Did you have a pony as a child?

[saddlesore]

Yes. I got my first pony at 11 and we would hack for hours on end exploring the beaches and the forestry. It was a fantastic childhood ?

 

[The Irish Draft 2022]

Nope I didn’t I was in a riding school for years I watched all my friends get surprised with there own horses . When I was 15 years old i started riding a fancy warmblood we were the perfect match for each-other . I was gutted when he was sold unfortunately one of my friends got surprised with him in front of me. My mother was a single parent so couldn’t afford a horse and was very much of the opinion If you want a horse you have to pay for yourself.

So when I was 17 I bought my first horse I bought a very green 8 year old that I got for cheap . The horse was meant to be a project but I ended up falling in love and keeping the horse.

To be honest nowadays horse are a lot more expensive so I think a lot of parents probably can’t afford a pony/ horse so there is less kids in general and adult having there own horses.

 

[spotty_pony]

Yes and I still have him! I got him when I was 14 and I am now 31. He’s 23 this year. I have so many memories with him - disappearing out hacking for miles on end sticks out the most though and finding logs to jump. Also, many shows and days out hunting. He could really turn on a sixpence in his younger days and was great in jump offs. He is the perfect mix of fun but has a sensible head and has always really looked after me. My true horse of a lifetime.

A few memories from over the years… yes he has changed colour a lot! ?

 

[DressageCob]

No. My parents were non-horsey and didn't have the time nor money to get me a horse. It was always said that if I studied hard and got a good job I could buy my own.
I used to be deposited at the stables (too far to walk by miles) and would work for rides. I started at that yard in 2000 and then in 2010 when I finally got my own horse when I was 21 I kept him at those same stables. 2022 and I'm still there ? I think I'm a piece of the furniture there now.

 

[Orangehorse]

My older sisters were very keen and were friends with a local dealer/farmer. They had a rather nice 14.2 as their first pony, there was some TB in there somewhere. My sisters were much older than me. They used to hack to Pony Club or got lifts but as our parents were non horsey they were on their own really. I had a pony when I was 7 but I was a slow learner and was on the leading rein until I was 10 and I can remember desperately wanting to win a rosette at a show for my one sister who had had an operation and was in hospital, but it was years before I won any. I had a series of rather unsuitable ponies, including one that bolted with me and another that used to nap and rear, but I loved him, until we got an Irish 3 year old bay mare who was very good and did gymkhanas and hunting and Pony Club. We bought a small trailer and went to shows most weekends and hacked for miles and miles and went for a long ride every weekend if there wasn't a show.

 

[Orangehorse]

OP - that is interesting, because I have found that nearly all my old friends don't have children or grandchildren who ride. They may have learnt to ride at one point, but haven't kept up with it.

 

[scats]

Me and my first pony. I was 14 here, I got her when I was 10.

 

[Highmileagecob]

OP - that is interesting, because I have found that nearly all my old friends don't have children or grandchildren who ride. They may have learnt to ride at one point, but haven't kept up with it.

I think the days when a scruffy leg at each corner could be kept for next to nothing with a local farmer are long gone. Horses are a luxury these days, and need caring for 365 days of the year, so that puts the brakes on family holidays too - if you can afford a holiday and a horse! I also think the farrier was probably noticing that kids of non-horsey parents don't often have ponies. If the family keeps an interest then the kids are more likely to follow. Sweeping generalisation maybe, but true in my area. My daughter has firmly said there will be no ponies for her children.

 

[Cloball]

Technically no, but I had 1/3 of a pony on loan from 13- 16 which worked out well for my non-horsey parents as there was always holiday cover and my friends horsey parent to defer to.
Prior to that me and two friends were dropped off at the local trekking yard at 7am and then picked up when it got dark on Saturdays. Our riding instructor found us a pony at her livery yard and sorted it all out with our parents as a surprise ? Before that I used to borrow a friend's Shetland, I'm pretty sure half the island had ridden him at some point. He loved to run off and dump me in puddles.


