Coming from a horsey background

[Kenzo]

Horsey backgrounds and how it effected you as a rider/horse owner.

Just wondered what other peoples views were on the following.

Do you think because you were born into a horsey family (for those of you who were), that you were destined to be in the saddle? is it really in the blood? or do you think even if your parents/grandparents/other family members had nothing to do with horses, the natural passion for them would find you one day...so its fate kinda thing?

Reason is people have asked me in the past if I'd a) be into horses if I was not born into a horsey family and b) still be 'into it' if I was not from a horsey family (as in loose interest) years down the line?

Also do you think your parents influenced you into a certain discipline (for those of you who compete) say if your parents or older siblings were keen show jumpers in their hay day for example, therefore you took over the reins because you were either pushed or encouraged to do that certain discipline, or did you make your own choices?, or just not have a competitive streak at all and decided you much preferred hacking about and the joys of owning a horse?

Do you think your success and your competitive streak comes from within? (self motivation etc) or because you were pushed? (pushy type parents) or just purely from good support and lots of encouragement from your parents? Do you think either of the last two make a difference to how well you do?

How many of you don't come from a horsey background and came about having horses?

Would you of preffered to have that support from an enthusiastic parent or partner for that matter when competing, or doesnt it really bother you?

Sorry lots of questions I know, I dont expect you to answer them all, I'm just promting peoples opinons and experiences that's all.

 

[golddustsara]

I come from a non horsey background and was brought up by my Grandparents. I was about 7 when the bug bit me and honest to God I was terrible. My poor Grandad paid for a year of lessons on the lead rein before I could ride off the lead haha. They are not quitters though, so they encouraged me to keep going and then everything started to click. Carried on and am still riding 17 years later - still as obsessed as ever. I was always too nervous to have them at shows but they were very supportive and took me up the stables every day in school holidays, bought me all my equipment etc. Aw I love my Grandparents

 

[Janette]

I don't come from a horsey background. My mum loved horses but never had an opportunity to do something about it. Same when I was a kid - our 'sort' didn't do horses!!!! I was allowed to go for a yearly trek when on holiday. However - I 'inherited' Star fom mum about 5 years ago, who had bought her as a plod (apparently our sort 'did do' horses after all.) I had never really had a horse up til then but I had paid for my lessons so got Star after she scared my mum.

I now have my horse, I think my competitive streak comes from within me, but I tend to compete with myself, if I improve my score - brilliant, if I get a better placing this time than last - wonderful. We are slowly getting better and that is the most important thing.

I have waited for this for 35 years, since I was 10. Now I have it and I intend for us to be the best that we can be. Star is 11, I'm 46, so I reckon that we have 10 more years to achieve this goal. After that, she'll be 21 and I'll be 56. (aarrggh)

Star isn't over enthused with this, but there you go!

 

[algy666]

Not from a horsey background at all, Dad took a course when we were in Borneo with his job (he was in the RAF at the time), I started going to the stables with him when I was 8. Asked if I could start lessons, he told me only if I promised to stick with it ... it's been 12 years

and Dad hasn't ridden for 9, so I stuck it better than he did!

Bought me my first horse when I was 14, he was pts

then we got Dylan.

Bet he wishes he'd never let me start now ...

 

[Flicker]

My parents were not horsey and, IMO, it held me back during my childhood because they did not appreciate how into it I was, and didn't really take me seriously I think. Mum is terrified of horses. Bless them, they trailled after me to the odd competition and told me I'd done 'terribly well' even after having every pole down.
It is only now, that I'm 'grown up' and can finally afford to shell out the money and time on my horse that I feel I can start to progress.

 

[Hippona]

Not very horsey...my dad used to ride the Shires on the farm to pull the plough.....but my mums side of the family, no way.

As a child I loved horses before I could walk...apparantly I went crazy over them....then when I could talk it was all horse-horse.

Had lessons etc when I was old enough...then a succession of shared ponies/work for rides etc etc....plenty of weekends hanging around the stables (oooh- back in the day!)

I had a horse part-share when I was working..pre-kids...then nothing for about 10 years whilst I got my career going, got married- had children etc.
I never had my own horse until I bought him myself.....my parents couldnt have afforded one when I was young, and my dad worked full time- my mum would have been useless for any help (soz mum!)

My husband encouraged me to get back into horses (I think he may regret this!)...now we have 3.

My daughter was brought up with them, she's 6 now and onto her second pony...I taught her to ride and take her to shows...she's a chip off the old block. My son on the other hand isnt bothered in the slightest and he isnt forced to ride...only to empty wheelbarrows LOL!

Yes...t'is true.....if I had had the support I needed when I was young, I would obviously have made it to the top ......I tell my mum this often, at which point she clips me around the ear, even tho I'm 40 this year.

