Health and saftey fanatics .. cover your eyes!

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Me as a teen riding my 14h pony around the field.. with all her friends in (most of which came from Reading Sales) .. with NO tack .. with no hat.. and using her forelock to steer!!

A far cry from now when I am dressed up in hat, hi viz, air jacket etc!!
 
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I remember riding bareback in the dark with headcollars on and jamming a torch through the headpiece - so 'the horse could see' lol think the horse was more freaked out by the light dancing in front of its feet :biggrin3:
 
A couple of years back I came home to find my pony had broken into a huge field and was way down the end I marched down with my leadrope to find she had lost her headcollar! We were so far I couldn't bear walking so I hopped up hatless in my sschool uniform and galloped back with only a leadrope round her neck!
 
I have always been a great one for always riding with a crash hat on.
However prior to the commencement of a accross the U.K. sponsored charity ride which I was involved with the press asked for some photos of me on horseback and I forgot to put on my crash hat.
 
Takes me back to a very memorable ride in Egypt, I rode a grey Arab stallion, no hat, and trainers, I soon realised I had zero control, the horse didn't understand hand or leg aids at all, he just took instruction from the guide who would shout commands and the horse would respond. Was very exhilarating galloping over the dessert, well I didn't have a choice!
 
As a teenager I had an ex-army riding instructor who used his gorgeous pb arab for lessons. His horse was voice command trained and worked without a lunge line so he would make us ride with no bridle or stirrups and we learned to steer and stop using our weight aids, not hauling on the reins. He also had us jumping like this but blindfold, with arms behind our backs and down jump grids with a cup of tea or pop and you daren't spill it LOL!

I thought these days of freedom were long gone, but we just had Pony Club camp and had all the kids doing bounce fences, then 1 stride to a spread and then a double all with reins knotted on the pony's neck and holding a plastic plate of jelly in one hand and the other behind their backs. The winner being the one who spilt the least jelly, after five laps. All in an open field with 20 ponies milling round. Daughter won, perhaps because she does ride and jump without reins and stirrups at home, or it may have been because she was determined to have the most jelly to eat at the end!
 
Not the best picture and not the best jumping technic ;) - the b@stard was constantly trying to de-sit me and I had an only choice of cantering and jumping in a small (and I mean it!) paddock or dealing with rodeo-bleeming-mustang.
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PS. The story behind this specific horse: he was a REAL b@stard and de-sited me once (run away and then stop abruptly swinging his backside around + absolutely awful saddle with knots on the stirrups) and after it was just aim of his life :D
 
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