Did you have a pony as a child?

[Lois Lame]

I didn't get a horse until I was 16, but had a friend whose family had horses. We met at age 10. My non-horsey parents weren't at all worried about what we did -- not that I did much as I was never a dare-devil. But my friend and her siblings all rode well/daringly. (I think my friend was the most sensible among them.)

My friend lives 300 miles away and always has done. We're still great friends and when we catch up, we have a wow of a time. (Not on horses, just yakking.) (Talking.) (Not riding yaks.)

Those days, the dare-devil riders gave their horses/ponies lots of work and they never needed locking up and all this nonsense (I totally dislike locking up horses.) They never foundered because they were worked properly. People were out on the streets, gardening, playing, riding, whatever. These days people are inside on their-

Er-

 

[ponynutz]

Got my girl now at 10 after loaning a few to prove to my parents I was actually serious and wouldn't get bored. Why I can never part with her - I'm 19 now...

Luckily she never really cared for being in work (apart from jumping occasionally) and loves her hacking so it's all worked out quite well in the end now she's my happy hacker. She's basically a field ornament who goes for walkies when I'm at home haha!

 

[Sandstone1]

Had my first one at 11, didnt work out but got another at 12 and had him until he died at 25. Had others in the meantime too. Hopefully will have my current ones for years yet but they will most likely be my last due to cost of living and increasing age. When that day comes it will be a massive change as they have been my life really.

 

[Equi]

I got my first pony at 11 or 12. Joey. Bought from someone’s backyard for £300, he was clipped but only half (as in the full left side done the right side not) because they couldn’t decide which was better. He was “10” and could jump a 15ft hedge. He didn’t have any tack so my trial involved a bareback ride up the main road. Got him to the tack shop and they said take him back he’s about 20 and riddled with melanoma. They wouldn’t take him back so he spent his days with me.

He was still fit and able and never had a lame day in his life. We would take off on a Saturday and hack to my friends for brunch, set off together and stop at her mum and dads in the middle of an estate for lunch then tittle off home again. I think I had him for about 2 or 3 years before he succumbed to the melanomas. Great pony!

 

[millikins]

We had a sec A type who was meant to be shared with my sister, I was about 6, she was 10 but she was the real horsy one. She gave me a lesson one day, pony set off much faster than I did and I went off the back, got my foot stuck and was dragged down the road on my face, I still have a scarred nose. I did ride after that but it was never quite the same, I rode off and on throughout my teens and adulthood until my daughter was born and proved to be one of those little girls who was, and remains obsessed with horses. So if you can't beat them...

 

[ILuvCowparsely]

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.

No I didn't. My first horse I got in 1983 in my 20's. i

 

[Errin Paddywack]

I was mad about horses from a very young age. I remember my gran teaching me how to draw a horses hind leg properly, not just as a straight leg. I never even sat on a pony till I was just 12 at our school fete. My friend and I then started looking for fetes that had pony rides, most did back then 1960, and that was our early riding. Then found a localish RS about 5 miles away that we used to cycle to. After that we found one much closer and rode there until it closed down and then moved to the one I ended up working at. In all that time I never had one lesson, I read everything I could get my hands on and learned that way. Seems totally mad now but at 17 having only been riding 5 years I started teaching others to ride and I don't think I did too bad a job. Back then all riding was on road hacking, no field work. Ménages and indoor schools weren't really heard of. I bought my first pony at 21, my favourite at the RS, when I left and became an office worker. It all accelerated from there.

 

[JGC]

I never had a pony as a child, but the horse in my avatar is basically the pony I never had - first I've done picnic rides, pony games, SJ shows, bareback adventures, riding to and from the field in a headcollar, all the things I'd never done with the fancy warmbloods.

Love her so much

 

[Armchair Eventer]

I had a little dun nappy mongrel from age 9. He napped, bucked, cat jumped but came alive out hunting. He taught me determination and stick ability. I had a lovely New Forest for a year but quickly out grew but he went to a lovely home for the Pony Club DC's grand children. Then I got a proper horse, 3/4 TB. Lots of lovely Pony Club and Riding Club activities. Work and life took over but after horseless decades I now have a lovely Connie x TB mare who was my Covid madness but she is an absolute joy.

 

[Starzaan]

I did. I was incredibly lucky to grow up surrounded by horses. I had a hairy pink (roan) shetland called Knockers as my first pony, and then when I was ten went on to an absolute firecracker of a generic 13.2hh Dartmoor x something called Solo. I went EVERYWHERE on him, and have wonderful memories of camping with him, hunting, pony club, teams, going on adventures with friends, stopping at the bakery in the next village to buy lunch and then hacking to the river to sit on the banks and eat it. Building cross country courses in our fields and hooning around bareback. My father used to bring him to pick me up from school sometimes and we would ride home together. I was so, so lucky.
I finally outgrew him at sixteen, and got my beautiful Roy boy, a 17hh ISH who I then had for thirteen wonderful years.
I feel so lucky to have grown up with my own ponies, and it’s something I will definitely do for my own children when I have them.

 

[Highmileagecob]

I have very vivid memories of racing three friends up the M62 before it was surfaced! The engineers and workmen were cheering us on, and no one seemed to mind the carriageway looking like a racetrack!

 

[LadyGascoyne]

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.

Is it possible that your farrier sees less of them because so many people are opting not to shoe, and only competition ponies need studs?

There are plenty of children with ponies around here, and my friend and I are already shopping for her son’s first pony… he’s not even one yet!

