Horse-mad childhood memories :)

[SarahF]

Just for fun - what are yours?

Mine (baring in mind I never had my own)
Steeplechasing down my street with my best friend. She always rode Milton - my ride was always Downlands Cancara (I LOVED that horse haha!)
We jumped over the irregular dark patches of Tarmac haha!

Bedroom wallpaper consisted entirely of posters from Horse & Pony magazine. Shiny, copper chestnut Arab stallion had pride of place (the only poster I actually kept - I'm 33 and still have it - not on my wall though )

"Looking after" (read: grooming, treating, watering & pretending to own) a pair of shire colts because friends mum knew the farmer who foolishly let us risk life and limb in the field with them every weekend.

Volunteering down a competition livery yard (before I could even ride) Cycling an hour each way come wind, snow or blow (plus enduring mega jealousy when the grooms took the horses out to excersize) in order to simply be around the horses all day.

One of the girls who kept her showjumper there took pity on me and let me ride her horse after a round on competition day. I did what I would at the riding school (kick on) and ended up on the other side of the carpark (still in the saddle fortunately!)

I could go on and on...

 

[JJones]

When I was about 3 a neighbour used to take me on her horse everyday for a ride. I'd sit in front of her. One day I missed her and saw her ride past. I remember having a monster tantrum. I did have my own pony as well at the time. Can't remember how these rides started but she must have had some patience to take me nearly every day!

When I went to my Nan's for holidays I'd ride my space hopper over every type of household item I could find pretending I was competing.

 

[flirtygerty]

Mine are, riding the beach ponies bareback from their field to the beach, the rule was, if you caught the pony, you rode it, then spent all day leading it up and down the beach, till riding it bareback, back to the field, also walking miles to our local riding school, to sweep the yard, muck out, tack up etc, loved every blister i got. My pony hero was Marion Mould's Stroller, money was tight when I grew up, but I was obsessed with anything horsey, I used two potatoe mashers as stirrups and rode the Singer sewing machine, imagination is a great thing, I also made a 'saddle' out of a carpet square and crochet'd a bridle for our pet dog, bless her longsuffering socks, I was desperate for a pony of my own, but never managed that till I was 18, I look back and laugh, I remember blackberry picking with my family, I was sent to the car for something and got totally sidetracked by a show at a nearby farm, I was away for hours, my mother finally found me, still entranced by the show, boy did I get into trouble for that one, happy memories

 

[Elbie]

I never had my own horse growing up either.

For some reason I decided to cover my ceiling with the Horse and Pony posters. Made my bedroom REALLY dark!

Me and my friend used to play horses at playtime. This mainly consisted of us being naughty horses that kept banging the stable door and escaping. We made our poor non-horsey friend pretend to be the owner trying to catch us.

My friend bought me a small bridle decoration. I used to spent ages just taking it apart and putting it back together one day dreaming that I would have a life size one. I never really thought people would be perfectly happy for me to take apart their bridles, clean them and put them back together!

Ooh, also me and my sister used to play riding schools and lead our bikes (horses) around the garden. I'm not sure why we pretended to be leaders and not riders!

 

[Sologirl]

Pretending to be horses and/or horse stud owners, I made up an entire (and very large!) competition and breeding stud including names, breeds, vices and would pretend to "ride" each horse. Included a Westephalian called Diplomat and an Arab called Sugar Sweet...

If Wishes Were Horses!!

Pony annuals - had some from the late 70's even though I was born in '82. Have recently bought one of them again from eBay - wow, the memories!!

Looking after an ANCIENT pony before we had any of our own - the owners were nowhere to be seen so we pampered him (much to his disgust, the grumpy old sod!)

Horse and Pony magazines

Jinny/Saddle Club books

Local riding school - where I eventually persuaded my poor parents to make a stupid offer for my favourite boy that the YO couldn't refuse!! Best horse EVER and I would kill for a slightly bigger, slightly younger version of him now.

And parents that paid the vets bills!!! Haha.

 

[Dusty85]

Lol! I have so many!

Spending all weekend at the local stables mucking out and generally being cheap (free) labour. Until I got my own pony aged 11.

Reading and re-reading the Jill pony books by ruby ferguson- Black boy and rapide were my idol ponies!

