We are animal people. Both Missus Turtle and I love animals and have worked with animals our entire careers. On our property we have four dogs, six Nigerian Dwarf goats, and nine chickens. We had two older horses in our pasture as well, but we recently had to let them both go. We own two other horses that earn their keep as lesson horses in our nonprofit, horseback riding program for kids.

Goats Running
Our small goat herd enjoying one of their first days in the pasture since the babies were born

Both of us were also raised with animals. My family always had at least two cats and one dog, in addition to any number of “pocket pets.” We had fish, birds, mice, rats, rabbits, a chameleon and guinea pigs when I was growing up (not all at the same time). Missus Turtle’s family had property growing up. She had ponies in her front yard, goats, chickens and many other pets. Often she would find a needy animal and bring it home. Her parents would always give in and let her keep it. Both of us feel that our childhoods were richer and that we learned valuable skills growing up with animals.

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Compassion

Kids raised with animals, especially those that require a lot of daily care like farm animals, learn early on the importance of caring for others. Through rescuing animals they are taught to care for those in need. At a young age, children are exposed to creatures that completely rely on them for survival. They quickly learn to respond to the animals’ needs and do what is needed to keep their pets happy and healthy.

dog hike
One of our dogs on a hike near our house

Responsibility

When there are stalls to clean, water troughs to fill, or goats to be milked every morning, kids learn the importance of responsibility and develop a work ethic. Farm kids know how to work and don’t take anything for granted. Even cats and dogs can be an opportunity to teach responsibility. Feeding the dog can be something a child is responsible for (with supervision) from a really young age.

Communication

This seems strange because animals can’t talk. I would argue that this teaches kids to communicate even more clearly. When riding a horse you have to communicate exactly what you want or else you’re in trouble. You must be clear, confident and calm when you “speak” to the horse. Talking is only one way to communicate. In fact, many say that communication is only 7% verbal. This applies to all animals, not just horses. One of my pet peeves is people not teaching their children to behave appropriately with dogs. This isn’t always the parents’ fault. Many of us were raised with incredibly tolerant family dogs and never had the opportunity to learn appropriate body language and communication skills with dogs. Commercials and “sweet” social media posts seem to promote an inappropriate relationship between small children and dogs. If we are going to have dogs as pets, I believe it is our responsibility to teach children, as soon as they’re ready, to read their furry friend’s body language and know how to respond. This is a great lesson that eventually transfers over to people. I could write an entire post about teaching kids to interact with dogs appropriately and drastically decreasing the amount of dog bites, so I won’t go into more detail here.

Riding Lesson
Sometimes the biggest horses can teach the smallest children

Confidence (and Humility)

These two go together. Kids develop confidence through working successfully with animals. We have kids in our riding program who started as shy, timid youngsters and have grown in a short time into confidence riders and young horse people. Taking on a challenge as big as working with a horse or pony 10+ times your size and learning to do this successfully fosters incredible confidence in young people. Humility comes when the challenges don’t always go your way. Horses don’t judge. They don’t care what you’re wearing, how popular you are, or if you do well in school. They react only to how they are treated. If you approach them with confidence and kindness, they will trust you as a leader. If not, watch out!

There are so many things to be gained from raising children with animals. If you’re in a situation where it’s impossible to have pets, I think there is great value gained from visiting farms, animal shelters and friends with kid-friendly pets, or in enrolling your child in a program with animals. We are looking forward to giving our future foster children exposure to all of the many animals in our life!