American Youth Horse Council: The story of adults helping kids to grow their love of horses

In this episode, Danette McGuire, executive director of the American Youth Horse Council (AYHC), Dr. Karen Warner, president of AYHC and Dr. Kathy Anderson, member of Extension Horses and extension specialist at University of Nebraska, share what this unique organization offers to those helping kids.  This non-profit is dedicated to providing educational resources to adults which work with horse crazy kids regardless of breed, discipline or age!  Learn what resources are available and how to join in with the best youth education network in the country!

AHYC

Transcript

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Kris Hiney: Welcome to extension horses, tack box talk series horse stories with a purpose. I'm your host, Dr. Kris Hiney, with Oklahoma State University, and today we're going to be talking about a very unique youth program that promotes essentially horse enthusiasm in kids across disciplines or the American Youth Horse Council. So we've got some guests with us that are directly involved. So welcome to the program. The executive director of AYHC, Dannette McGuire.

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Danette McGuire: Thank you. Glad to be here.

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Kris Hiney: We also have the current president of AYHC. Dr. Karen Warner.

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Karen Lee Waite: Hello, thanks for having us.

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Kris Hiney: And also a member and contributor to extension horses and all things that we do. Welcome back. Dr. Kathy Anderson.

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Kathleen Anderson: Hey? Good afternoon. Glad to be here.

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Kris Hiney: So you guys, just a few weeks ago, you actually did have your annual meeting for AYHC right in Arizona.

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Danette McGuire: We did. Our annual symposium moves to a different location every year, and most recently we were in Tucson, Arizona, for a little bit of education and some warm climate.

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Kris Hiney: I bet.

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Kris Hiney: So before we get into the Symposium, then, Dannette, you're probably going to be the best one

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Kris Hiney: to ask if you could describe what exactly AYHC is, and what kind of an organization it is functioning as.

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Danette McGuire: Sure. So the American Youth Horse Council is a nonprofit organization, and our target audience are the adults who teach kids about horses. So as far as we know, we were the only organization of our kind that our primary audience are adults or teen leaders who teach young people about horses

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Danette McGuire: and our sole mission is just education to provide educational resources, both our own or our partners, such as Extension Horses, just to share information about all the good things and all the things that are available to teach kids.

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Kris Hiney: So who would be involved? So you say, adults that teach kids. So are these like just riding instructors, various organizations. What does the membership actually look like.

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Danette McGuire: So our membership. I like to say that we have members from Florida to Alaska and Connecticut to Oregon, so all across the country, and our members really represent really all walks of the equine industry from extension professionals, both at the county, at State level, and we have ag instructors who are involved in

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Danette McGuire: daily Ag education. In the classroom and FFA programs. We also work closely with a lot of breed or discipline associations. We have riding instructors who are involved. So really, you know, just all walks of the equine industry who have some sort of connection to teaching kids about horses.

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Kris Hiney: Okay. So it's not just stock breeds or hunter jumpers. It's supposed to be youth education across all of the things.

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Danette McGuire: Yes, non breed non discipline, specific curriculum, absolutely.

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Kris Hiney: Okay?

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Kris Hiney: So, Karen, so you're the current president, maybe tell us a little bit about what is your role in AYHC as the as the voted in President.

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Karen Lee Waite: Well as Danette, said she, kind of runs things on the daily but I am fortunate to have this be my second term as President. The 1st one was about 10 years ago, and I had the privilege of hiring Danette in this role. But.

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Karen Lee Waite: I would say that my role. I probably have the biggest role at Symposium, and then we have a board, and the board meets month. Well, not quite monthly, quarterly, probably to discuss both what's happening at Symposium and what's going on with our publications. So I would say

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Karen Lee Waite: that those things, plus also just trying to share the word about AYHC I would say that my favorite thing about Ayhc is that it isn't breed or discipline specific. We're just about trying to get kids either on top of or behind, or next to a horse.

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Karen Lee Waite: So that's a nice, a nice mission to have, and one of the few that I've

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Karen Lee Waite: been around as far as my years in the horse industry there's the only agenda is to help kids learn more about horses.

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Kris Hiney: Yeah, that's that's awesome. That's the underlying agenda. And you guys, so you talked about some of your publications. So I'm super familiar with. I don't know if you called it anything other than the Giant Horse Handbook. Or maybe, I added the adjectives. But that's that big 3 ring binder that sits in everybody's office. Isn't that right?

