Saddling up: Students engage in equestrian experiences

 North Harford High School has students involved in a variety of activities both in school and out. S Students Kenzie Ellinghaus is an Equine Stable Manager at Windswept Stables and Ava Mimms an equestrian eventer. 

     As a stable manager Ellinghaus says her job includes “feeding the horses, getting them ready for riding, taking them in/outside, brushing them, and just cleaning up the barn to make it nice.” Her fondest memory while working is when a horse “licked my face and wanted to stay with me.”

     Mimms is an eventer, which means she competes against other riders in a series of events.  She said she enjoys “the experience and the thrill you have while riding horses.” Being an eventer has its challenges, same as any other sport. One of the biggest challenges is “being able to take the time to make the horse better because it’s a very long process.”

     Although the process is long, Mimms finds it “fun and exciting; it can be extremely rewarding in the end.” Ellinghaus agrees that horses take time, “especially when a horse is energetic or acting crazy.” She has increasing difficulty “taking them inside or putting their blankets on” when they are acting unmanageable.

     Both of the girls have been around horses most of their life leading to their love of horses. Mimms’ dream horse would be “16 to 17 hands tall and preferably a gelding.” In regular language this equates to 64-68 inches tall and a gelding is a castrated male horse, this makes the horse calmer and better behaved in order to do her eventing.  

     While Ellinghaus’ dream horse would be “all black with white markings on their face, a Friesian.” The horse breed Friesian is characterized as a rare and endangered breed; they nearly went extinct in the 20th century. They are an extremely versatile breed, they can be aggressive, but Ellinghaus believes the best way to get a horse to be comfortable with you is to “be calm and gentle with the horse and let them have time to get used to you.”

     Mimms believes the key to working with horses is “time.” She explains that it takes time to create a “genuine horse that’s not trying to murder me and willing to work with me and not against me.” It is an extremely dangerous sport that incorporates the use of a wild animal, so it is crucial to create that time.