Horsey things you did as a child.......

Emm

Emm

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Just wondering if I was a strange child !? When I was very young (an old crock now) and pony less, I used to have 3 hobby horses and make show jumping courses in the garden for them to jump over, I also made courses in the lounge for the cat to jump. The hobby horses also had their own "stable" which was a shed really, I used to make muddy plops in buckets and tip them in the stable so I could muck them out, weird or what !

I also made string reins and stirrups to go on a wall which I used to sit astride on and pretend it was a horse !

What things did you do that you'll admit to ?

Emm. x
 
My space hopper was my 'horse'. I used to make jumps for it. Once, at my grandparents farm, someone saw me bopping up and down over the hedge and asked if he could see the horses! I probably had my riding hat on at the time!
 
You lot were more imaginative than me - I used to pretend my bike was my horse - the garage was the stable and our jumps were the speed bumps on the road and I never forgot to pat the saddle at the end of my ride...
 
Haha, I would build jumps in the garden and take my dog over them. I also used to give my friend lessons in the garden, we would just walk around like horses and I'd be giving her tips haha!
 
There was a post not so long ago about this sort of thing and I think we all came to the conclusion this was perfectly acceptable behaviour !!! And anybody who didn't do this were the weirdos!! :)
 
I used to make stirrups out of rope and hang on a wall with a brush in a bucket of sand for a head... That is till the stirrup broke one day doing rising trot...and I fell off the wall into the cellar steps and knocked my self out!!! Then mum took me to a riding school after that, and I got my first horse at age 11 and we used to go off in the hols for all day rides with just a bottle of water and a butty, I never even had a saddle for months till grandad got me one from beaston sales!!! Oh how carefree them days were in the 70's hardly any cars on the roads near where I lived, now it's elf and safety to the hilt!!!
 
I'm another back garden show jumper. We had a very large lawn and my friend and I used to lug out all of dad's garden canes, rakes, hoes or anything else which could double as a jump pole and prop them up on boxes and plant pots to make jumps. The we would canter round pretending to be riding. Drove my poor dad nuts because it would ruin the lawn!!! Happy days ....
 
dreambigpony said:
Haha, I would build jumps in the garden and take my dog over them. I also used to give my friend lessons in the garden, we would just walk around like horses and I'd be giving her tips haha!
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Yup, exactly what I did! We also pretended that we ran a riding school and used to 'book' everyone in, organise their horses and teach them all.

Totally normal behaviour for pony mad kids!
 
Build jumps out of plant pots and garden canes and jump them on foot, sometimes with a hobby horse sometimes just me. Even did "puissance" a few times and as a kid would have loved those kid jumps they now make that look like proper sj jumps!
Friends would also be roped into it but I could also happily spend hours out there on my own.

I also had about 15 magpie models that I used to have a riding school with, would write up lists and schedules, they'd go for hacks in the garden/ along the landing and if going to Nan's/ Gran ' s they'd come in their shoe box "trailer" complete with tack etc..

my rocking horse also won the grand national and badminton and Hickstead multiple times as I'd ride him along to the rounds going over the jumps etc. Despite once falling off and getting concussion.

certainly wasn't interested in boys back then/ girly toys, the only dolls I had were if they came with a horse lol.
 
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I was rubbish at rising trot for ages, so I used to practice on the arm of the sofa haha!

and also after my riding lessons we always used to go to Tesco, I would walk around with my hat on until I got home!!

on one of my birthdays, I got new jods and some incline skates, that was my party outfit!! terrible
 
Glad I wasn't alone in this!! I also had "stables" for my hobby horses - I had three of them and the house we lived in when I was little was unusual because it had a hallway running the entire length of the house down the one side of it, with three indoor utility rooms off it. So like a passage between the main house & the three rooms, but all undercover - and at the end of the passage was a door to the back and front garden. So these three rooms were subtly turned into stables for each of my horses and I would be forever sneaking carrots in there and carrying water buckets through the house to them... must have driven my mum mad! I would then "tack them up" (my poor mum made bridles for the ones without..) and take them out round the garden for a hack / "jumping lesson" (brooms and buckets). Kept me busy for hours! At school where the hobby horses were not allowed, my pony-mad friends and I used to take it in turns to either be the horse or the instructor and created all these little routes / arenas using the markings in the playground, and used to use the "gallops" on the playing field... !
 
Ha ha! Another back garden show jumper here, my cousin+I had a whole stable of imaginary horses all with exotic names! We'd build courses out of mops+brushes in my grandparents garden. We'd also insist my poor granddad be the commentator!! Also had a block of wooden stables which granddad made for my model horses, would mix up museli+cereal to create feeds!!
 
