Are your nearest and dearest 'horsey'?

mandwhy

mandwhy

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Just pondering... I had riding lessons for years when I was younger and had my buddies that I hung around with when I was a helper on Sundays, one of which I was good friends with at school. I drifted from that friend when I stopped riding lessons and got a part time job at a supermarket and discovered boys and makeup and booze etc for about ten years (she is now a vet, drat!).

I have a few long term friends who like horses, had a few lessons before and could probably just about come out for a hack on a sensible horse, and the people around my village who are my horsey neighbours and hacking buddies (started last year when I had a horse on loan there) and I am enjoying having people who actually know what I'm talking about when I mention a specific breed etc and even teach me things about our four legged friends. I part loaned horses and stuff but I guess it was mostly pre-facebook (!) So not as easy to stay in touch!

I just wonder what it would be like if I had kept it up through my teens, I think my friendship groups would be quite different but with the same besties of course. I have met a few people recently whose friends are pretty much all horsey folk, and they always know someone with a lorry or know someone who gave them a great horse for free or happens to be a physio or a farrier or whatever... I know its because I have been out of the loop and I'm sure my little network will grow now I actually own a horse, but just wondering how many of you are boring your friends and partners heads off 'educating' them about horse feeds and tack and the complexities of rugging and grass sugar levels, or do many of you have people who listen with enthusiasm and engage!

HHO is such a lifeline to people like me!
 
My sister shares my yard, my friend too my girls ride and are horse mad. Hubby has learnt to ride and used to look after the horses when i was a resturaunt manager.

I have sent all my life round horses and most of my friends and family have rode or own horses.
 
I'm quite lucky in that my mum, sister, eldest neice and OH are all horsey peeps and after working at a local livery yard for a year I got quite friendly with a lot of horsey people there too :D
Unfortunately for me my two best friends are not particularly interested in all things equine and so I fear I may bore them on a frequent basis with my non-stop horsey talk ha ha! :D
 
Nope :( not one bit. Little sister spent some time mucking out for rides when she was younger but now she never goes near a yard. Other family members wouldn't know one end of a horse from the other!
 
both me and my sister rode until we were 12, she has never been near a horse since. I have three horse mad aunties and and one horse mad uncle. My dad is annoyingly a very good rider (having had horses when he was younger) and sometimes comes out with me if I can find a horse. My boyfriend has been known to get on the odd horse and is clearly an expert :rolleyes::D oh and my little girl started cantering on Saturday but appears to be completely unhorsey! :-(
 
Not one bit....until I got my boy last summer! My Mum, at Christmas, helped me muck out, feed and groom all 4 on the yard and this is from a lady who literally didn't know the back end etc!

My OH and I had a deal, apparently! When we first met I said I would learn how to scuba dive if he learnt how to ride. We've been on loads of scuba diving holidays....However, he helps out round the yard and helped me this weekend to take my boy and his field mate to a school to loose school. He loved it and now thinks he's Monty Roberts, bless! :o
 
Aww jealous of you all with horsey family! Although I suppose I do like it being MY thing, at least none of them criticise my riding (except when I fall off).

I am lucky I have a good OH who gets involved and feeds them occasionally and comes down with me to see them in the evenings (I say them as I have a companion on trial who is too cute!). He says he will start riding one day and when my lovely slow horse has had a bit more testing by me he will give it a try. She is so ploddy bless her I think she will be ideal, in fact I think she needs a bit more work on the lead rein so I can get her going off it!

My mum is not very mobile or balanced due to a few problems, I think she'd love to ride otherwise... although she does often talk about her fear of 'big four legged creatures'!
 
My mum took me on a pony ride on holiday for 20mins i bugged her so much she bought me 2 lessons for my 12th bday and has done nothing horsey since, i worked for that riding school till iw as 18 no horsey family no horsey friends no one horsey at school turned out the yard i worked at was pretty crap but with no one to point me in the right direction didnt get very far. i got aplace at bishop burthon at 18 to be told by the hospital to never ride again or end up in a chair so i didnt go stoped riding for several years but always helped out on yards where i could as couldnt stand not haivng a horse to care for, and finally at 27 i bought my own still ahve no horsey friends am on a small private yard with owner and one other livery who do veyr little with thier horses. But i lvoe mine i don't ride much but there well cared for groomed and exercised as best i can. My family have visited ned once each to go oh yes thats nice dar none of my friends will visit and i can't even talk to them about it as there just not intrested. I did wish as a kid i had someone better to hang out wiht a discuss all things horsey bt these days am quite content i love hacking and enjoying the scenary and its nice to get away from the world and just enjoy it with my horse
 
Ah yes Hawks, I think I have gotten used to it as a solitary activity (well, you and the horse) and thoroughly enjoyed it for that, but now I have a horse who needs to go out in company to boost our confidence for a while I am really seeing the benefits and it is fun! I'll be happy when we can go it alone but I think I like the security of company for road work especially. I do sometimes wonder what it would be like on a big yard with loads of people but I don't think I would like the politics!
The upside is I have never really had to deal with horsey bitching, although I have seen it from my quiet corner plenty of times...
 
