Roby Burch, a sophomore at the Haverford Boys School takes a new form of transportation to school – his horse. Since school started in the beginning of September, Burch has been riding his horse, Jet, to school every day instead of taking the school bus. His love for horses began at the age of 4 and thought taking his horse to school would be a good idea. His father came up with the interesting idea while the family was vacationing at their ranch in Montana this summer.
When the idea was first presented, Roby and his parents were faced with the issue of finding a place for Jet to stay during the day. According to The Philadelphia Inquirer, when Burch proposed the idea to his school’s headmaster, Joe Cox, he too was puzzled as to where this horse should stay while Roby was in class during the day. However Burch has a location in mind right near school. This was a piece of land next to the headmaster’s house. Luckily, the headmaster allowed Roby to build a corral, across the street from the athletic fields in the back of the campus. This has become Jet’s new home for the duration of the school day.
Roby has established a usual routine for the day with riding Jet to school He leaves at 6 a.m. to beat the morning traffic. He and his father found a route that would be most safe for a 16 year old and a horse trying to avoid morning traffic and busy roads. After a four-mile ride, he arrives at school at 6:45 a.m. and feeds Jet his daily breakfast. Burch changes into his mandatory uniform for the day and awaits the arrival of his other classmates.
Can you imagine driving on Lancaster Avenue at six o clock in the morning and seeing a horse with a boy riding it right next to you? Of course Burch receives looks of confusion on his ride to school, but he does really give people some entertainment on their way to work. The students at the Haverford School seem to enjoy having Jet around. The younger students even feed the horse carrots in between classes. But Burch does take care of the dirty work. He cleans up the manure and feeds Jet during his frees.
Burch even admits to The Philadelphia Inquirer “It’s a nice way to start the day.” He also says that he will always have a ride to school thanks to his horse, Jet. Especially since his older siblings who used to drive him to school, are away at college.
Although Roby may be enjoying the attention that he is getting from his new ride, he truly does love horses. He worked as a ranch hand doing all kinds of chores such as building water tanks, roping cows and cutting hay. When Burch turned 14 he got his own horse for his birthday but it is kept at their ranch in Montana where they spend some of their summer.
To avoid traveling home in the dark, Burch leaves after football practice at 5:45 p.m. Burch changes out of his football uniform and back into his proper riding uniform. He is off on another four-mile ride back to his Gladwyne estate, where he keeps Jet at his family’s stable.
Although he will continue riding his horse to school this year, he tells The Philadelphia Inquirer that for his 17th birthday he hopes for a truck.