GREAT FALLS — Montana has an old law saying if a student rides their horse to school, the school principal has to feed and tend to the horse throughout the day - or at least, there is an urban legend about such a law.
Although it’s difficult to prove that any law like that ever existed in Montana, it didn’t stop three students at East Middle School from having some fun on the last day of classroom instruction of the school year.
Emily Abrahamson and sisters Abby and Bree MacDonald surprised classmates and staff by riding in on their horses, tying them up in the courtyard, and going about their day.
The group was inspired by other Montana students who have done similar things in the past and they started planning for it at the end of last school year.
"We just we were trying to look up and research some stuff on bringing horses to school and see what would kind of happen and we just found that and we thought it was really cool,” said Bree, a seventh-grader. “We didn’t think it would actually happen, but I’m excited it did."
After repeated requests to principal Brad Barringer, he finally gave the go-ahead, although unlike the old legend, the students had to do the work taking care of the horses.
“They asked me about it. And I kind of ignored it. And then they asked me about it again. And I kind of ignored it. And then they asked me about it again, and I caved on it. They're just great kids,” Barringer told MTN. "They had a plan of how they were going to take care of things and to make sure it was safe for everybody. And so it's pretty hard to say no to them.”
