11 signs you were a horsey child in the 90s

V&F said:
TV programs - Chatter happy ponies, if wishes were horses (there was 4/5 VHS tapes for that one which I watched over and over!), home farm twins
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I'm surprised my VHS tapes of I wishes were horses didn't wear out lol! I was obsessed!

2ndtimearound said:
Psst... Heartland is still going (and on both Amazon Prime and Netflix - 12 series of it ATM!).
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I mostly definitely do not binge watch this . . . . . . haha!!! Guilty pleasure on night shifts lol!
 
I collected a magazine called horse sense (I think) it came with a binder that you slotted each copy into.
 
jj_87 said:
I grew up always wanting a pony of my own so I would trawl through the robinsons catalog that would come with H&P magazine and highlight everything my pony would need, including a thorowgood saddle, a chill cheeta stable rug and a purple headcollar. - like the one the black pony had in Chatter happy ponies!

I would also go to my lessons glad in figment equestrian rugby shirts and stylo rubber boots! My room was covered in any poster from horse and pony.

When i did get my own pony he was clad in Westrop over reach boots, and cottage craft was the go to brand!
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Oh God yes, the Robinson's catalogue....:oops:
 
V&F said:
I loved Mary King Riding Star and Equstriad 2000, many happy memories stealing my brothers PS1 to play those!

TV programs - Chatter happy ponies, if wishes were horses (there was 4/5 VHS tapes for that one which I watched over and over!), home farm twins

Books -Sheltie the Shetland pony were my fave !

Had a fancy Breyer model once, ordered from the Robinsons magazine 🙈 it had a fancy bridle and saddle, think it was quite expensive!

Also remember a magazine where you used to get a little plastic horse model once a month? Think I’ve still got one of those mags around somewhere as my drawing got onto the back page once!

Also had 3 x hobby horses who I adored, there “stable” was the garage, used to ride them everywhere and make jumps in the garden.

Good times 😁
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I loved Chatterhappy ponies.

Also spent many hours playing RS (and getting bucked off xc) and EQ2001, did anyone else find the bits of the xc course you could jump out of in Equestriad and go galloping around outside the ropes? 😂
 
For anyone desperately missing Riding Star and EQ2001 and wanting to relive their childhood, Pippa Funnel (well Ubisoft) released a few PC games which are actually quite fun to play as an adult!

I was obsessed with Chatterhappy ponies (the birth of matchy matchy!) and I mucked out my Julip and Breyer ponies every morning before school to prove to my mum I was ready for the responsibility of a loan pony!
 
emfen1305 said:
For anyone desperately missing Riding Star and EQ2001 and wanting to relive their childhood, Pippa Funnel (well Ubisoft) released a few PC games which are actually quite fun to play as an adult!

I was obsessed with Chatterhappy ponies (the birth of matchy matchy!) and I mucked out my Julip and Breyer ponies every morning before school to prove to my mum I was ready for the responsibility of a loan pony!
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I still have the CD for EQ2001, and it works on Windows 7! (not that I'd know or anything ;) )
 
Ooh yes, poring over catalogues and planning a fantasy life. I remember when the new Argos catalogue coming out was An Event.

I was such a geeky youngster my Horse & Pony magazine posters were categorised on my walls, ie breeds in one area, competition riders another wall etc. Their short stories were often very good I recall.

Was the Saddle Club series the American one with quite rich girls? I don't think I was keen on that. In those years you could often pick up battered paperback pony books for 20p in charity shops. I don't think I ever read any series in order which was annoying.
 
Jill's Gym Karma said:
Ooh yes, poring over catalogues and planning a fantasy life. I remember when the new Argos catalogue coming out was An Event.

I was such a geeky youngster my Horse & Pony magazine posters were categorised on my walls, ie breeds in one area, competition riders another wall etc. Their short stories were often very good I recall.

Was the Saddle Club series the American one with quite rich girls? I don't think I was keen on that. In those years you could often pick up battered paperback pony books for 20p in charity shops. I don't think I ever read any series in order which was annoying.
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I used to save the 'educational' posters for the fantasy tack room that was convinced I would one day get and I am still waiting for!! I also used to get excited every time a new Robinsons catalogue arrived. I remember being taken to get a new hat and pulling up outside about a week after the fire and being devastated the store had burnt down.

Saddle Club was 3 American girls. I think one was supposed to be rich but to they all seemed to have more disposable cash than I did as a child and a riding school that VERY lax about what they did with the school ponies and never seemed to expect payment. I did like the traditional that all the stables cats were named after famous race horses tho
 
conniegirl said:
Derby house catalogue was better than the robinsons one, but infinitely more expensive too.
That was back when derby house was posh
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God I remember Derby House being posh! 😂

The HHO list is a bit odd - I played Riding Star (seems to have been more of a thing for those of us who didn't have our own ponies) and read some of the Saddle Club books but they were by no means my favourite horse books. Looking at what other people have posted rings far more bells for me - we should do our own list!