This is why i stick with my quiet little yard ive worked on many big yards and can't stand the behaviour and bitching so unesacery and ruins the enjoying of the ned which it is all about.
My last filly was completely wilds and as no one does anything on our yard i had no one to work he rwith to build her confidence and she has severe seperation anxiety but a year of having to do everything on her own with me and i turned her into uber bomproof confident girly all groundwork as she was only 2 when i resuced her and she wasnt even halter broken and we got to the stage we walked past a combined harvester in action and am thingking oh god little filly barely looked at it and continued to saunter on down the road at this point i realsied we were done bomproofing lol and off to riding training she went bless her never spooked at anything again and this horse wouldnt even walk out the yard and down a private lane for first few weeks. Horse will take it scnfidence from you given enough time try some groundwork walking out in hand and bomproof playing in the paddock you'll be amaze dhow much there confidence grows given time to see the workd and realise it aint that scarry after all.
When ever my horse freaked at anything id just stand there patiently giving her a little pat and chilling eh rout till he stopped looked at the scarry beast and relasied that leaf wasn't hurting her and walked on lol
 
Me, my mum, my sister, my auntie, her dad and sister, my uncle, my husband, his aunt and uncle and pretty much all my friends bar 1 or 2 are all horsey, from master of the hunt, whipper in, pony club secretarys, CHAPS judges and panel members, we are all sad and discuss horses all the time, but then again I dont know any different as this is the way its always been.
 
I got into horses through my cousin/auntie having horses when I was only small.

My parents not at all horsey.

Got my first pony on loan at 13 ... mum said I had to get a Sat job to prove I really wanted him so I worked on a Sat (surely illegal lol) on a fruit and veg shop on local market :rolleyes:

Mum/dad will come with me to shows when needed (cant tow trailer otherwise) but most friends all horsey :D:D
 
I'm the only one... :-(
I've tried hard to get my kids interested, and my OH used to ride one of mine very occasionally, but not for over a year now. No local horsey friends either. Now got my boys on a farm where I work looking after sheep, have the place to myself much of the time. I like the autonomy...but miss the company of like minded people. Don't miss the bitching though!
 
My OH had never been on a horse until I met him ,I taught him to ride he's mad keen on hunting and has a hunter and enjoys being the backstepper when I drive ,he nearly always went to events when I was doing BE but does not go to local comps ,he does not understand my passion for training horses on flat but accepts that I adore it , he finds dressage competions a incomprehensible waste of time , although did get that the team final at the Olympics was exciting when we went ( he got us tickets as a suprise for me ) he works very hard so I can live my dream I have been very lucky .
MY BF is an equine vet who drives and lot of my friends are horsey but I have several very good completly non horsey friends which is good as it trains me to talk about something other than horses now and again.
 
I hope when I have children that they like horses, if not I'm sending them back!!

I guess I'll try to be really subtle like 'oh yeah so there's this pony, you could ride it, you know if you want, no biggie'... My words will say I don't mind, my eyes will say 'PLEASE LET US BE UNITED IN MY HOBBY'

My parents never believed I would look after a horse and not get bored with it, ha! Now I'll show them!
 
i have a couple of horsey friends... but non horsey family which i think is a little sad tbh! id love a horsey family! :(


my parents dont know i actually have a horse :o (well dad dosent!)! im 24 FGS and pay for her myself but it isnt worth telling him - he would go mad anyhow

:D
 
My three children betrayed me by not being remotely interested in horses!!

However, it has taken a few years but my OH (second husband, not "the dad") is nearly as addicted as me! And don't get me started when he logs into HHO and starts shouting at his phone!!! :p
 
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I grew up in Manchester, with the least horsey parents you will ever meet. They were not remotely interested and although they would happily go and watch my brother play football each weekend (even starting a team for his age group when he was 8 and taking them right through to U21s) – they didn’t ever come to watch me ride, or encourage it.

Although to be fair, horses and riding are expensive hobbies and my parents are not well off, so to them, it was probably a bit of a scary hobby for your daughter to obsess about!

However, I would get dropped off at the local riding school from about 9am and stay until about 4pm each day and when I was 13 they eventually relented and bought one of the riding school ponies which I was in love with. Because they couldn’t afford a pony really, she stayed working in the riding school and I worked there for free too every weekend. But I didn’t care – I doted on that little pony

Through riding I met several friends who also went to my school and we did tend to congregate together, although there were a fair few non-horsey girls in our little friendship group too.

