WORKSHOP MAKES GOOD HORSE SENSE

Dan Stover knows the interest children have for horses.

Like many of the sixth-grade students he teaches at North Elementary, Stover grew up in the rural area around Fruitland and has maintained a lifelong interest in and involvement with horses. He and many other Fruitland residents, including a few students, meet frequently for weekend trail rides at state parks and other spots.

Knowing the fascination horses hold for many children, organizing a workshop devoted entirely to equestrian subjects seemed a natural fit for Dan Stover and North Elementary.

Stover organized the first equestrian workshop two years ago, feeling it to be an event in which students in grades one through five could learn a great deal about a subject they loved -- horses -- and one which would give his sixth graders some hands-on experience in researching and organizing a presentation.

Children from North Elementary and elsewhere in the Jackson school district will once again have the chance to learn about horse breeds, anatomy, riding safety, grooming, bridling, saddling and tack during a workshop set for May 10 at the Flickerwood Arena northwest of Fruitland. The children will also have the opportunity to see the Southeast Missouri Equestrian Drill Team in action.

Stover is closing out 13 years as an instructor at North Elementary. He is transferring to Jackson's new middle school for the coming school year. Stover says this year's equestrian workshop will be bigger and more involved than the first event -- a sort of last hurrah before his departure for the middle school.

"Two years ago was the first time we had classes on horse-related topics and it was taught by the kids and it went over real well," said Stover. "We didn't have an equestrian workshop last year and this year, being my last year here, we thought that we would like to do it on a little grander scale."

Stover probably hit upon the idea of devoting a day to learning about horses during one of his frequent horse rides to school. The teacher rides at least four times per week and for the past three years or so, a few of those weekly rides have involved the three-mile trip to work. The ride gets him where he wants to go and keeps his horses in competition trim. Stover's daughter shows Tennessee walking horses on the competition circuit so the family's four horses must be kept in peak physical condition..

"One of the reasons that I love the ride in the morning is that it gives me time to think about what's going to be happening during the course of the day, but it also gives me the opportunity to exercise the horses," explained Stover. "If you own a horse, you have to work it and I thought this would be a good way to work my horses through the day without having to do it after school."