I LOVED horse and pony mag and managed to persuade my parents to get it on subscription.

Riding about the lanes with friends, gymkhana games, packing up the riding school lorry with about 7 of us/ponies for Sunday shows!

Loved every minute of it. Was never one for staying inside/computer games!

 

[Dumbo]

I too didn't have my own pony! But my best friend and I created 'Imaginary Ponies'. It's all I did for about 4 years!
We had little books (paper folded and stapled together) of the horses on our yard. We just printed off photos from the internet then wrote descriptions about them - I'm pretty sure they weren't thrown away so would love to find them now!
We spent hours grooming them (must have looked silly just waving at a wall) then tacked up and jogged around the living room. Sometimes the foot stall was a jump! I even did it when I was on my own and had to make sure every day they had a hard feed and a pile of hay.
Ahh so wish I could have that sort of fun these days! Real ponies are more hard work!

 

[exmoorponyprincess1]

Another non-horse owner as a child who spent every weekend and school holiday from around about age 8 or 9 "working for rides" at a riding school near my grandparents loved every minute. On occasion, I used to also show my mum the "skills" I had learnt by pretending the garden bench was a pony and bringing it buckets of water and sweeping the "yard" around it to prove I was ready to be a pony owner!
I remember being given my first hat and crop by grandads next door neighbour (who had a lovely big cob!) and insisting on wearing them to ride my bike...I then tried to whip my back wheel, got the crop stuck and was catapulted over the handlebars into a lamp post - my first horsey related concussion!!
I also was never short of confidence and seemed to have nerves of steel - if a pony was causing trouble for its rider, I was there willing to get on and see if I could do better! (even when said pony belonged to a friend as opposed to the riding school!) I used to wish for ponies to misbehave so I could get myself an extra ride!!

ETA - Saddle Club books!! Between me and a friend I am pretty confident we had almost every one ever published!! I also loved the Jinny books in fact I am off to ebay to see if I can find any of them now, would LOVE to read those again!!

 

[SarahF]

Ahhh - how could I forget Jinny books lol!

Yeh we pampered the probably +16hh young shires too - they were quite patient really - until the time I got a bit too brave and decided to sit on one's back (not even a headcollar, unbroken, feistiest of the two!)
Let's just say I was lucky he ditched me into the barbed wire paddock fence rather than jump it with me on board!
I still have the scar on the back of my calf where I ripped my leg free
Ahh the good old days lol!

 

[SarahF]

I remember being given my first hat and crop by grandads next door neighbour (who had a lovely big cob!) and insisting on wearing them to ride my bike...I then tried to whip my back wheel, got the crop stuck and was catapulted over the handlebars into a lamp post - my first horsey related concussion!!

Haha that tickled me - I used a crop on my bike too, guess I was lucky not to end up wrapped around a lamp post also!

 

[SarahF]

I used two potatoe mashers as stirrups and rode the Singer sewing machine

That is creative - I just used the back of the sofa. My mum would have strung me up if I'd sat on her sewing machine lol!!

 

[Elbie]

Reading and re-reading the Jill pony books by ruby ferguson- Black boy and rapide were my idol ponies!

I loved the Jill books too. But I remember when Jill first got Rapide she didn't like him and my younger self used to think "spoilt brat, she's moaning about her SECOND horse and I don't even have ONE!"

 

[DizzyDoughnut]

I remember being given my first hat and crop by grandads next door neighbour (who had a lovely big cob!) and insisting on wearing them to ride my bike...I then tried to whip my back wheel, got the crop stuck and was catapulted over the handlebars into a lamp post - my first horsey related concussion!!

This just made me snort my coffee down my nose

Also used to pretend my bike was a horse, and used to jump the random hump in the road outside my house. The neighbours must have thought I was crazy, ended up in A&E once after circling my bike pony to tightly into the hump jump.... he lost his footing and skidded out to the side haha

 

[flirtygerty]

That is creative - I just used the back of the sofa. My mum would have strung me up if I'd sat on her sewing machine lol!!

It was an old fashioned treadle machine, I still get teased about it now lol

 

[exmoorponyprincess1]

That is creative - I just used the back of the sofa. My mum would have strung me up if I'd sat on her sewing machine lol!!

