Stickney and Cicero, Ailing., are neighboring suburbs that hug the west facet of Chicago. Stickney is residence to Hawthorne Race Course. Cicero is the headquarters of J. Sterling Morton Excessive College District 201, which serves roughly 8,000 college students from Cicero and surrounding communities.
Close to the highest of the Hawthorne stretch is a Golden Corral parking zone. From this vantage level, you may clearly see horses on the observe throughout coaching or racing. One morning whereas watching coaching from right here, coach Chris Block noticed a bunch of Morton Excessive College college students gathered by a fence observing the horses. An concept popped into his head: “We must always convey extra of these college students to the observe.”
Final week, the Illinois Backstretch Charitable Basis, the benevolent arm of the Illinois Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Affiliation, in collaboration with Amplify Horse Racing and the J. Sterling Morton Excessive College District 201, did simply that by internet hosting the inaugural Morton City Equine Program – and it was an amazing success. All I may take into consideration on my drive residence to Kentucky was the way it was one of the vital impactful outreach applications I’ve been concerned with for the reason that begin of Amplify.
Chris is president of the ITHA, led by govt director David McCaffrey. David and IBCF program coordinator George Moreno reached out to me in February, on the lookout for program growth assist from Amplify, and we determined to sort out the undertaking collectively. The ITHA staff introduced the idea of internet hosting college students at Hawthorne to the college district, who jumped on the alternative to attach their college students with horses and instructed the creation of a four-day summer time enrichment program. From there, the ITHA and Amplify labored on a schedule and syllabus of subjects and actions, and the college district dealt with the registration of scholars.
We had anticipated a comparatively small group for our first 12 months, and the ultimate attendance resulted in 5 highschool junior and senior ladies and their science instructor, Kyle Boyd. The scholars’ minimal prior horse experiences spanned from by no means having touched a horse to occurring a leadline trip. All through the 4 days of the Morton City Equine Program, the scholars arrived on the ITHA workplace in a small bus and, for 3 hours, skilled the each day exercise of a racetrack firsthand whereas studying business practices, horsemanship, and utilized science. They’d the chance to groom a horse, feed copious quantities of peppermints to dozens of racehorses, trip across the observe in tractors, peer right into a scope at a horse’s respiratory tract, and even go on (what was for many of them) their first-ever horse trip. By day three, one pupil informed us she was having a lot enjoyable she wished this system had been longer.
Instrumental within the success of this program was the real dedication and enthusiasm from the ITHA staff. David and George took energetic roles within the planning, and communication with the college district, in addition to the day-to-day educating. Horsemen’s liaison Mena Perez even shared her very particular lead pony, Bandit, as our mascot and educating assistant for every thing from grooming classes to a take a look at barn demonstration and pony rides. Chris Block and his assistant Martin Martinez brazenly shared their barn as a educating area, amidst coaching and caring for round 35 head of horses. Chris served as an educator every day and invited the scholars to be a part of each step of coaching, from understanding the function of vitamin and the feed room to listening to the significance of hoof care whereas watching a horse get trimmed and reshod. His horses additionally obtained the overwhelming majority of the aforementioned peppermints.
To conclude day 4, we requested the scholars to finish a suggestions survey. Almost all of them conveyed that simply being within the presence of horses and getting to the touch them was essentially the most particular a part of your complete expertise. Additionally they mirrored strongly on how a lot they realized about racing, veterinary drugs, and the nice care they noticed the horses receiving. 4 of the 5 college students expressed curiosity in turning into veterinarians, and one particularly requested how she may pursue a job on the racetrack within the close to future. Most telling of all was the handwritten thank-you card the scholars handed over earlier than climbing again on the bus to go away the observe one final time. One message learn, “Thanks all for taking good care of us and giving us all these fantastic classes. It was an incredible, enjoyable, unforgettable expertise that we received’t be forgetting any time quickly.”
There have been a number of moments from this program that may stick to me for a very long time: watching all 5 college students grooming Bandit and softly petting him as he munched grass; the laughter as they climbed into the beginning gate like assistant starters; the beaming smiles as they stepped down from the large John Deere tractors after driving across the observe; the even greater smiles as they sat tall on Bandit’s again.
The ITHA staff and I went into the week understanding that this system was a trial run, and would function a studying expertise for all of us. We got here out of it realizing that we had positively impacted the 5 teenage ladies who had attended. With out this program, these college students would possibly by no means have had the possibility to really be round horses. However because of it, they skilled moments they are going to always remember. Racetracks have large potential to function facilities for studying inside the communities the place they reside. In lots of extremely city and inner-city areas, racetracks are the one locations for miles and miles the place individuals can go to see and probably contact a horse. That’s actually what Hawthorne is for Cicero.
At Amplify, our imaginative and prescient is to leverage the Thoroughbred business to attach youth, households, college students, and educators with alternatives to find out about and interact with horses. However so as to make these connections, we’ve to create the alternatives. The ITHA developed an unforgettable alternative by way of the Morton City Equine Program, and I’m excited for the entire college students who will get to find out about horses and expertise the thrill of racing as this system grows.
