with

Mike Bellah

Want to replace youthful violence in our land with love and respect for life?  Then give each and every boy and girl a horse.

It's no coincidence that children who learn to value animal life tend to value human life too.

A boy or girl alone on a horse in the middle of a beautiful mountain valley does not long to be killing people with head shots in a violent video game.

With the Littleton shootings, there are renewed calls by those given to such things for some program to save America's young people.  Tune in any television talk show and you'll find advocates for (pick one) tighter gun control, tougher laws for hate crimes, more education for and accountability from parents, better communication between and training for school staff, and, finally, the reintroduction of school prayer.

Now I'm not against these programs.  I'd even support most of them, but I have my own theory.  And since I haven't seen my plan mentioned on a talk show yet, I'm using today's column to lay it out.  Want to replace youthful violence in our land with love and respect for life?  Then give each and every boy and girl a horse.  That's right, a horse.

I got my first horse when I was six.  Sue was a paint mare, solid white in color, with a splash of copper on her neck and mane.  I still remember the day I first mounted her, which isn't easy for a six year old who can't reach the stirrups yet.  Those of you who learned to ride early in life know the routine.  To get a leg up, one has to find a stump or  fence to stand on.  Then the horse has to be led alongside it, which isn't easy--will take dozens of tries--because horses prefer to face things rather than to stand beside them.

Oh, I know; horses can't clean up the Internet or get rid of school gangs, but caring for and riding one will leave little time for such things.  The first day I rode Sue I didn't dismount for several hours.  I was having too much fun; plus, as I remember it, there weren't many fences or stumps around.  The next day I awoke with my first and only case of saddlesoreness, a condition in which every muscle in one's body hurts with every attempt at movement.

In junior high I had another horse, a big palomino gelding named Cheyenne.  With Cheyenne I spent a lot of time alone exploring the countryside, an activity (like school prayer) that can lay a foundation for a relationship with God.  No, I don't believe God is in nature, but the Bible does say he reveals himself through what he makes, and I'm convinced my rides on Cheyenne were a kind of pre-evangelism for me.

And, while more horses in this world may not reduce hate crimes, the bond that grows between a child and his or her horse can produce real affection and love, in the presence of which prejudice and hate cannot stand.  It's no coincidence that children who learn to value animal life tend to value human life too.

I also don't think it coincidental that my most rebellious teen years (grades 9 through 11) were years when I spent little time with horses.  And, a subsequent return to riding coincided with a return to spiritual values.  It seems as though either bad pleasures keep us from good ones, or good pleasures keep us from bad ones.  Translation: A boy or girl alone on a horse in the middle of a beautiful mountain valley does not long to be killing people with head shots in a violent video game.

A few years ago Newt Gingrich said that giving a child a laptop computer might save a mind.  I say give them a horse and maybe save a soul.