On 1/14/2010 4:36 PM, wrote:

I don't know how much credence I would put in a 16 year old's
assessment when "thinking things through" when their life is at
stake. While she may be quite competent for a 16 year old, indeed,
she is still 16.

Just because folks have the money to do whatever they want when they
want, doesn't mean it is a good idea.

Experienced a tragic example of that a few years back.

I grew up on a horse farm; rode, trained, show jumped, rodeoed, roped,
rode dressage and three day events, and even held a farriers license at
one time, so there is little about a horse, and horsemanship, I haven't
been exposed to since I was old enough to remember.

Two years ago all the horse crazy kids and their Moms in this affluent
neighborhood were all talking up, and hiring, a 14 year old girl as the
"OMG!!, BEST 'horse trainer' in the whole world!!".

I'm sorry, but there is simply NO way a 14 year old kid is old enough to
have the "experience", knowledge, and judgment to be anything but a
pimple on a real horseman's butt.

Sure enough, and with parents with more money than sense pushing her all
the while, the young lady, two years later and tragically, is a now a
quadriplegic ... simply because of her inexperience and lack of judgment
in getting herself into a situation that no "horseman" would have gotten
into in the first place.

It was sobering for a lot of these kids ... but damn, there are simply
some things you just don't fool with without both lengthy experience,
knowledge, and a finely tuned judgment based on both ... mother nature,
and large quadrapeds capable of killing you, included.

Despite the current cultural perception to the contrary, life is NOT a
farking "My Friend Flicka" movie/video game ...

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Last update: 10/22/08
KarlC@ (the obvious)