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Karen Lee Waite: Yeah, so that is the Horse Industry Handbook. And that was one of the 1st

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Karen Lee Waite: things or the 1st publications that AYHC actually had, and is probably the thing that the organization

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Karen Lee Waite: founded and grew around. So it was one of the 1st of its kind in its time, and it would predominantly involved a lot of academic writers, but also other people that were in industry. So it

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Karen Lee Waite: it's a very unique publication. Still.

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Kris Hiney: Yeah, I was wondering, Dr. Anderson, is that on your shelves?

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Kathleen Anderson: Absolutely.

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Kris Hiney: I was peeking on, because I can see  your shelves. You got pretty.

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Kathleen Anderson: Make sure I see it.

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Danette McGuire: Pretty sure Dr. Anderson was involved in writing the horse industry handbook originally, or.

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Danette McGuire: yeah, I was pretty involved.

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Danette McGuire: The chapters.

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Kathleen Anderson: I was very involved with it quite a while ago. Yes, you're exactly right. I have. Yes, served that organization in many ways, and working on that handbook was one of those jobs. Yes.

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Kris Hiney: Yeah, and that I mean, it's been used as a resource for all kinds. At least, you know, I'm in the extension side. Obviously. So we use it for 4 H activities. But yeah, that has been a very valuable manuscript for a number of years.

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Kris Hiney: And then, you guys, then you've come up with another one, right? So the the latest big release that was out was the Horse Smarts handbook. Is that not correct?

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Danette McGuire: Yes, and the Horse Smarts is really just the coolest thing that we've done recently. It has 70 chapters, and each of those chapters have educational content paired with educational activities. So a horse club leader, an Ag teacher, a riding instructor, anyone who's looking for material that they can just grab and automatically teach.

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Danette McGuire: The Horse Smarts. Guide is just the perfect resource for that. It comes with

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Danette McGuire: multiple activities per chapter at the beginner intermediate and advanced level. So really you can use it, for you know any young person, no matter what their knowledge base is.

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Danette McGuire: and it just covers everything. A to Z for the horse, nutrition, genetics, reproduction. We even have some youth development content in there. Really, all things, horse related.

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Kris Hiney: And so how is that available to the public? Then, if they're

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Kris Hiney: interested in in getting access to Horse Smarts.

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Danette McGuire: So all of our material is available by hard copy, and you can purchase those on our website at ayhc.com. But we've also released most of the material as a digital

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Danette McGuire: download. And so especially for those who are writing contest questions or that kind of material, it's available digitally, and it has a search function. So you can go in and search any term and find it automatically in the either of the publications.

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Danette McGuire: And it just makes it a lot more user friendly because you can take it with you wherever you go. You don't have to have Internet access.

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Danette McGuire: And it just is, is super easy to

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Danette McGuire: access that material digitally. If you know, if you don't want to carry around the 3 ring binders.

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Kris Hiney: Sure, sure. So I might as well ask, like, what? What is the cost? That somebody might expect to be able to access those materials.

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Danette McGuire: So the hard copy of Horse Smarts is $144, and you know some people might have a concern about that until you see the material, because it is literally 2 reams of paper. It's 1,300 pages of content. And so you're really getting a lot for your money. So the hard copy, like I said, is 1, 44. The digital, I believe, is 100 and

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Danette McGuire: 22 ish somewhere in that range for Horse Smarts.

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Danette McGuire: The horse industry handbook is 98 for a hard copy, and then I believe it's in the 70 range for a digital copy. And then we also have our Equine Science publication that was written by Jamie Griffiths a number of years ago, and

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Danette McGuire: it's really more directed at a beginner level.

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Danette McGuire: Very, very easy reading for a young person, even, as you know, as young as a 3rd grader could easily access that and be able to absorb the content. It's just written in a youth, friendly context.

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Kris Hiney: Okay, very good. So, Kathy, we kind of have you on also to talk a little bit about. So with our Extension Horses group, we've also have a I think, a recently signed right memo of understanding. So I don't know if you want to talk about that, or maybe what that partnership, and what we're trying to help bring to the table for AYHC.