I'm another who built an XC course in the garden from anything I could find in the garage - used to make my younger brother jump round it, occasionally with me clinging to some reins around his middle!

A horsey mad friend and I also 'opened a riding school' - we cut pictures of horses out of magazines and made up profiles for them (all in very neat folders!) and would take bookings from clients, matching them to the perfect horse.
I found the folders a year or so ago and had a great time reminiscing.
 
I also begged and pleaded with my parents to buy me a head collar (this was years before I had a pony) and used to go on family walks wearing complete riding gear with the head collar over my shoulder - in the hope that people we passed would think I was off to catch my (non-existent) pony!
 
I used to run as if I was cantering and do flying changes every time I changed direction! :o Also, I used to turn cereal boxes into stables for my model ponies, and with friends we used to take it in turns with a skipping rope as reins to be a horse. ;)
 
spotty_pony said:
I used to run as if I was cantering and do flying changes every time I changed direction! :o Also, I used to turn cereal boxes into stables for my model ponies, and with friends we used to take it in turns with a skipping rope as reins to be a horse. ;)
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I'd also "canter" everywhere including round my sj courses, couldn't possibly run though would if I was "galloping" :-D
 
Yep, pretty much all of the above. I used to try and lunge the family dogs. Oh, and make my sister crawl around on all fours whilst riding her. And try and ride the dogs.

My dad turned the tables on me in my teen years though. He drove a green and white citroen 2CV. I had a green and white silk on my hat. On the drive to and from the stables, whilst sat at traffic lights, he'd put my hat on and use my crop to encourage the car to race off the lights. A citroen 2CV..... I used to die of shame. Of course, in hind sight, it was absolutely hilarious!
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWd_r2sOPhs


The bit at the end always reminds me of my youth lol ... in fact most of this sketch sums it up ... we were lucky enough to have our own ponies as kids, kept at home and the local farm ... and when we weren`t riding them, we were pretending to ride cantering round out home made jumps lol ... happy days :)
 
Me too, all of the above, "ponyless child syndrome" behaviours! My string included my bike, the garden fence, the railings on the landing (eek!), and a fallen tree on the nearby footpath... Love that sketch too! Now I work in a primary school, I spend playground duties watching some of the children play pretend pony games! Sadly we aren't meant to condone improper use of skipping ropes in case of injury. :(
This is a great thread!
 
Normal behaviour for me was have a string between my teeth with a friend trotting along behind steering me. Not so normal is trying to canter around the house after the dog on hands and knees. I must have looked like a demented ape! I also used to lie in front of the TV with the racing on and 'gallop' with my back feet, scraping my toes on the carpet. My mum probably still has counselling. 😂
 
For years I trotted and cantered everywhere. I used to make hobby horses out of garden canes and socks. We also taught the dogs to be our horses. Bonny a border collie and Jenny a standard poodle would run between our legs with reins around their necks doing jumping courses. Bless the poor things.
 
Fransurrey said:
Normal behaviour for me was have a string between my teeth with a friend trotting along behind steering me.

I accidentally (and before they were due) pulled out my little sisters two bottom baby teeth with the skipping rope 'bit' in her mouth. I like to think I have softer hands now!
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Mike007 said:
As a child ? I still jump imaginary fences as I drive . Some of those hedges by the motorway look pretty inviting!
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Well if we are being totally honest -
I still practice my jumping position over the speed bumps when I cycle home from work....
 
Garden/front room show jumping with a borrowed dog. Skipping rope 'stirrups' on the fence to practice rising trot. A dismantled dolls' house turned into a stable (I used a toy loom to weave a string sack and filled it with porridge oats), skipping rope again to tie to my bike handles as reins (that didn't end well) and the endless poems I treated my English teacher to... (..the creak of leather, the clang of bit, over pounding hooves I sit...)
 
Can't believe I'm admitting to this but here goes, as a child many moons ago, I used to 'ride' a singer sewing machine of the treadle variety, using potatoe mashers as stirrups, my non horsey family still laugh about it. I also used our family dog as a pony, cutting a saddle shape out of a carpet sample, crocheted a bridle for her and used the crochet hook as a bit, poor long suffering dog. Coming from a poor council estate, money was tight, but we used to get the ragman coming round, horse and flat cart, swopping rags for balloons or goldfish, well, I must have watched too many westerns, with the cowboys slapping horses rumps, cos I slapped the ragman's horses rump and gave it such a fright, it tried to take off, I felt so guilty at scaring a horse, I also did the jumping over broom handles on anything to hand and Marion Mould's Stroller was my favourite pony, god I feel old, memory lane is a long lane to travel
 
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