For a while the original pony was off games so we sourced a second nutty pony who'd been jobless in a field so I had 2/3 of 2 ponies! They were both bonkers but also perfect, the three of us would head off into the woods usually one or two on bikes and we'd swap out. Both being fine 13.2 PBA's we grew out of them pretty quickly which was heartbreaking. Definitely learnt to ride in that period.

I wish I could find the 15h versions. I went back to riding schools after that as GCSEs were near and parents wanted me to concentrate on exams. Plus it's not often you find such a good deal.


When I tell people they always ask which third ?.

 

[Jeni the dragon]

I'm another who was horseless as a child. Spent years begging my mum and dad for one but they never agreed! Had a friend who had a pony but she was a bit of an baggage!
Helped out on various yards from about 11/12 and then at 18 disappeared off to Penrith and came back with one from the Fell Pony Sales! A 4 year old mare who I still have now. She's 27 and still as opinionated as ever! We've been through a lot together but I wouldn't change her!
Chilling out with her buddy in January waiting for the vet to arrive!

 

[Highmileagecob]

You were brave taking on a Fell for a first pony! The few that I have known make it quite clear why they are a dying breed!

 

[Red-1]

I hoped and prayed for one and got one when I was 13. I had been riding at a riding school once a week for years and had read more books than most, but I still knew nothing.

The pony was a wizz kid, I couldn't ride one side of him. He would just gallop off and, at times, put me in great danger. I daren't tell mum though, in case she sold him.

I came to a deal, where she said that, if I came 1st in my class for a subject, I could have a riding lesson. For a second place, I could have half a lesson, third place a third of a lesson etc etc. Mum didn't see why I would need lessons any more, now I had a pony. I was not a great student but that year I did really well in my exams and got lessons.

After that, we did better and I had great fun. A gang of us would go out for hours. We did daft stuff. We had an idyllic time.

A couple of photos of the pony just before he retired. I still had him years later, until his melanomas got the better of him when he was over 35! I am glad we gave him a retirement as, in my ignorance, he had a hard time when I was riding him

I seemed to do a lot bareback. Not sure why! I think it may have been that they were out in a huge field on a steep hillside and I would just go get him and ride, without carrying the saddle down there.

I got him in 1980. Photos in '82.

 

[MotherOfChickens]

You were brave taking on a Fell for a first pony! The few that I have known make it quite clear why they are a dying breed!

they are cracking ponies, you either get moorbred pony brains or you don’t.

 

[Jeni the dragon]

You were brave taking on a Fell for a first pony! The few that I have known make it quite clear why they are a dying breed!

Oh she's very clear about what she does and doesn't want to do!

 

[Cob Life]

No however I was at a very small riding school where the owners were happy to have me hang around and play ponies all weekend!

I was very lucky as one would spend time with me doing natural horsemanship, teaching me to lunge, etc that you didn’t get in usual lessons

 

[Cloball]

@MotherOfChickens I used to ride a 5yo fell, we once had a disagreement about direction so she climbed a dry stone wall ?

 

[AUB]

Yes, when I was 13 I got Joy, who was an irish draught/connemara mix, imported from Ireland. I had been riding at the riding school since I was 9, but she really taught me how ride!

 

[maya2008]

I didn’t, but my children do now - one each. We see loads of ponies at local shows, my friend’s daughter has one and several ride past my field at weekends. Just today I saw two sets of ponies heading out hacking where we went to hire a school.

We are in a rural area though and the hacking is good - few minutes of road followed by hours of woodland tracks.

 

[MotherOfChickens]

@MotherOfChickens I used to ride a 5yo fell, we once had a disagreement about direction so she climbed a dry stone wall ?

gotta love a pony with ‘tude ?

 

[cauda equina]

Yes, we could disappear for hours on end provided we left a note in the kitchen to say roughly where we were, and took 2p for the phone box in case we got in trouble.

I was the handmedown kid on the scruffy pony. A great way to start a horsey life without getting too up yourself ?

2d, surely - Press button A

 

[Cloball]

gotta love a pony with ‘tude ?

Pretty sure there was some goat in that lineage.