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Kathleen Anderson: Right. I mean, there's many of us on a on our Extension Horses group that have had a long history with AHYC so we know how important and valuable it is, and so we do. We have just finalized an agreement of a partnership deal for the members of AYHC, so they can get

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Kathleen Anderson: much of our content at a little bit of a reduced price, because so much of what we have is focused on either teaching the leaders information how to work with their youth or content and information for the youth for various kinds of things that they might be doing. And so, and Danette and Karen correct me if I make sure that I get this right. So for anyone that is a member of AYHC. There's a coupon code that they can get.

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Kathleen Anderson: and they can get a 40% discount on any of the Extension Horses courses. And so there's a variety of them out there. And so they have this coupon code that AYHC members have for other things, that they can get reduced prices. And it's really the same code, because we wanted to keep it very simple.

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Kathleen Anderson: and they can have get, get our many of our or get our courses, our different kind of opportunities there to reduce price. And so at a 40% off price. And so

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Kathleen Anderson: some of what we used, or we were just at the national meeting symposium for theirs to showcase. Some of ours that we feel are probably very beneficial might be some really interesting kinds of things for

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Kathleen Anderson: the AYHC members to use for their youth, and we've got one that's called HALTER which really is focused on the leaders and providing information for the leaders to help them work with their youth. And there's 4 different levels of that. So we kind of showcase that gave them an opportunity to take a little sneak peek at that.

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Kathleen Anderson: We know that judging is a big part of what many of our youth groups do. And so we've got various practice, judging contests and different things, to teach both leaders and youth more about judging horses and horse judging contests. So that's another one that we showcased.

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Kathleen Anderson: And then also we have another program called Hippology Academy to help prepare the youth or give the leaders resources to help prepare youth for the apology contest, and those are just a taste of some of what we have. We've got a lot more than that. But those were some that we

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Kathleen Anderson: wanted to showcase to those that were at that meeting to kind of bring them up and get them to explore them and get into those courses.

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Kris Hiney: Yeah. And I think on some of those Karen, you were a creator of that content as well. Right.

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Karen Lee Waite: I was. So it's been you know, helping educate both youth and adults has sort of been

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Karen Lee Waite: a focus of my career all along just like all of us that are involved in extension. But

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Karen Lee Waite: I think that both Extension Horses and AYHC have

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Karen Lee Waite: missions that parallel really nicely, maybe just a little bit different use of technology, but all very valuable information.

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Kris Hiney: So maybe you guys could also help even just thinking about a AYHC, what?

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Kris Hiney: Why would a adult that maybe this is the 1st time they're hearing about it. And who knows? Maybe there are potential 4 h

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Kris Hiney: volunteer or writing instructor? Why might they want to seek to be a member other than these cool discounts? Right? But what does it bring to the table for them?

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Karen Lee Waite: I mean, I think there's a lot. But one of the biggest things, and from my perspective, is the opportunity to network with people from all across the industry.

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Karen Lee Waite: You know AQHA, for example, or APHA, or any of the major breed associations, folks might think. Well, that's

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Karen Lee Waite: that's way too far. That's those aren't people that I would ever have the opportunity to interact with or talk to. But at our symposium you absolutely would have the opportunity to interact with their youth advisors and some of the kids that are involved in those programs. So it does a really nice job of

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Karen Lee Waite: bringing folks together from every aspect of the horse industry. And we go see really cool places and really cool farms and really cool horses. So it's definitely

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Karen Lee Waite: an eye opening and horizon broadening experience.

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Kathleen Anderson: And I'll add a little bit to that, because back when I was a part of that, and then I'm also like on AQHA’s youth committee. It's kind of intimidating for those new people. It's kind of scary. We're going down a road. It's like, Oh, there's all this, you know. I want to help these kids. I don't know this stuff. I don't know where to go. I don't know how to do this, and so

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Kathleen Anderson: Ayc. Has really been a great platform for those folks that are just kind of getting rolling to give them a little bit of home base, you know, so they can realize that they're not out there alone, and there's a lot of good things that they can get

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Kathleen Anderson: both on resources and even attending the meeting with the different kinds of presentations and stuff, and sometimes you can get so much out there and say, Oh, God, let's go try this at home, and let's try this at home some things that you might have never even thought about. So it's a really good springboard for ideas getting to know other people in the same boat from all across the country, and things like that.

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Kris Hiney: Okay.