 

[spottybotty]

mmm interesting topic! My mother was working at dealers yards and then went on to teaching in the 50`s and 60`s, her parents were what you would class as non horsey but her mother was used to them as her grand father was a hackney carriage driver (and i mean Hackney carriage!)Mum was an Eastender!They were homeless after WW2 and ended up living in Manchester, where her father was from and it was here that she had the oportunity to walk to a local riding stables and help.
My mum was still riding when she was 7mths pregnant with me, and as soon as i was able to sit i was put on the back of a horse.I do realise how priveledged i was as a child, and also what a brat!It was all handed to me on a plate, but i would ride when i felt like it!I totally gave up at the age of 15 when i discoverd BOYS!

I think my mum was devestated.I did not get back into it until my own daughter was 3 when my mother suggested to my Husband that we get her a pony!He was very keen, i was not!
My daughter is so unlike me, very competitive and has kept at it for 17yrs!Although i made sure with her it was not just about the riding and that as soon as she was able to do things for herself she did or she did not get to ride.I was very lucky and so was my daughter to have my mother, who was a rather "old school type" BUT she new what she was talking about and taught us both so much.I always said to my daughter that if she ever wanted to give up i would be ok about it.R.I.P mum miss you so much after 8yrs.

 

[Hullabaloo]

I'm not from a horsey background at all. My parents let me have riding lessons each week but could never afford for me to have my own pony. I would hang around the stables as much as I could and ride any chance I got. I had a break for a while when I was at uni and then was living in London, then got back into it when I was about 30. I had 3 horses on loan but I was 40 before I got my own horse, so I really do appreciate how lucky I am, even at 6am in winter!

I would've liked the chance to have a pony and compete when I was younger as I feel the experience would've been good for me, but my parents did as much as they could afford and I'm grateful for that.

My mum is really not the least bit interested in Boo or anything I do with him so I tend not to talk to her much about him. My dad was always more interested than my mum - probably because he was usually the one who had to take me to lessons. He died 12 years ago, but I think he would've liked to hear about our (very moderate) successes at shows and what we were up to.

 

[happyhaffie]

ive come from a horsey background, had a little shettie before i popped out! my parents have never pushed me into riding, theyve always supported me, i was very competetive when i was younger but now i feel like been their done that (lol im only 23) and just love messing around and a hack out, i think coming from a horsey background horses have always played some part in my life and when i sold my pony due to my little fella coming along i hated not being around them, however my little boy does not even look twice at them in fact yesterday he asked whos the grey pony was!!
if i didnt come from a horsey family i honestly think i wouldnt have had anything to do with them, im sure id be doing something but i think it would have been whatever i was brought up around.

 

[louisevictoria]

My mother was into showing in a big way when I was younger and as soon as we moved to Devon (when I was 8) I was allowed to start having proper riding lessons. I used to ride her show cob and when I was 14 I had a horse on loan - unfortunately I wasn't really encouraged to compete and by that point my mum had given up as she had a very nasty fall when I was 12.

Now I have 2 horses - one that I am just about to start BN, the other was jumping Disco but she is being put into foal this year (fingers crossed) and my mum and step dad are extremely supportive (I couldn't manage both and work full time otherwise) I am lucky as I have moved back home now and can keep the horses at home as we have the stables/land.

 

[skye123]

My family arent horsey except my Granny who is very into them, used to ride when she was younger etc

I had the occasional riding trek when on holiday but didnt start properly until i was 6 when for my 6th birthday my friends mum who was a riding instructor gave me a voucher for a lesson with her. Enjoyed it so much so carried on with it and then got own pony at 13

I sometimes feel at a disadvantage that i havent got a horsey backgrund when i look at other children whos parents buy them trailers/saddles and take them everywhere to shows but TBH i`m very lucky just to have my own horse and my parents still pay for her livery/farrier etc and they are supportive comeing to watch me at shows etc so i am lucky

 

[MrsElle]

None of my family is remotely horsey but I was obsessed from an early age. I started lessons when I was about 11 and my parents made sure I knew that if I had a riding lesson a week that was instead of pocket money. I think they thought I would grow out of it when my friends started asking me to the cinema or ice skating, but all I did then was get a couple of paper rounds so I could still ride and still do things with my friends. I helped out at the stables to make up the difference from my basic lesson to more expensive one to one or jumping lessons.

When I left school I got a job at a yard for a year. The pay was crap but I got to ride and spend time with horses and learnt lots. I married at 19 and moved away, had my boys and had nothing more to do with horses until I was around 30 when we lived next to a riding school and the boys wanted to ride. I was horrified at how much it would cost for all 4 of us to have lessons, so got a horse and two ponies on loan. I let them go when I got divorced and moved away. The boys had lost interest by this time and pretty much outgrown the ponies anyway.

