story of a young artist and writer who studied with Edward Weston, Maynard Dixon and Dorothea Lange. In the 1930s he explored the Sierra Nevada, the California coast and the desert Southwest, sometimes by burro and horse. The talented Ruess mysteriously disappeared in the Utah desert at the age of 20 in 1934.
Fodor's Great American Sports and Adventure Vacations, Fodor's Travel Publications. Exciting ideas and trips described by various experts, including chapter on horse packing and trail riding, as well as working farms, ranches and cattle drives.
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