This is brilliant!!! I also think my mum would have killed me if I had sat on her sewing machine however, she did let me use the sewing machine cover as a saddle horse the first time I brought a saddle home to clean and even let me clean the saddle in the middle of the lounge using one of her good tea towels to polish up the stirrups (and stirrup bars!!!) !!
My pony of choice in the house was two dining room chairs facing each other - I sat astride one and had "reins" (length of string) tied to the back of the other (the chairs had useful slats at the back - ideal for tying reins to!) and merrily spent hours trotting around the dining room ahh the good old days!!

 

[fatpony]

We used to tie reins to our bike handle bars when pretending our bikes were horse. My dad made us polo sticks and we used to sit on stools in the back garden hitting a ball back and forth. Once my sister grew out of this kind of stuff I amused myself by planning riding schools, inventing the horses and ponies and planning lessons etc.

 

[RockinRudolph]

Love this thread!

I spent the majority of my childhood helping out at the riding school, and was employed by them when I was old enough. When we weren't at the yard, my friend and I would play 'riding school' in the back garden - everything from taking money from imaginary customers, to barking out orders in 'lessons'. There is a photo somewhere of another friend and I jumping our imaginary horses in her back garden!

I also had one or two of the jill books but quite a few of the saddle club ones (the t.v series doesn't compare at all to the books). I loved 'fly by night' and recently bought another copy as couldn't find my old one. There are a few other well worn pony books on my shelf.

Also remember insisting that I wore my riding clothes to the local tack shop as a kid - I used to seethe with jealousy seeing people in their mucky yard clothes buying rugs and tack for their horses when all I could get was a new pair of gloves (didn't own my own horse until my twenties)! Wearing my jods in there made me feel like I was 'one of them'!

 

[poiuytrewq]

Fantastic thread! I did the same- my bike was an Arab eventer! Called Shanti (painted on the bike!)
We occasionally used to get a sit on cousins ponies when we visited them in the "countryside". My grandad had a brood mare and scatty huge ex racer (was probably about 15.1?!) which he would never let us ride and it was the most unfair thing ever. I just couldn't understand what could possibly go wrong?

 

[Tnavas]

Racing to the window on every Birthday or Christmas morning firmly believing that a pony will be in the garden.

Never happened though - I bought my own with my Saturday job money

Tying string reins to my bike handlebars and doing rising trot everywhere. Also jumping all the ditches on the grass verge with my bike.

 

[SarahF]

I'm so enjoying these posts - seems there were probably more imaginary horses than real ones in those days lol!

Fantastic thread! I did the same- my bike was an Arab eventer! Called Shanti

One of my imaginary horse's was also Shantih (from Patricia Leitch's Jinny books)
I started off with RedRum, then retired him to ride Cancara (Lloyds bank ad horse) and finally Shantih.
I tried to draw a mural of a red horse on my bedroom wall after reading "Night of the red horse".

There was a chestnut pb arab gelding living not far from my house. I absolutely adored him - would visit his field almost daily when possible and thought he must obviously love me back as he snuggled me and gently invaded my pockets knowing where I kept the extra strong mints haha!
I even wrote his name in hearts on my school folders (no time for boys when your a lil girl in love with a horse haha!)
People must have though I'd lost the plot!

 

[NellRosk]

When I was in infant/ junior school I used to 'lunge' other kids with a skipping rope

 

[Cowpony]

Anybody old enough to remember the WH Smith "Win a pony" competition? They used to run it every year - the winner got a pony and funds to keep it for a year. I used to do it religiously and was always bitterly disappointed that I didn't win. It was only when I was well into adulthood that I wondered whether my non-horsey mother had actually ever posted my entries......

 

[joulsey]

My nan and grandads next door neighbour used to have horses and I used to stand in our orchard along side their arena and just watch for hours. They must have thought I was a right freak....wind rain or snow, if they looked up I was there looking!

Eventually they used to shout for me to come round and I would help doing bits and bats, then more and more. If they didn't shout me I'd find an excuse with something that was wrong with one of the ponies My grandad used to have a heart attack seeing me a 9 year old girl leading 2 17hh show hunters to the field. God knows how I had no fear.Eventaully ended up doing more and more til I basically had sole care for them! Only started riding once the neighbours arranged for a coloured cob to come on loan

Previous to my 'own'....