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Kris Hiney: So tell us a little bit about this symposium. So it was in Arizona. And you said you got to go cool places. But like, if people are thinking, Hey, maybe I might want to do a little meet and greet. Tell us a little bit about what that structure of the meetings look like. And you know, when I think meetings right, we're all gonna sit and listen to a 12 min presentation like. But maybe that's not what AYHC is. So let's tell them a little bit about what you guys do.

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Karen Lee Waite: Sure I'm in, but did not take that.

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Danette McGuire: Okay. Happy, happy to address that question. I think one of the best things about symposium and what we hear reflected in our evaluations and just talking to to

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Danette McGuire: previous and current participants. It's just that opportunity to network with other people. We do some roundtable discussions. We do some, some social activities, just to give people an opportunity to meet others. And, you know.

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Danette McGuire: learn what's happening in other parts of the country. We really just try to give people a look at what the equine industry is in that particular region. So, for instance, when we went to Fort Worth, we focused on stock type horses and the Cutting Horse Association and reining, and that kind of thing.

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Danette McGuire: But outside of the networking opportunities we always take one day, and we do equine industry tour of that particular region. Like, I said, just to showcase what's happening in the horse industry in that particular state or area of the country. And then we spend some time throughout the rest of the conference, doing some workshops. But our workshop

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Danette McGuire: goal is not sit and listen to a speaker. We really try to focus on hands-on activities, things that a leader, whether they're an adult or a teen, can take that knowledge and take that activity home and replicate that with their own youth organization, so that they're not just, you know, just learning material. But they're also getting ideas

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Danette McGuire: is of how to teach those topics once they return home and be able to really utilize that information. And we have people who come every year. It doesn't matter where the Symposium is, they love it so much.

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Danette McGuire: They attend from all parts of the country and it and it moves around to different locations every year.

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Danette McGuire: you know, just so that we can kind of reach a broader audience and again showcase the equine industry in that particular region. But I will just emphasize that the number. One thing that people tell us is that they love the networking and just meeting other people who do similar activities and are also trying to, you know. Just learn new ways to teach material

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Danette McGuire: and also keep. Keep up with technology and all the things that are coming at us pretty fast.

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Kris Hiney: So where will you be in 2026.

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Danette McGuire: We are excited to be in Utah for the 1st time. We'll be in the Salt Lake City area. The dates are March 26th through 28th

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Danette McGuire: 2026. Hard to think about a year from now, but that will that will be here soon. So it's time to start planning, and we hope that any of your listeners will bring a group not just themselves. But we also have a pretty large percentage of our attendees are teens, age 14 and older. So we have

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Danette McGuire: representatives from national breed organizations often bring their national officers. States have state f4-H horse ambassadors. We have ag teachers who bring their

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Danette McGuire: a horse kiddos. So we invite both adults and teens to join us in Salt Lake City.

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Kris Hiney: Awesome.

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Kris Hiney: All right. Now I'm going to ask hard questions. I'll let everybody get a chance.

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Kris Hiney: What do you think is the biggest obstacle, maybe facing the youth, slash horse industry.

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Kris Hiney: And anyway, first.st

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Karen Lee Waite: I will pick to go first. I honestly think access is

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Karen Lee Waite: one of the biggest challenges at this point.

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Karen Lee Waite: for years and years and years people got started in 4 H.

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Karen Lee Waite: And while that still happens, I think fewer and fewer people have a horse in the backyard or a pony in the backyard. I think many people, if they get started at all, are getting started through camps, or maybe lesson programs, but they're never

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Karen Lee Waite: or not, never. They're not going to own a horse right away.

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Karen Lee Waite: So

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Karen Lee Waite: just giving kids the opportunity. And it's not easy for adults, I mean, when I was growing up.

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Karen Lee Waite: We never.

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Karen Lee Waite: I don't want to say we, but the person that gave me my 1st pony never thought twice about letting me trot that pony around a subdivision that was all concrete bareback, barefoot bathing suit, no helmet, and I'm not suggesting that's a good idea at all. But

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Karen Lee Waite: there wasn't as much concern about liability as there is now.

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Karen Lee Waite: and I think it's harder for people

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Karen Lee Waite: to want to share their horses, or they may want to share their horses, but it's harder for people to feel comfortable sharing their horses when we know that sometimes accidents happen.