 

[J&S]

My mother died when I was very young and ponies became (and still are!) my happy place. I got my own pony aged about 12 and he was a very green 3/4 yr old NF/TB called Bubbles. We did all the lovely childish things together with my friends, he cost £50.00, I paid 10/- a week livery at the local riding school about 3 1/2 miles away. I cycled there at every possible opportunity. I rode bare back much of the time, no hat, just an old pair of cord trousers but rather nice jodhpur boots I can see in the photos. It was in Northamptonshire so we had stone walls to jump! We hunted with the Pytchley and went to pony club camps. It is a sad day when you outgrow your first pony.

 

[Sugarplum Furry]

First pony was a birthday present from my parents when I was 4, a jet black Dartmoor pony rather aptly called Goblin, he was a little demon. He spent the next 6 years trying to kill me in a variety of ways, I got chucked off frontwards, backwards, sideways, I got bitten, kicked and squashed, I had to be regularly rescued out of ditches and deep hedges, and once even out of a tree. Maybe my parents bought him thinking it would put me off ponies for life. Didn't work obviously.

Then came Brandy. Underweight, mangy, young, nervous and wobbly bay New Forest pony. Long story short he turned into the most wonderful happy, healthy pony, a true all rounder, excelled at gymkhana and best friend through my teenage years.

 

[MagicMelon]

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.

This is exactly what I remember, it was in the 90's. Age of 8 I got my first pony and Id disappear for hours off into the forests, my parents never knew where I was. I used to love sitting in the heather with my best friend, our ponies munching and us eating our cream cheese and cucumber sandwiches with flies buzzing round us. Those were the very best years. I did do Pony Club pretty much every weekend though so competing was very much involved.

 

[Birker2020]

I didn't have my first horse until I was 17 although I'd had horses on loan from the ages of 14. Mum said unless I'd gone through a winter with a horse I wasn't allowed one. I then got my 'proper horse' aged 25 a 14 year old WB who was a Grade B show jumper and taught me a lot, mostly with confidence as he never ran out or refused a jump the 2 years 10 months I had him. He sadly died following an accident we had on a fun ride.

 

[SpotsandBays]

Non horsey family, (but agricultural dad!). We moved to the farm when I was about 6, and had a lady with a couple of ponies on DIY. I started taking lessons on these ponies, loved it and did the usual “mummy daddy I want a pony”. One day - a year later - one of dads friends overheard my pleas said he knew of somebody with a pony that was going for free. So my parents begrudgingly trundled me over to meet said pony, Heather - a Heinz 57 12.2 grey mare, approx 14 years old. Had done pony club etc, and then been outgrown by their kids. We picked her up a few days later, gave them £50 cash just to say thanks and that was it! I lived outside in my long rubber riding boots, hoolying around the fields and making memories with her. Sweet mare with a hint of cheeky.

I’m 26 now, and still have her (she’s mid 30s). She’s long retired after teaching myself and so many others, and is now living her bestest life in the fields.

 

[AShetlandBitMeOnce]

I rode the family pony who was actually my aunts - she has a few different horses throughout my childhood, I also worked every weekend at the riding stables for a lesson on the sunday but I didn't have my own horse until I could drive and pay for it myself, which was at 17.

 

[SEL]

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...

I got evacuated in 1974 as well - but was only a baby so the pony addiction hadn't yet begun!!

My dad stayed behind for a while and had the cat PTS to avoid it being turfed out but I think there were quite a few of the military personnel who didn't leave immediately so hopefully the ponies were sorted. I'll ask him if he remembers

 

[ROMANY 1959]

Yes. Used to ride a very bad tempered black shetland at local farm. As they would never sell him, I was about 5/6 then. My grandad used to look after the working horses there, then I went to local riding school when I was about 10. Had great fun , used to go on my bike at 7 in morning and dad would need to drag me home throwing bike in back of his van. Then my grandad went to Ireland one week to buy some greyhounds, and low and behold. A few days later a lovely 15h bay connie was in the field, all mine. I was 11 then. We had some fun for many years. This was about 1970, I sold her to a local farmer, to breed with his connie stalion, she had 3 foals I knew of, I went to college, and uni, then married, had a son, then my husband passed away when my son was 9, and left us comfortable off, so I bought the lad a horse, a ex eventer, and he got into Polocrosse , bought a lorry, then I started carriage driving so got a gypsy Vaner piebald, 17h, and just for fun a young 4 year old Irish chestnut to event. Then of course son moved up the grades. So old horse retired to country, and we got an ex polo horse for son. We had years of fun till son went to uni, then I sold everything, gave piebald to a good friend, he is still goi good at 20, and now I breed cocker spaniels?? oh my youth was so filled with freedoms and horses and dogs, all thanks to my grandad

 

[Mari]

No I didn’t & I wasn’t allowed to go to a riding school to learn to ride. My parents just used to say when I had a job & was earning my own money I could buy a horse. I had to wait until I was in my 30s before I could afford, not only to buy but to keep, a horse. Of course did it all wrong. Racing friends took me to an off the track sale . I bought a 2 yr old Tb mare & taught myself, book in one hand horse in the other. I’d read every book I could find but nothing prepares you like having a real live horse to look after. Fortunately my mare had been backed & raced 4 times & she was really sweet. I’ve been broke ever since but learned so much & had so much fun. I have her grandson which I bred & trained. He’s fabulous.

 

[Highmileagecob]

Thank you for all your shared memories. There are some lovely stories - it really does shape a golden childhood doesn't it?