1. Wearing dodgy black rubber riding boots (my dad would always cut some off the back as they used to rub under my knees 😂)
2. Helping at a riding school in return for free rides that rarely materialised, but thinking you were the bees knees for doing what you now view as slaver labour.
3. Obsessively circling all the things you'd buy in the Robbie's catalogue if you were rich.
4. Reading any pony book you could get your hands on. Saddle Club were pretty inferior to me - my favourites were the Jinny at Finmory series but I also read anything by the Pullein-Thompson sisters, and loved Heartland, Jackie and Misty, Midnight Dancer and that series about a ranch in the USA.
5. Being known at school as the pony mad one 😂
6. Playing horses in a variety of formats - I had dozens of model horses in different sizes (I was an avid subscriber to My Beautiful Horses) and also had stable full of inaginary horses too, and I knew the name, age, height, breed and codour of each one. Me and my best friend used to set up jumps using our plastic garden chairs and mum's bean pones and play for hours!
7. Every thing being cancelled due to foot and mouth and having to ride over strips of carpet soaked in disinfectant for months.
8. Never being supervised and no one seeming to care. I can't imagine this happening now, but when I first got my loan pony (I was 10) my parents just used to leave me at the yard and the other liveries would take me riding/ drop me home/ let me ride their horses. When I was 12/13 and going every day before school, one fellow livery used to drop me home every weekday morning at about 7 am when we'd both mucked out. I really don't see anything similar happening now!

Enjoyed this thread! I'm currently at Fortaleza airport in Brazil waiting for a 4 am flight to Rio de Janeiro so nice to have a distraction!!
 
I can remember Riding Star (which I was useless at) & Equestriad (which I was a little better at & used to play obsessively whilst using various cheat codes that I got from my friend!)

I was also an avid collector of various model horses & had a vast array of brightly coloured plastic tack for them all (think it was mainly the my beautiful horses but I had a few Julip ones as well & the only Barbie I ever owned I bought because she came with a horse!). My Grandad built me some stables for them, I even made myself a pretend "tack room" & used to spend hours organising them all, washing their manes & tails etc. Oh & making jumping courses for them (think I had some proper little jumps with poles but also used offcuts of the artificial Xmas tree as brush fences) & then me & a friend (same one who I used to play the computer games with I think!) used to time each other... (both of us were horseless in case you were wondering... she doesn't actually ride anymore... I last persuaded her onto a pony about 8 years ago I think!) Oh & we also used to make obstacle courses for the family Cavalier King Charles Spaniel of course (she used to jump over all sorts of things bless her)

I can also remember circling everything in the Robinsons & RideAway (or was it R&R I forget...) catalogues & the excitement of the one time I was taken to the BIG Robinsons as a child back when it was still good! (we've got a Robinsons near me now but it's definitely not the same although I do still love a trip over to R&R!)

I also had just about every horse related beanie baby EXCEPT the "Derby" one that was worth money

Can also remember the Saddle Club & Heartland although I think I only read them in passing from the school library... was more into the Half Moon Ranch books & also read quite a few of the Jill books picked up at a school fair of some sort (I also had a few random books with short stories or random chapters from horsey books ranging from Black Beauty to The Silver Brumby & erm Sherlock Holmes) some of which I still haven't read in their entirety to this day...

I was a numpty child & seemed to do the slave labour bit as a teenager AFTER I'd got the pony (although tbf I'm from a totally horsey family & so knew nothing & needed the help plus it let me spent literally all day at the yard being around horses...)
 
HashRouge said:
God I remember Derby House being posh! 😂

The HHO list is a bit odd - I played Riding Star (seems to have been more of a thing for those of us who didn't have our own ponies) and read some of the Saddle Club books but they were by no means my favourite horse books. Looking at what other people have posted rings far more bells for me - we should do our own list!

1. Wearing dodgy black rubber riding boots (my dad would always cut some off the back as they used to rub under my knees 😂)
2. Helping at a riding school in return for free rides that rarely materialised, but thinking you were the bees knees for doing what you now view as slaver labour.
3. Obsessively circling all the things you'd buy in the Robbie's catalogue if you were rich.
4. Reading any pony book you could get your hands on. Saddle Club were pretty inferior to me - my favourites were the Jinny at Finmory series but I also read anything by the Pullein-Thompson sisters, and loved Heartland, Jackie and Misty, Midnight Dancer and that series about a ranch in the USA.
5. Being known at school as the pony mad one 😂
6. Playing horses in a variety of formats - I had dozens of model horses in different sizes (I was an avid subscriber to My Beautiful Horses) and also had stable full of inaginary horses too, and I knew the name, age, height, breed and codour of each one. Me and my best friend used to set up jumps using our plastic garden chairs and mum's bean pones and play for hours!
7. Every thing being cancelled due to foot and mouth and having to ride over strips of carpet soaked in disinfectant for months.
8. Never being supervised and no one seeming to care. I can't imagine this happening now, but when I first got my loan pony (I was 10) my parents just used to leave me at the yard and the other liveries would take me riding/ drop me home/ let me ride their horses. When I was 12/13 and going every day before school, one fellow livery used to drop me home every weekday morning at about 7 am when we'd both mucked out. I really don't see anything similar happening now!

Enjoyed this thread! I'm currently at Fortaleza airport in Brazil waiting for a 4 am flight to Rio de Janeiro so nice to have a distraction!!
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Yours is a much better list 😁
 
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