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Karen Lee Waite: And so for me, access is the biggest challenge.

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Kris Hiney: Okay, all right, Dannette, you get the same question.

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Danette McGuire: Sure I'll jump in with a with a kind of a different outlook. I think one of the challenges that the equine industry faces, and I think all nonprofits. See, this is that our volunteer base is rapidly aging

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Danette McGuire: and so, you know.

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Danette McGuire: I'm not saying that there aren't young people who will eventually take their place. But we just look at the volunteer base, who maybe you know, our parents, you know, always participated in 4-H club meetings, or were willing to chaperone and an FFA activity. Because, you know, both parents often work now. And there's just so many activities and so many options for young people

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Danette McGuire: that it seems to be harder to recruit and retain volunteers who are interested in supporting those youth activities. And let's face it. You can't operate a horse show, a 4-H club, an ag program, even riding stables without some sort of a volunteer system.

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Danette McGuire: You know, to just support all of those activities. And so that's something that the American Youth Horse Council would like to address. And just, you know, kind of look at ways to recruit and retain

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Danette McGuire: adults who are willing to spend their time and often their resources to support those programs.

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Kris Hiney: And that's what AYHC does quite a bit is one. So people don't feel intimidated like they need to know everything. You have a great bank of resource material like.

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Kris Hiney: I mean, and I've been through Horse Smart. So I know, like it's plug and play people like this is, they've really made it pretty easy on how to run some educational content. For a meeting, and I think that shared community of you know, how do I deal with this situation? Or how do I deal with my liability issues? How I deal with fundraising like I think, that provides a lot of great

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Kris Hiney: social contact and exchanging of ideas that you guys do. So I think that's amazing.

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Kris Hiney: Kathy, you're not getting out of this. You gotta what's your big like challenges that you see cause.


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Kathleen Anderson I'm going to be a little bit more broad, but I think it's just in general cost and time. You know, there's

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Kathleen Anderson: for the youth, many of them like to do multiple things. And so you know, this the time to focus on this area, on their horses, and this and that sometimes can be a real challenge. They get pulled many different ways.

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Kathleen Anderson: you know, and the cost of being involved. And so those 2 can also go hand in hand, if their only place they can do is have their horse at a boarding stable. It's not in their backyard to be able to find the time to get there for your parents to bring you there. You know all those different kinds of things. It can be a real struggle, you know. Not. Everybody is fortunate to have them in their backyard. But then, a lot of times, these kids, they might not be old enough and far enough along that they can

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Kathleen Anderson: go out there and mess with their horses, and ride them, and stuff without somebody there to watch and make sure everything goes good and everything's fine. And so, you know, it's got to be a time commitment both on those that want to be involved, and your parent, your guardian, whoever might be, who's going to help mentor you and walk you through all of that.

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Kathleen Anderson: and with all of it. We know in today's world the cost is a factor. I mean, it's a great thing to be involved in. But it does take resources. You know you can find different ways of being involved with the horses. It might be that you lease one. It might be that you just are within a group, and you kind of share some horses back and forth.

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Kathleen Anderson: I was a horse, crazy kid, and I had one that I boarded, but even before I had a chance to own my own horse. I watched all different kinds of things, and we didn't have near as many opportunities as they have now, but I read all kinds of stuff, you know, online wasn't a thing back in the dark ages. But you know I just had a passion. I just learned as much as I could. I was a sponge.

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Kathleen Anderson: And so, you know, sometimes it's intimidating. But some of those really kids that are just dying to be involved with this there are opportunities to learn and be active with the horse world, even if you don't have the luxury, or the benefit of that physically being able to have one. Sometimes you got a place around that you can just go have lessons at and things like that. So it's that commitment. It's the time, and it's the cost of all of putting all of those kinds of things together.

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Kris Hiney: So now I'm going to let you guys do the plug of why, and you know we're kind of the wrong audience here. If you're thinking about who's listening to this? Podcast probably people already interested in horses. Right? So we're not going to pick up random strangers. But why do you guys think that maybe that involvement in that horse project? I don't know. I'm prejudiced like, why is that better than the softball team? Or I don't know going on the soccer team. Or maybe it's not. Maybe I just like, I said, I'm prejudiced.

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Danette McGuire: I would say that, you know involvement with horses.

