Save Gas – Ride Your Horse to School
September 27, 2005 by admin
Filed under Green Living
Two high school students from Tooele High School in Rush Valley, Utah, a region 45 miles southwest of Salt Lake City, took it upon themselves recently to be environmentally responsible and save gas by riding their horses to school.
With gas prices running at almost $3 per gallon in Utah, largely as a result of limited supply after Hurricane Katrina, Mellissa Evans and Chapa Stevenson made the decision to start hoofing the 30-mile roundtrip trek to school and were keeping their steeds in stalls inside the high school’s animal laboratory during the day.
As Mellissa stated in an article in the Salt Lake Tribune…”When you have a car that gets 10 miles per gallon, you have to do something.”
Unfortunately, the school’s officials had to step in last Thursday and put a stop to the young ladies’ practice, citing that it is against school rules to keep animals on the property.
Mellissa’s mother, Karren, was disappointed that her daughter could no longer ride her horse to school. Even though it was taking Mellissa hours to ride back and forth to school, hay is much cheaper than gas.
[via Salt Lake Tribune]
An excellent and innovative idea on their part. With regard to the school officials, I get very annoyed when individuals can’t see past certain policies in favour of the larger picture. How can having an animal on school property be worse than contibuting to environmental pollution?
p.s. great blog!
Michelle – I agree entirely. Unfortunately, officials like those seem to be stuck only seeing the little worlds that they manage and are probably more concerned with the potential mess or the liability issues and not the larger picture as you say.
Glad to hear you’re enjoying the blog. Thanks for stopping by.
I have been turnned down also from our school officials.
How silly is this. There is probably a public transportation in place for these students. i.e. a school bus.
Would you spell for me?
dont give up. keep riding, check with state laws. like in montana it is still in the law books that if you ride a horse to school, the school has to feed, water, and stable your horse. this goes way back late 1800s or early 1900s.
We have a new principle and she dosnt thinh i should ride to school she thinks that riding a horse to shool is uncivilized, even though the town of Bainville is less than a 150.
our school has enough money to buy hay and to provide water gas where im from is $4 a gallon and plus all that people drive in northeastern montana is pickups that get 15 miles to the gallon.