July 23, 2009 | Read Time: 1 minute
Kathy Kusner says memories of learning to ride in segregated Virginia in the 1950s and ‘60s inspired her to found Horses in the Hood – a program that teaches horseback riding to kids in Los Angeles’s impoverished neighborhoods.
“I always wished there was something that could be done to say ‘I’m sorry for all of us that this exists,’” says Ms. Kusner, a three-time Olympic show jumper and the first licensed woman jockey in the United States. She says she’s always been bothered by the divisions she saw between predominantly white riders and African-American grooms at horse shows.
Originally Ms. Kusner had hoped to build a riding school in Watts, a district of South Los Angeles scarred by the riots of 1965 and 1992. But when that proved too costly, she decided to take the children to the horses instead.
For five-day stints, youths in the program travel to a horse day camp in Topanga, 45 minutes outside Los Angeles, where they take riding lessons and learn to saddle, clean, and care for the horses. They also receive disposable cameras to document the week, and on the final day of camp invite friends and family to a pizza party to show off their new skills.
Since the program began in 1999, about 650 children have attended the camps. Donations from private sources pay for the effort; last year, the charity attracted $48,000.
Horses in the Hood’s lessons aren’t just about horsemanship, says Ms. Kusner; they’re about fostering confidence, cooperation, and communication. For many kids in the program, the bus ride to the camp is the first time they see the ocean, even though it is just seven miles from where they live.
Here, a young rider learns to jump.
