One of the challenges for many horse show moms is working with your rider's school. As riders get more involved in this sport, it often means more and more missed days of school in order to travel, practice and compete in horse shows. It often falls on the parents and the rider to manage their school attendance, grades and workload in order to make it all work successfully.

Horse show families have a number of options that range from home schooling, private schools or finding public schools that will be supportive. With the exception of home schooling which gives you completed control over school and horse showing, parents find themselves having to work through the school issues every semester. Parents take on the role of informing, managing and sometimes begging for school administration and teachers to understand what this sport requires. Some schools have competitive horse show leagues which makes the job so much easier but these are few and far between. More likely you are left on a teacher by teacher basis to explain and negotiate for the time off to horse show.

For many riders, horse showing adds an element of stress to their academic lives and creates time management skills that would wow most corporate managers. It also impacts their social lives with missed dances, events and school parties on those weekends when they are away showing. (We did prom two years in a row dressing at the horse show with a crew of people helping with hair and makeup at the motel, a long drive to the dance and an early night to be ready for 8 am classes the next morning.)

Options: Home Schooling
Show parents have several options. Some people decide the level of commitment, talent, and goals are such that home schooling is the only option. Home schooling provides flexibility for the rider and a way to compete while mandating course curriculum without physical class attendance. It takes planning, good cooperation between parent and child and a certain type of student to benefit.

Private School
Others of us search for the private school that will work with you to manage the missed classes or allow you to skip gym classes for an early out each day to ride and qualify your horse showing as your sport. We got my daughters school to count her riding as a sport and she received gym credit for high school. I wrote a long memo to the headmaster providing information on the sport, practice requirements, national championship goals, riding apparel as the uniform and the various rules within horse showing. The credit gave her either a study hall or the last class period of the day to leave for a lesson.

Public School
A third option is to work with your current school to manage days off very carefully and your show schedule to minimize total missed days. Some administrators can refuse to recognize horse shows for excused absences so the rider has to calculate each missed day very carefully to avoid penalties. It takes planning your show schedule and working with the trainer and rider to manage expectations related to showing.


ShowMom Tips

Communication to the administration and the individual teachers is very important. You have to do both every year and cannot expect administration to speak for the teachers. Build your case by putting together your information on the overall sport, time commitments, show goals, the full schedule, the benefits of showing and other information that might help non horse show people understand the sport.

Communicate periodically with teachers on two levels. Provide both background information on horse shows and specific information on your daughters schedule and time commitments. As background information write about results, opportunities, qualifying events and other background information on horse shows in general. Provide information on your travel time, the hours spend in lessons, packing and other activities preparing.

Inform
I created an email list of teachers each semester and sent out two or three news related emails on my daughter’s show experience with some personal stories. I provided background information on a show – how many exhibitors, how many horses or classes my daughter showed in, ribbons and points if we were chasing points for indoors and other tidbits like the long days, number of practice sessions leading up or whatever gave them a flavor for the experience. The newsletters were three or four paragraphs – short but informative for the non horse showing person. I also send quick thank you notes with information when she had a great or very challenging weekend.

Set a Precedent with Teacher-Student
Find allies in administration, school counselors, or other teachers to help balance those teachers that will not be supportive. There were always times my daughter would come home in tears because of a teacher’s remarks or denial of a delayed or early test request. She had to learn to communicate the importance of her riding, her goals and learn to negotiate and manage difficult teachers and situations. School took precedence and she maintained a near four point all through high school as her part of the bargain. Her work ethic and grades helped sway many teachers.

We started out her horse showing in junior high and I would go with her to talk with the teachers. I used teacher parent nights to reinforce her schedule and her commitment to a non school sport. I used this to partly role model how to speak with the teacher so that by high school she was on her own to talk with the teachers. We had the support of the high school coordinator so that always was a last resort if we had trouble with a particular teacher.

