Kimberly Ann Harrison removed her two sons from ADHD medication during the pandemic and enrolled them in horseback riding instead. Her older son's confidence transformed through work with a horse named Jagger. Her debut novel Beyond the Paddock explores this family journey and the scarcity of books featuring Black boys with horses.
This time on books that changed my life. So you wrote behind the Paddock.
Yes, beyond the paddock. That little thing.
Little.
That thing started. Okay, so my boys had severe ADHD. And in 2020, during the pandemic, we gave it a go of taking them off the medication and got them into horses. They offered Zoom basketball in the kitchen. Not in my kitchen. They offered all these sports through Zoom, but my kids needed to get out. They have all this energy. So I'm like, go put them on a horse. I thought it was western. They left in cowboy outfits.
Okay, they left in cowboy outfits. And then about a month later, it was about a couple of weeks before I actually went out there, because I'm working on a show. I'm dealing with COVID and I'm running a show, and it's a bunch. And I'm like, why? What are they wearing? What is that? What happened to the fl. What happened to the flannel? And they just took to English equestrian writing. And five years later, four or five horses later, I go, this is a story that needs to be told, because there's. They look up to each other as far as representation in this sport, which is a beautiful sport, and shout out to all my equestrians, my groomers, my. It's just such a community that has taken my boys and embraced them and embraced me and just love, love, love. And this is my love letter to them and to that community. And I tell my boys, I'll give you $100 right now. You show me another book with two black boys and the horse on the COVID I don't need anyone to.
I need that visualization to see that.
Who did the call?
It means something. It was a couple of friends of mine.
It's pretty cool.
Yeah. Yeah. And so that is. That's. It's such an important and so personal. You know, speaking of, like, the foster system and being a fish out of water in a sport. I grew up playing team sports, and then I'm putting my kids that were doing team sports prior to 2020 into one of the most elite, exclusive sports, where, for the most part, they are the only people of color there.
But they love it, and they love it, and it's an amazing story. It's an amazing community, and I just. I wish every kid could have these moments. I say it all the time. This one horse that we have in particular, Jagger, he taught my son how to be a man. They're the biggest co parent, the best co parents.
Unpack that for me. Explain.
Absolutely.
Explain that.
So the confidence that these animals were able to take. I saw the evolution, the confidence of getting up on that horse and knowing that this 1800 pound, that 1500 pound animal has your back. That's your partner.
That'S your partner. You have this sort of control.
And they have this control over you. Like this partnership where there's this respect that I don't feel like us as humans kind of give each other that. I saw the evolution of my older son.
How did he start? How was he?
Timid.
Timid. Shy.
Shy. Both of them were kind of like. I mean, this isn't something that you see on television. So you can't reference a Laker game. I can't reference this. It's going on YouTube and pulling videos of, you know, McLane, Ward and all of these other greats and just putting them in front of them. And I got my kids, got them into this sport at a time in which they were very. I feel open trying something different and just seeing the way that this one animal in particular now this, at this time, this is his. He started at age 10, but by age 15, I just saw him step onto this horse, Jagger. And this horse Jagger is a. It's it. He just turned my older son. I don't even know how to articulate it into this man. There's this grace, this, this chin up, keep your head up. Just. We might not make it over this jump, but we're gonna. I can't even describe it.
It's like a calm confidence.
A calm confidence, challenging him to do things, jump levels that I don't think he would have come to on his own, but this horse showed him. Hey, it's okay to jump. I got this. I got you. Hold on. I got you. I get intimidated watching them on horses now. I get very intimidated. Oh, I'd be very intimidated.
Like, horses are no joke.
They're no joke. So I, you know, I owe a lot of parenting to them, to these horses that came into our lives at this certain time.
So in a. In a sense, you've seen his kind of self esteem and confidence.
Absolutely. Both of them. Both of them. My younger was 8 and he was 10. And both of them, the confidence on these horses. And they are the best co parents. Every day they are at the barn. Every single day. Mondays, the barns are closed, but every day, sometimes 11:30 at night, they're like, I just want to go up and love on the horse. 16 year old for my birthday. I don't need a car, I want a horse because I'm ready to jump. Higher. Wow. I'm ready to fly higher. And so that's why with Washington Black and Beyond the Pentaton at the same time, they have a lot of the same themes that I didn't even realize at the time. We're going to just kind of come together as they're kind of being released, you know, at the same time. It's just. It's magic.
Great parenting. You're a great mom. They probably don't tell you that, but someday they will.
Someday? No, someday.
But you're manufacturing an incredible outcome like that doesn't happen by chance.
I mean, it's divine intervention, but it's a village. I truly believe in the power of a village. The equestrian village. From top to bottom.