I also met friends at the stables and when they got ponies, I also used to go to see them during the holidays and help (I was more experienced). Their YO took me under her wing and had me helping with hers too, so when the riding school eventually closed down and my pony retired, it was a natural progression to start at her yard, and when I eventually bought my own (aged 19 – with my student loan money (Ooops!!)) I kept her there and helped on the YO in return for reduced livery!

In my experience, lots of teenage girls through a stage where they ‘outgrow’ horses and find boys!!! (I didn’t! lol – at least not until I met my husband!) and although I stayed in contact with many of them, I found them ‘changed’ people and was really closer to my true ‘non- horse’ friends (if that makes sense?

I moved up to where I live now when I met my husband and it was difficult initially as I had left all my friends behind. But horses are a GREAT way to establish a new social group! I made the most friends when I moved onto my current yard, probably as more of the liveries where around my own age and through them, like you say, you meet other horsey folk such as physios, equine vets, dentists etc etc!

My OH is reasonably horsey too – he was learning to ride when we met, and although he doesn’t ride that much anymore (he has his own business, and is always busy!), he will help out and likes to spend time at the yard. In fact, he has been really helpful this winter as he has done my horses in the mornings at least 50% of the time!

As a couple, ‘our’ group of friends are fairly horsey too….I suppose that having horses, the lifestyle means that it is more likely that you will meet other horsey people and, the lifestyle also leaves less time for ‘non-outdoorsy’ folk! Lol We do still have friends who are not horsey, but I think he wouldn’t mind me saying that the vast majority of our friends, we have met through horses. We love going with friends to horsey events such as Badminton, and camping all weekend….and we also work with a pro-photographer (me taking photos and OH doing the IT) at BE events through the North in summer. It is a nice lifestyle and though it, we have made some nice friends!

In OP’s scenario, I guess now you have a horse again, if your yard has other people around your age, you will find that you establish ha new group of friends. That’s not to say that you will abandon your other non-horsey friends….but it is nice to be able to talk about crank nosebands, dressage, flying changes and fly rugs without people looking at you like you’re a crazy person ;)


P>S - sorry that turned out sooooooo long! lol
 
Aww Goldenstar your OH sounds great! I would literally eat my hat if mine took up hunting or anything high speed (I haven't even tried that yet). Still you never know and he would certainly see the 'point' of that more than showing or dressage or anything like that. He likes shooting and stuff so I like to think we'll be proper country bumpkins one day :-)
 
Nope, no one in my family is horsey and they can't stand the mud, smell or hair!

Luckily when i was still riding my boyfriend would come with me and i'd bore him but he liked horses :) and my best friend likes horses, she came with me and had a ride once :)
 
Dollymix - defo true that having a horse means you meet horse people, I mean its obvious but I was kind of surprised at how different it has been between sharing/loaning to actually owning. I am not on a yard but rent a field among some other fields, yet I suppose because I am always there and people have got to know me walking around with and without horse, and it is a small village with maybe 6 horse owners. The field next to me is free now so I wonder who will move in :-)
 
99.9999% of my friends are horsey. I spent my childhood with my amazing pony and some amazing friends. Couldn't have asked for a better time growing up on our livery yard.
Now doing an Equine degree...so all my new Uni friends are horsey :p
I think maybe one or two aren't and my parents aren't but they love my little old lady like another daughter haha.
 
No one in my heritage is remotely horsey - they know nothing about them other than they can be dangerous to be near and expensive to look after - my parents also seemed to think it was definately above "my station" to even consider them for a pastime. How I enjoyed my father coming home one day and asking - "what's that horse doing on our front grass?" To which, I, of course, replied "Eating it"! Hahaha. I wangled my way into being a trusted worker for an old lady that owned three horses and a demon of a Shetland - my favourite was a dun - as he was the spitting image of one on my cowboy and indian wallpaper and I often rode him bareback and dressed as a brave ( or let say my idea of one!) There's a four lane highway and an industrial estate serving London Airport there now but in my youth it was a single track lane with passing places that still had cobwebs across it at lunchtime!

Though I went to a townie school - I really hankered after the country life from an early age and would usually slope off to a farm rather than play with friends and later on found that not many were interested in horses and ponies and the ones that did soon gave up once they'd been thrown a few times!

Just why I didn't become an owner sooner is difficult to say - accept that I did lead a busy life! So it wasn't until my eldest daughter wanted a rabbit - yes, strange as it may seem - I went out to buy a rabbit and came back with a pony! She was completely silent on our first visit to see him - despite me saying - he's yours your know. She threw up in the car on the way home!

