Wally Barker - Article on Conservation and Outdoor Education  (Excerpts)

By Staff Writer.   Mr. Barker was born in the Flushing section of Queens in New York City on the eve of the 1960s, and true to the esprit de corps of the era could easily have been classified a rebellious youth.  He relates “drinking, smoking, late nights out...and our favorite pastime was getting chased by the police.”   I couldn’t help but laugh when he said “that all changed when I turned twelve”

It was then, he said, when he became interested in the "out of doors", joined the Boy Scouts, and spent the next summer working at a horse farm in New Jersey, near where his family had moved.  He recalls one particularly exciting “coming of age experience” that happened.  It was mid week, and the he young Mr. Barker was the only one around when two people drove up who wanted to go for a ride.  His normal job, besides mucking stalls, was to ride at the end of the trail strings with an older ranch hand (a teenager) in the lead, but he figured that with a small group he could do it himself.  Anyway, he jumped on “Patches” an Appaloosa, and because he wanted to take them on a special ride, he subsequently got lost.  He also got trampled by Patches when he fell off in full gallop – did I mention he was riding bareback?   He survived – with only major cuts – and so did his clients.

Anyway, he says that "not only did the Boys Scouts and that horse farm change him, it really did save my  life".  This is because "the road he was on, with the friends he kept, would no doubt have had a predictable and sad ending."  The newly inspired young man joined the Sierra Club, the Wilderness Society, the Audubon Society, and the National Wildlife Federation.  His heroes became names like of John Muir and Teddy Roosevelt - rugged outdoorsman, amateur naturalist, and historic conservationist.  He also (at age 16) became a non voting member of his town Environmental Advisory Committee.  His grades went from barely passing to those of a model student, and he even became the president of his high school’s National Honor Society. 

Mr. Barker is an avid adventurer and says that the philosophical underpinnings of adventure to education are nearly as old as recorded history.  Plato, who Barker says was no slouch to teaching, wrote in “The Republic” that youth should learn the cardinal virtues of “wisdom, bravery, temperance and justice” through "adversity and adventure.”  Plato argued that young people could learn lessons about virtue best by impelling them into adventurous situations that demanded that virtues be exercised.  Mr. Barker agrees. 

Mr. Barker says "no one really cares about what you did in high school, but the point is that the 'out of doors' taught him discipline and ignited a passion for life that was previously missing".  When he was 16, he took a Greyhound bus in the middle of the winter to Lander Wyoming to go on a 3 week ski mountaineering expedition with the National Outdoor Leadership School during an overly-long Christmas break.  When he was 17 and a high school graduate, he jumped in a car and drove to Seattle to study at the University there.  In college, he guided rock climbing and whitewater river trips in the state of Washington and watched how city people changed after experiencing a fun outdoor adventure.  He also spent a part of one summer volunteering at a juvenile detention center and was assigned to work with the kids in one of the full “lock down” buildings. He really couldn’t tell if he made a long term difference, but he certainly noticed how the out-of-doors humbled even the toughest of kids.

On whitewater trips with the "really bad kids", one technique Mr. Barker would use was to take the biggest trouble maker of the group and put him in the upper right part of the 16' inflatable raft.   He would also lower the pressure in the tube compartment of the upper right making it "super soft."  When going through the first rapid, he would hit one of the big waves just the right way and "the punk kid would get blown out of the boat".  "Not so tough then" he says.  "I was cool to begin with, but after I saved his life, I was really cool, and alpha male"  After that, everyone was much more cooperative and willing to listen and learn.

Anyway, the story now jumps forward 20 years.  In 2001, Mr. Barker then a successful financial professional,  founded a horse ranch and farm in the Joshua Tree California, not much different that the horse farm of his youth - boarding, trail riding, small private events, random farm animals roaming, that sort of thing....... .... ............. ......... ............ ............ .............

AND HERE WE ARE TODAY

Wally at the Ranch -
Training Houston to Jump (or visa versa)