Baylie brushes Max after a morning of riding. She says that she practices with Max about three times a week.

Baylie Moon is living out a fairy tale most girls can only dream about.

Baylie, 13, is the proud owner of Max, a large, black-and-white paint horse. She’s been riding horses since the age of 4 and has been competing since age 7.

Riding runs in the family.

“My mother has been riding since she was little,” says Baylie, who lives in Lawrence.

Her parents have six horses, and 11-year-old Max is Baylie’s very own. His age makes him good for young riders, Baylie says.

“He’s broke,” she explains.

A younger horse, without training, is more likely to be a danger to young riders, because both the rider and the horse are less experienced.

People like Baylie may be becoming rarer, a possible sign of the struggling economy. The American Quarter Horse Association, which tracks the number of horses in the United States, says the number of horses in Kansas decreased by 2.5 percent between 2007 and 2008

Having grown up in a horse-owning family, Baylie knows first-hand the time commitment horses require, and the cost. After school, Baylie and her mother groom and ride the horses daily, often spending at minimum two hours each day in the barn or the fields. Her father has pitched in a great deal, too, often checking on the horses in the morning while Baylie and her mother leave for school.

Despite her busy schedule, Baylie is a dedicated student. Her parents have taught her that “school comes first, education comes first,” she says. Baylie also is also a cheerleader at West Junior High School.

When planning for the future, Baylie says she’d like to live in Lawrence when she is grown up. And some day, she hopes to teach her own children to ride horses.

Unlike Baylie, Vera Gannaway did not own a horse until later in life, though she did start taking lessons in her teens. When Gannaway was 14, she attended a school in Florida that had stables and was able to take regular lessons.

“My love of horses truly grew,” she recalls.

Later, while in law school, she became a full-fledged horse owner.

“My first horse was Ebony Bartholomew,” or Bart, she says. “He was a 7-year-old Arabian gelding, and he is 24 today.”

Gannaway says that Bart is a favorite among the students at Stepping Stones Ranch in Baldwin City, a ranch run by Gannaway and her husband, Steve. Their ranch offers boarding, lessons and even summer camps. Because of her business, she has learned about the fiscal responsibility of horse ownership.

“When I was young, I never thought about how much everything would cost,” she says.

After getting her first horse, Gannaway realized she needed to sign up for professional lessons. Between lessons, riding, horse maintenance and school, she had little free time. But caring for a horse allowed her to form a significant bond

“In law school I was under a tremendous amount of stress,” she says. “When I went to the barn, I was able to turn everything else off.”

Horse ownership has also proven emotionally rewarding for Janis Guyot, a student of Stepping Stones Ranch. Guyot began riding at age 8 but did not invest in her first horse until the age of 45.

“My husband took a job in Topeka,” she says. “We moved away from the East Coast, where I had spent my whole life.”

Because Guyot did not have friends or family nearby, she began to take riding lessons at Stepping Stones as a way to create a link with the community.

“My riding skills came back fairly quickly,” she says.

She began riding a quarter horse named Phoenix that the Gannaways had rescued.

“I fell in love with him,” she says. “My husband bought him for me as a Christmas surprise.”

Despite the financial strain of horse ownership, Guyot feels fortunate for Phoenix.

“When I arrive at Stepping Stones and call Phoenix’s name, he looks up from the herd and comes to me on his own much of the time,” Guyot says. “I never developed that bond with other lesson horses.”

Their bond has grown stronger over the years.

“He is like another one of my kids,” she says. “He is my therapy. The financial responsibility is pretty scary at times, especially now with the economy the way it is, but I am hoping Phoenix and I will grow old together and enjoy each other’s company for many years to come.”