Last year I decided to have lessons again but found it expensive and frustrating so decided to get a horse myself. I got Ellie on permanent loan in December, followed a week ago by Chad.

I do think that if I had been born into a horsey family I would have had the opportunity to hunt or compete and would probably have done reasonably well. As it is, I am just happy to hack around at the moment, but will hopefully be jumping again by the end of the summer.

 

[cob1]

My family are not into horses at all - my granny has a panic attack if a horse comes near! I get called for being smelly etc etc when i come back from the yard. Im not allowed to wash numnahs in the washing machine - but i do haha!

I was never allowed lessons and started when i was 22 after filming a programme about my eating habits (dont ask LOL) - obviously i started when i had self presevation mode and was nervous, but i am getting over that now.

I had a bad experience with my first horse who was put down last September, but my new(ish) ned is really starting to give me confidence (and 3 lessons a week!).

 

[seche]

MFH x3 on Dads side of the family - he rode as a child but being 6ft6 is tricky finding ahorse when your a rugby player to that will carry you!
Mums family not horsey barr her uncle who played polo. She herself hugely horsey - was a jockey from the age of 15 having run away from boarding school - very jilly cooper.
My great aunt was one of the 1st women to event professionally.
Out of all my peers who rode - im the only one still doing it - I have never ever been pushed into it which I why I think I still strive to improve..

 

[thebarn1]

Not from horsey background either. Always loved horses and badgered my mum and dad for lessons when I was 11. Had lessons till I was 18, rode friends ponies, did everything I could to be with horses till I met first husband. Sadly parents nor I would afford to buy and keep a horse. Husband hated them and it was them or him. Dont think I would make that mistake now.

It didnt go away though. Over the passage of the years first husband went his merry way and I re-married and had my lovely daughter 14 years ago. Seven years ago said daughter started to talk and read about all things horse, of course mummy did not discourage her. Six years ago daughther persuaded mum to have riding lessons. She was hooked and our weekly lessons were the highlight of her and my week.

Having put on loads of weight since my riding days I was a bit reluctant to get back into the saddle. However after my daughter had been riding a few months and I was a few pounds lighter a kind instructor persuaded me to get back into the saddle. I was put onto my darling Barney, who didnt put a foot wrong with me. I was back into horses! I ended up spending loads of money having 2 lessons a week just to ride him, plus daughters weekly lesson.

The riding school sadly closed after I had been riding just under a year and I was offered Barney to buy. At 40 something I was a horseowner! It was so scary, all that responsibility! Anyway, just over 5 years later I still own my darling, who I will never part with. My daughter who has had a lovely old boy on loan and then a much feistier model pony is the very proud owner of Bonnie, who she hopes to event at PN this year after some some Intros last year and winning her class at area eventing eventing last year and qualifiying for the PC Nationals on her.

I didnt come from a horsey background, my parents think they are an expensive luxury, current hubby is supportive but does not understand obsession. Obsession is definitely the right word and I for one will ride until I am too old and infirm to be able to.

 

[muddy_grey]

Another non horsey. I always loved animals and often asked about riding and eventually my parents took me when I was 8. I got my first pony at 11 and my parents always said they would pay for my pony and competing (within reson), but they weren't interested in watching. I didn't really compete until I was 17 though as the yard I was at didn't have many kids and I couldn't jump senior BSJA (the only place the lorry went). My parents finally came to watch me in my last year with my little SJ adn my dad managed to find the only tree stump in the field and read a book.
Horse was sold when I went to uni and then I had an old girl for a year a few years later. I have been horseless for 2 years now and am looking for a new one.
I'm sure had I been from a horsey background I would have competed more, as the only thing that stopped me was lack of transport, but my parents were hugely supportive, just not present. My mum says she'll never watch me again as it was too scary.
As for sticking with it - I'm not sure it makes a difference. I have friends with horsey parents who live within 10 miles of their parents adn horses and they never ride anymore. I however can think of nothing but finding a new neddy.

 

[Grey_Eventer]

i think coming from a very horsey background i was going to ride... but re the discipline... no not at all.... all of the men on my dads side were in the army and were in cavalry regiments, so therefore played polo, my grandfather was a feild master of the quorn, so my dad hunted and played polo a lot.... my grandfather and his dad/grandfather all raced so did my dad, but this is never something me and my brother did...its weird tho as my grandfather nearly raced in the grand national, but the horse went lame 2 weeks before....
i showjump and event, the 2 things my dad never did... of course there are things that i do which he did, i play a bit of club polo and i hunt a lot... but ive never raced. i think the eventing and showjumping bit in me is just ebcause im very competitive... i love to win, i want to win things, and yeah you can win polo but its not that same as winning a competition as youre against only a couple of other teams... i think if i was pushed by my dad more, i would have started competing much earlier, i did the odd ODE and hunter trial up until i was 12, but only then did i take it seriously...
i think i would still have been into horses if i did not have horsey parents.. i think thuogh that i would not be doing what i am doing.... :/

 

[Tinkerbee]

I think horses can definately be in your blood

My parents aren't horsey but my aunt has had a riding school/livery yard since I can remember and my great aunt breeds and shows Irish Draughts and another aunt produces showjumpers.