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Danette McGuire: teaches responsibility, respect, even more so than being involved in a sports team, or you know any other type of extracurricular activity related to horses? Just that responsibility for a living, breathing animal? You know, I just I look back at a lot of the life lessons that I learned

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Danette McGuire: both with horses and other livestock, and a lot of those you know still stick with me. I can still hear my dad saying, you know, if you haven't remembered to water your horse or water the other animals, and you don't get to sit down and have a meal, either, you know. So I think just that that level of responsibility, and being kind of

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Danette McGuire: self motivated to take care of those things.

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Kathleen Anderson: Yeah, I'll ditto that if Karen remembers way back when this is when we were both early involved with this, I actually did a video short, because we'd written a thing about why horses and kids. And it's just like it's just all these things that these kids, these horses teach these kids, you know, and it's exactly like what Danette said. And I

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Kathleen Anderson: would watch my kids when they were very young, and sometimes at that time they weren't very confident, or they had short patience, and this and that, and it forced them to be able to work through some things when it's just them. And that horse, and that horse is relying on you, and you're relying on that horse which is different than in your team. Sport and team sports are fine mine did both. They did a lot sometimes they said they did too much.

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Kathleen Anderson: but they did a lot of both, but I can still remember different situations with those kids and those horses, and what it put them through, and the difficult moments, and how they worked through it, and all those types of things, and sometimes it's not the most talented kid on the football field, or in baseball, or whatever, and they can connect with a horse, and they can just flourish, you know they can. They come out of their shell, and it's like, Oh, I got this. I got this. And so.

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Kathleen Anderson: yeah, you know we are biased because we're in the middle of it and been in it most of our lives. You know, I had 2 kids grow up doing all this stuff, so I can really attest to it. And when I talk to other folks, why should they do this? I'm like, put the money aside. Just look. And I love some of the things that pop up on Facebook. You know about different little things, about what the kids are, what the horses are going to do for the kids. So it's just important to kind of look at the big picture and say, Yeah, there it really is a good reason why you're doing this, and it's not just to get a ribbon. It's way. More than that.

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Karen Lee Waite: Yeah, I would definitely echo everything that's been said so far. And I think

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Karen Lee Waite: like Kathy alluded to. It's a different relationship. I mean, there aren't very many. If you're involved in the competitive aspect of it. There aren't very many sports where it's you and one other person

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Karen Lee Waite: or one other partner. In this case it's a horse, not a person. But there aren't that many pairs figure skating, I guess. But I don't. You know it's different from a team sport. It's different from an individual sport. It's different from other livestock species, because in a perfect world we use the same animal for several years. So you're developing a relationship that's different than you might in some of those other sports

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Karen Lee Waite: or activities. And if you're not involved in the competitive aspect of it.

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Karen Lee Waite: It's the same. You're gonna do some things if you're trail riding, maybe that

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Karen Lee Waite: that unnerve you a little bit. But you have

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Karen Lee Waite: a consistent partner through that. And I think that that makes the horse thing a little unique as compared to some other things.

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Kris Hiney: Absolutely

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Kris Hiney: well. I appreciate everything that you guys are doing. So the 3 of you clearly have dedicated a huge amount of your life and work experience in essentially trying to foster this youth horse relationship and providing resources for adults to make it a little easier and to make their job easier to do and not having to recreate the wheel. So I think it's just great that we've got.

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Kris Hiney: You know, academia and nonprofits working together to kind of pursue the same mission.

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Kris Hiney: Is there anything that we might have left out that we need our listeners to know about the American Youth Horse Council.

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Karen Lee Waite: I don't think so.

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Danette McGuire: I would just like to invite everyone to join us, either as a member or to jump online and check out the resources that we have available. We do have a Facebook page. And so we'd love for you to follow us, to learn about happenings, whether that's our annual symposium.

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Danette McGuire: our educational resources, or perhaps a webinar that we might have coming up. So you can subscribe to our newsletter if you go to AYHC.com, or just follow us on Facebook, and we'd love to meet you soon.

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Kris Hiney: Awesome, and I'll put those links in the show notes. So it's easy for people to access all of your materials. And again looking forward to our partnership between extension horses and AYHC. But again, thank you for your time, guys. And this has been another episode of our Tack Box. Talk Horse Stories with a Purpose.