Wichita ? The boys at the Judge James V. Riddel Boys Ranch have a new horse for Christmas. Now they’ll have to take care of him — and that’s exactly the point.

Last week, the Sedgwick County Commission accepted the donation of Kid, a 5-year-old quarter horse gelding.

But within this little-noticed government line item hides a much larger agenda for turning troubled boys into men.

The hope is that feeding, grooming and shoveling out Kid’s stall will instill something in juvenile offenders that has escaped them so far — a sense of responsibility.

In addition, the bond that develops between a boy and a horse often helps the boy learn to relate in a more positive fashion to everyone around him, said Robert “R.J.” Brassfield, youth facilities manager for the Sedgwick County Department of Corrections.

Seventeen-year-old Adam of Wichita said working with the ranch’s eight horses has improved his outlook on life.

“I think it will help me stay out,” he said.

Kid was donated to the ranch by Ken and Lenora Schuldt of Goddard, owners of the Ar-Kansas Pepper Farm, which raises horses.

Kid’s not a star, but he’s a solid performer, Lenora Schuldt said.

While Kid is a credit to his breed, he didn’t fit in with the Schuldts’ plans to focus on breeding and showing paso finos, the more elegant and smooth-riding “horse of the Spanish conquistadors,” Lenora Schuldt said.

Kid, valued at $6,000, will replace a boys ranch horse that died early this year, said Mark Masterson, county corrections director.

“He’s getting used to the other horses,” Chad Smiley said. “We should be able to start riding him in a couple of weeks.”

Smiley, an independent living therapist, has been holding the reins of the horse program since September, when the regular boss, Kevin Hansen, was called to active duty with the National Guard.

Brassfield said that in the past two years, Hansen has built the equestrian program from a small club into a major therapeutic activity involving 17 of the 49 boys at the ranch.

One of those boys, 17-year-old Taylor, said, “I’ve always wanted to ride horses, forever.”

But living in Wichita, he never got the chance until he was sent to the boys ranch for breaking into cars.

Now, he’s studying for his high school equivalency and hopes for a career as a mechanic or a machinist.

Working with horses “helps get you ready to work back in the community,” he said. “I think it’s going to help me, being out here.”

On Thursday, 2 1/2 weeks into his 4 1/2-month sentence, Taylor was part of a supervised group that took a trail ride around nearby Lake Afton.

“It was just an incredible thing,” he said. “You give them a kick and they start to run, and you feel the wind going across your face.”

It’s a taste of something he’s lost, at least temporarily.

“It’s so free,” he said.