My aunt gave me my first pony so having a horsey background has helped my horsiness

and even though I am a pretty poor rider

I just couldn't stop if I wanted to

I get withdrawl symptoms and there's always someone's horse to tempt you

I am however living proof that, having a horsey background/ponies/horses available all the while and being encouraged to compete/decades of lessons does not make you a fab rider.

 

[Dizzyblonde99]

Horses seem to have skiped a generation in my family I remeber it was me that asked my mum if I could start riding. I thing it was the stories my gran would tell me of her childhood that encouraged me to start.

I never was really encouraged into a discpline maybe thats why I go through fazes of diffrent ones or maybe it's just what my horse is being good at at the moment

Although I didn't come from a pertically horsey background I now share my life with 3 hyper skits horses ( well actually 2 ponies and a horse)

I suppose looking back it would have been nice to have been prompted more into riding purely because I'd have liked to start riding younger than 7.

so yh I suppose I've faired pretty well having 3 mad geldings around after a pretty no horsey start in life

 

[vee]

Here's what I think - If you come from a 'horsey' background you have a ready-made support network. In other words, you have access to a long tradition of horsemanship/knowledge that people from non-horsey backgrounds have to pay for/never find.
If you come from a horsey background you probably never have to resort to classified ads for a new horse - you will find the cream of the crop through age-old networking. These are things that no amount of money can buy.

 

[Dubsie]

I disagree Vee, I think once you know horsey people (whether through owning or just riding someone else's) you can easily slip into the networking thing. We've been offered a pony for my daughter via someone my husband met through his job - she came to buy hay, and so has seen her ride, and now her friend's pony is outgrown and needs a rider/new home.

I don't come from a horsey background at all - unless you can count that my father's grandfather was a carter and got run over by his own cart about 150 years ago or so (silly man jumped off while it was moving, it was in the local paper) which plunged the family into poverty.
Such was the disapproval in my family, despite my persistent asking and having read every horsey book I could lay my hands on I wasn't allowed lessons unless I paid for them myself, so I walked to school and back and saved the bus fare, walked to the riding stables and afforded a half hour lesson about once every 3 weeks the rest of the time I mucked out, cleaned tack or whatever in the hope of an extra lesson being thrown in. My hat I bought with birthday and Christmas money, my jodhs were the wrong size but reduced in a sale and my jacket came from a jumble sale and I repaired the elbows with leather patches. I wore shoes to ride in as I couldn't afford boots until I was 13 and got a Saturday job.
I rode through my teens on and off when I had the money - in the 6th form a group of us organised a hack each week for our PE lesson which was great. Then I got into buying a house etc so dropped riding other than the odd day out with a friend's ponies.
My daughter has always loved horses - there's a few go up our road most weeks as 2 ladies down the road and a riding school ride past. She's been riding for 5 years since she was 4 and we found a little Welsh companion pony at the end of the road needed a rider last year. Daughter's current project seems to be to pursuade me to ride again. (I am tempted and can afford it now the mortgage has dropped). Husband is surprisingly taken with daughter's riding - he's from a farming but non horsey background and is very encouraging and if it was all his own way money would be no object for his little darling - but he does make her put all the kit and jumps away. I've said she must wait till little pony is outgrown before we consider what pony next, so we're not buying the aforementioned offered pony!

 

[lferguson977]

I'm totally from a non-horsey background, and my granda took me to my first lesson on the first day he was left alone with me... (I was 3 yo!) I apparently screamed and cried the entire time, and shook like a leaf, but I went back, and back, and back some more. I worked in the barn from I was about 9 or 10, leading the beginners, feeding ponies, doing stalls... all in the hope of an extra ride, or even just riding the ponies to the field!!
I got my own girl when I was 13, on the premise of her being my birthday and christmas present that year... 8 years on, she's still mine, and although I've swapped disciplines, sj-driving, she's on loan, and I still ride her.. I don't own any other ponies, but compete in driving competitions with borrowed ponies!!

I wouldn't have it any other way - I'm getting some great experience driving the youngsters, and when I can afford it, I'll buy something classy, and beat all the rich folk whose youngsters Im driving!! haha! Could never sell my girl though - can't wait for my wee barn to be finished so she can come home!! 8 years on and my mum has NEVER picked up a pitch fork... or even a bucket for that matter!!