 

[Pegasus1961]

I spent early years growing up in Cyprus and mum paid for riding lessons for me at 'White Arches' near Famagusta (anyone here remember that?) then came to the UK in the mid 70s when I acquired through a slightly eccentric family member a 4 year old spotty cob from Southall Market in West London. I knew absolutely nothing really, but she was an angel and looked after me in spite of being only 4. We'd go off for hours and hours. I did love her and still think about her...

Hi! I have just joined the HHO Forum after seeing your post yeterday when I was looking for info about White Arches. I was also living in Famagusta in the early 70's and after years of pestering for riding lessons, when we moved to Cyprus I too started learning to ride at White Arches! Could we have known each other from those days?? I used to look after Platres (Splat) who was a mis-understood little bay pony with half an ear missing, who had been sold to the riding school by gypsies. As I said in my Intro post, we had to leave suddenly in 1974 when war broke out & I have often wondered what happened to the horses & ponies there. I hoped someone had set them free but then there would have been no grass or water as it was mid summer...

 

[paddy555]

You were brave taking on a Fell for a first pony! The few that I have known make it quite clear why they are a dying breed!

sorry but totally got to take issue with this.
I had a job as a student at a trekking centre. We took out, alone, rides of up to 20 at a time. No H & S worries in those days. We had several fells. When you were trying to keep control and order of 20 odd horses (let alone their riders) you were very very grateful for the fells who you could trust not to do anything stupid and to keep their riders on board.

 

[Highmileagecob]

No offence taken Paddy 555. The ones I have come across were total lunatics if hacked alone. Put them in a group, and normal service resumed. I wonder if there is a buried instinct somewhere that says 'stay together?'

 

[meleeka]

I was 13 and my pony was 3. I learnt so much from her, but I’m not sure I’d want my kids to learn the hard way ?. I did eventually get good enough and kept her until she was pts aged 30.

I know quite a few children with their own ponies. All of their parents are horsey though.

 

[Gloi]

My first pony was a Fell, though not registered, he went everywhere both alone and with others and was a sensible lad though he didn't much like school work.

 

[Flowerofthefen]

Recent conversation with the yard farrier, who says he rarely sees childrens' ponies any more, unless it is a competition home.
Did you have a pony as a child? What did you get up to? I have very happy memories of disappearing for the day with two or three friends on our ponies, pack of sandwiches, no mobile phones, and not reappearing until tea time with no one overly concerned (late 60s early 70s). Our ponies were as fit as fleas, shod every eight weeks unless we had worn the shoes out before then, and they never seemed to ail a thing.

Pretty much the same as you but in the 80's. Never schooled, hacked everywhere, even to the local shows. In the summer hols a friend and I set off at sunrise and didn't get back tol it was getting dark. We stopped at the odd shop for lunch or just didn't bother. Ponies were good as gold, fed well but worked as well. I wish I could get those days back.

 

[Borderreiver]

Sadly not but I did have riding lessons and pony courses. I’m making up for it now though, enjoying my pony in my pensioner years!

 

[blitznbobs]

I did - i learnt on an ancient section a and then learnt to fall off on a section d that i loved more than life itself — had a very dirty stop jumping so i found my way into dressage which he was quite good at … that horse was my best friend and worst enemy and ive just bought my son a pony to play cowboys or knights or whatever and go to pony club with two of his school friends — i dont see him competing any time soon but i hope it will help him have friends

 

[littleshetland]

Hi! I have just joined the HHO Forum after seeing your post yeterday when I was looking for info about White Arches. I was also living in Famagusta in the early 70's and after years of pestering for riding lessons, when we moved to Cyprus I too started learning to ride at White Arches! Could we have known each other from those days?? I used to look after Platres (Splat) who was a mis-understood little bay pony with half an ear missing, who had been sold to the riding school by gypsies. As I said in my Intro post, we had to leave suddenly in 1974 when war broke out & I have often wondered what happened to the horses & ponies there. I hoped someone had set them free but then there would have been no grass or water as it was mid summer...

How exciting! Ive pm'd you!