Thus, we became friends with other people on the livery yard - one of who frequently lent me their horse so that I didn't need to walk besides daughter and pony! Typically for Horseypeople - they became rather distant when I bought a horse for my wife! This may have had something to do with where she had lessons too - one of the best equitation centres in the country - we weren't swanking - it was nearby and once inside, I was hooked. All my experiences had been in places that looked decidedly third world but here was equine heaven and by then I could afford it - just. So my wife and daughters had lessons and even I asked them to teach me properly ( I nearly died from the pain of toes up an in, heels down!) The horse I bought from them ended up being "my" mare so the whole chain of events was life changing.

To start, we had "normal" friends, dinner parties etc., but once I moved my mare to DIY, bought another pony and an eventer for my younger daughter ( the elder one had moved to ballet by then ) all our friends were Horsey - they were the only ones that understood our crazy lifestyle!!
 
My mum got me into horse's as she used to be a riding instructor :)
I turned my OH horsey, he can probably ride better than me now :o
 
My OH is not remotely horsey, and I can't see that changing. I have to nag him to come see our daughters ride, which he does under suffrance. Oh well.

None of my famiy are horsey either. Not sure where I got the horsey gene from, but I am proud to say I have certainly passed it on to my daughters!
 
Aww, love these little stories!

I got the OH leading our New companion pony today bless him, I think I will teach him the ways of horse with this tiny non threatening wee creature who two days ago wouldn't go near him and now he stands and gives her scratches and comforts her when I bring my big girl in for a look at her and a grump!
 
I had my first loan pony when i was 14ish but I never had horsey parents. They'd come to the shows and watch from behind their hands as I did MGA and PPC type stuff, and would drive me to and from to feed in winter, but they always kept their distance.

At school I was a drifter, had a series of friends but never a best friend until 6th form (I did, but she went to a different school and was a dancer, therefore banned from setting foot on the yard). Couple of my school friends had ponies, one on the same yard but she put that pony on loan when she retired and hasn't ridden since. We reminisce sometimes but it's not the same.

I used to spend a lot of social time with yard friends, but financial circumstances changed so I moved to my own place, and since then my sis in law has started riding with me (she's a total novice), and Ollie bolted the first time she rode him but she enjoys it and asks soooo many questions! I love the fact that she loves it.

My BF works for the builders merchants that's attached to my stables, so he's unwittingly realised blankets are actually rugs, and the mushy stuff is called speedibeet, then today when my horses escaped he learned how to put on a headcollar and wrangle a 15hh grass-happy cob through a hedge. Yesterday, my shetland who's in with sore feet put him to the test by leaning on him when he was holding her, and he was like, aww she's cuddling me, and I had to tell him she was invading his space and testing his authority by making him move. He's probably watching NH videos on Youtube now the football's finished.

I like having people around who are interested, but not so knowledgeable that they want to invade my space every day. It's even nicer to have proper friends who know a running from an Irish martingale and what their purpose is though :)
 
I was lucky in that, although not horsey and no horsey background at all, growing up in London, my parents were always fairly outdoorsy. We were always playing in the park or the local woods. I loved animals as did both parents, and I had all the My Little Ponies growing up and My Dad brought me a rocking horse for my 3rd birthday - I still have him!
Then we moved into another estate and my next door neighbours were something like The Good Life, there was geese, ducks, hens and a cockerel, dogs, cats in the middle of a rough estate in S E London.
They took their daughter riding, and for my 4th birthday treated me too. That was it. Hooked. Their daughter quickly quit following the first fall.
I rode for a few years and then my Mum decided she wanted a go and that was it. We both rode - depending on finances - and she'd volunteer occasionally.
I stopped when I went to uni, and my mum shortly after a few falls knocked her confidence heavily and then a bad car crash left her with damage to her shoulders.
Then in my final year of uni, my Dad was diagnosed with terminal Cancer, don't need to get into the details but after his death, I decided life was too short to not do things that I enjoyed, got back into riding, took on a share pony, now on my second.
Mother got on for the first time in 7 years last summer after we went to see the Olympics together, and realised that she missed it, but is worried about causing more damage to her body should she have a bad fall again.

OH. So. So not horsey. No interest whatsoever, 7 years and only convinced him to ride once or twice, and watch me once. Insists that I have a shower before I go near him after I come back from the yard, but is terribly encouraging, records me horsey things without asking.

That's it really. I'm still in touch with a few of my friends from childhood who rode, we were all at different schools, so none of my schoolfriends got it and now none of them ride and are slightly bemused that I'm still obsessed with them!
 
Mum was mildly horsey... But had a bad fall about 15 years ago and struggled to ride after. My dad/brother/OH are not horsey in the slightest.
 
My dearest other half was sweet talked into doing some weeding in my boy's field.

Silly 3 year old got so excited about fresh mud to roll in he went to every spot, rolled, farted, scared himself and them bombed around the field.

Turns out my oh is actually very skilled at hurdling electric fences. Think a stint in the Olympics is his future.

Needless to say he is s**t scared of our 4 legged friends.

Parents horsey, rest of the family are not.
 
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