Room fully decorated with H&P and Pony mag

Counting my money tin every week and highlighing throughout Robinsons what I could afford.

Doing figure of 8's and rising trot on my bike.

Building 'jumps' in the garden and jumping.

Pretending speed bumps in the car was jumps.

Holding dog lead like reins.

Sitting on my friends saddle whilst she held it

Going on holiday down to Weymouth and begging to go horse riding. One of them I went on, the lead rider asked me if I could canter (I had never done it before)....so off we went! Well, she looked behind her, she must have wondered where the hell I learned to ride (which was no where)...all I can describe it as was 'rising' canter. Good job horse was a saint!

Local village gala...I used to terrorise that little pony, I think i probabaly gave them 70% of the takings. By the end of that day though I had successfully learnt rising trot!

Going down the the neighbours horse which was in our field and running up and down with grass with him trotting at side. I had watched him being lunged so was copying everything she used to say to him.

Any how, this was my favorite horse of all time. I did my Brownie Animal Care badge thingy at the next door neighbours with their miniture shetland. I had a rota on everything, but then on every Tuesday I had to ' Get Ellie used to humans"

She was a typical chesnut mare, hated everybody and everything, but for some reason she loved me! And we were with each other til the end 5 years ago. Never felt the same about a horse since!

 

[nervous nelly]

I was lucky enough to have a horsey mother so me and my sister had a pony between us growing up, however we still spent hours designing show jumping courses and then jumping them on foot, lunging each other on lead ropes. Playing with plastic horses making up names ages breeds abilities etc. for some reason I always wanted a 16:2 chestnut Arab stallion

 

[SarahF]

Counting my money tin every week and highlighing throughout Robinsons what I could afford.

Haha - I did this too, I totally forgot about my robinsons catalogue

 

[joulsey]

Haha - I did this too, I totally forgot about my robinsons catalogue

I had picked exactly what headcollar, stable rug (Blue Weatherbeeta Jasper! :O), t/o rug, bridle, bit I was going to get....then used to upgrade once I had saved a bit more!

 

[Spilletta]

Anybody old enough to remember the WH Smith "Win a pony" competition? They used to run it every year - the winner got a pony and funds to keep it for a year. I used to do it religiously and was always bitterly disappointed that I didn't win. It was only when I was well into adulthood that I wondered whether my non-horsey mother had actually ever posted my entries......

Yes! I was just about to ask the same thing.

I never won a pony, but eventually was lucky enough to have my own which we kept on a local farm. When we weren't riding the ponies, we were jumping the showjumps on foot. And at home, I used to drive my mum mad by pinching her bean poles to make jumps for me. One part of the garden had a bit of a dip so it was either Becher's Brook, or a xc drop fence - brilliant fun!

I also remember putting a rope around my younger brother's waist and making him go around the garden - don't think you're supposed to long-line brothers

I'm also another Jill fan. Read any horse book I could get my hands on, but Jill was the favourite. And, yes, my room was also covered in Pony Magazine posters (until Duran Duran posters took over!)

 

[caileag]

Great thread. Reminds me so much of how I really ached to have a pony. Myself and friends would go for long walks where we knew we might catch sight of a horse. Evidence of poo on the road would be followed up. Endless showjumping competitions in the back garden (sometimes involving the dogs - my friend's great dane was almost a pony!). Rising trot on the bike and my favourite - cantering along the road to school with a bit of stick for a crop on my imaginary horse - happy days : )

 

[NellRosk]

Just a musing but do kids still have this burn and passion for riding? I remember religiously saving up coupons from Pony magazine and then when I had about a million I could send off for a little pot of Carr Day and Martin hoof grease (didn't own a pony) and it had pride of place on my windowsill in my room! All the kids I know these days just stay inside and watch tv/ play xbox games. A few liveries occasionally bring their kids up to the yard and all I hear is them moaning or they sit in the car glued to a games console!

 

[SarahF]

I was thinking the same thing. fresh air and make believe was more than enough to keep me entertained as a child. I hope some do get the same these days - I'm sure there is another generation of pony-mad yet pony-less young girls mucking out for free and sniffing the tack at every riding stables - haha!!