Set realistic goals for the semester that will depend on the school schedule, the academic course work, and the number of missed days safely allowed or possible. Being realistic and managing the schedule takes coordination with the trainer and some logistical management on your part. It takes a plan that the rider can understand and support with a smile rather than resentment. Loading up on shows during school breaks and the summer help manage the schedule. It is important to pick shows that avoid the times around finals and midterms are important.

One option for the serious competitor is to get gym credit for the sport. We were lucky in that our school allowed sports activities to count as gym credit. I wrote a long formal memo on the her sport covering practice, uniforms, competitions, points and nationals, training goals, and other information on her time commitments to demonstrate how this was a true sport. She received credit for gym for this activity and was allowed an extra time period for a study hall or last class of the day when she could leave and go to the barn for practice.

Our roles as parents are to keep a perspective on horse showing to balance out the time commitments, manage not increase stress during high school and maintain a schedule that supports whatever family values and expectations you have around education and academic performance. It is a constant balancing act to make sure there is enough time for not only school but the other activities that make up high school.


I asked various readers to comment and here are their ideas and suggestions:

Comment One:
This is a very important topic for those of us that can not home school our riding students. My daughter is a junior in public school, Greenville, SC. Over the last several years I have met with her principle who agreed to override the number of absences allowed for the school year. We fill out a form prior to the show, have all teachers sign it and then the principle signs her permission.

Last year a guidance counselor suggested we consider taking summer virtual courses and register to be a guidance aid for the day's last two periods. The principle had to approve this also. This year my daughter can be excused from the last two periods with the guidance teacher's permission. We can leave early to travel to shows and she can get out early to train when she needs to. She is essentially taking electives for those last two periods, but has all of her core academics completed. She'll take computer course requirements online over the summer.

We still are pressed for time to train and travel, but this helps immensely.

Comment Two:
One thing I have noticed with my daughter's high school is that because it is not a "school sanctioned" sport, any time missed counts as an unexcused absence. They are only allowed 5 days missed per term. She had to miss several days at the very beginning of school to compete in finals so she started off the first month 4 days out!
I did speak with the principal and she acknowledged her need, but didn't excuse her. Other sports miss days here and there for competitions, practices, travel time, etc. It would be nice if there was some sort of document that would outline what each discipline does, what the shows are and how they benefit the kids (like your article this month), what the finals are and how you have to get there. Just some information that shows how hard these kids work to get where they are, and get some acknowledgment for that hard work outside the horse world.

I think if the document had information about each discipline, like to compete at the local level, you need to do, blank, the rated level, you need to do, blank, and the "A" level you need to do, blank. Showing with each higher level, the competition gets tougher.

It should also show an estimation of the number of hours spent riding to prepare for the show. That show season is year round. Maybe comparing the number of hours a football player spends practicing, or a soccer player, etc.

I know many schools will help out the riding students. I know that because there are less riders than there are say football players, or basketball players, or gymnasts, or softball players, there is an unfamiliarity with what is entailed to ride and compete. A document outlining our sport would give the schools some information, and make it easier for the rider to compete without the risk of failing due to too many unexcused absences.

Comment Three:
In our area, both private and public middle and high schools work fairly well with students by recognizing equestrian riding as a sport. Many schools field equestrian teams which compete in the Interscholastic Equestrian League. The schools do not provide the horses. Each rider joins her school's team, and through her own barn and trainer competes at four interscholastic horse shows each year. My daughter's barn brings 14 riders who compete at the IEL horse shows, and each girl competes for individual and school points for their individual schools. Our 14 riders are enrolled at 10 different area schools. It's quite a unique program with more than 60 schools participating and 400 riders.

Schools also allow students to fulfill their required physical education graduation requirements by recognizing their equestrian sport. The student's physical education "block" is assigned as Independent Study. That way a student-rider doesn't have to participate in a sport on campus during the school day, but can leave school early 2-3 times a week. Once the PE requirement is fulfilled, they can still leave early with an ISP block and use the credits earned towards their electives for graduation.

Hope this gives you an added insight into how some of our schools work with our student-athletes in the world of equestrian competition.

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