How Did We Ever Make it too Adult Hood

[Chavhorse]

Been reading the 'how old were you when you started to ride' and started thinking......how on earth did we survive our horsey childhoods for instance;

My dad used to take me out hacking aged 2 sitting in front of him holding onto the Breast plate strap of his 17 hand hunter....and we used to canter!

The old fashioned riding hats with the elastic chin straps, remember them when you flew off they went in the complete opposite direction.

Never had the great pastic jump blocks and poles we used to use ahem.....tea chests and broomsticks and on one memorable occasion (I still remember the hiding my mother gave me) my sister and I carried the new leather sofa out to the field and jumped over the back of it.....parents had gone out for the afternoon....they would never had known if Porridge (my sisters pony) hadn't landed on it and left a perfect set of hoof prints on the seat.

When I was a kid what is now Parelli was known as "stop mucking about with that bloody pony before it kicks you"

So spill the beans what are your " I can't believe I did that and got away with it intact" moments

 

[charliesarmy]

Hot summer days did'nt warrent tacking up especially when you had a perfectly good headcollar and leadrope to go gad about in

 

[miss_bird]

My friend and i used to have a very old bareback saddle (25yrs ago) and used to put 2 pairs of stirrups and think we look fab doing rising trot and jumping in unison with each other luckily the pony never complained. have to say if i see a child doing that today i would prob tell them how unfair they are being on the pony's back.
Used to flat out race each other on all the grass verges with cars and lorries pasing us and never gave a thought to what would happen if the one of the ponies shied.
I think too many others to mention

 

[Hemirjtm]

[ QUOTE ]
Hot summer days did'nt warrent tacking up especially when you had a perfectly good headcollar and leadrope to go gad about in

[/ QUOTE ]

I still do that

GAlloping through the water with no hat on, in a headcollar and leadrope

Just sooo much fun

(on cobs, with rather well covered backs I will add!! LOL!)

 

[MrsMozart]

ROFLMAO at the sofa CH

. Ta for that

.

Chin straps and fixed peaks - a broken neck in the waiting.

Riding bareback on a halter and leading five other neds a mile or so down the road to take them back to their fields.

Riding anything and everything so long as it had four attached, and roughly working, legs.

Ah, the good old days

.

 

[MrsMozart]

Ooh, galloping, hatless because it was too hot to wear one

Bad me...

 

[Nailed]

You emptied you Pms now??!! lol

I remeber someone saying 'Shes rears' and me saying 'So what?!'

 

[charliesarmy]

Health and safety pish pah we used to take the RS ponies/horses back to the fields at the end of the day 20 or so horses being ridden in just bridles by kids with not a clue at 100mph down the bridlepaths I can remember doing it first time and kacking myself but typical kid couldnt wait to do it again...bet they can't do it now though with all the h+s rules and regs

 

[MrsMozart]

[ QUOTE ]
You emptied you Pms now??!! lol

I remeber someone saying 'Shes rears' and me saying 'So what?!'

[/ QUOTE ]

Oops, no. Was I meant to...?

*scuttles off to hoover*

 

[popsicle]

Back in the early 70's we used to ride one behind the other on my cob and he used to try to buck us off. (great fun). One really dangerous thing we used to do was lay in the ditch (on our backs looking upwards) to observe each other jumping pony over us!!!!!......................I KNOW CRAZY!!! Also taking pony for a swim in the small quarry!! Aggghhh. It's a wonder I am still here.

 

[Hemirjtm]

[ QUOTE ]
Health and safety pish pah we used to take the RS ponies/horses back to the fields at the end of the day 20 or so horses being ridden in just bridles by kids with not a clue at 100mph down the bridlepaths I can remember doing it first time and kacking myself but typical kid couldnt wait to do it again...bet they can't do it now though with all the h+s rules and regs

[/ QUOTE ]

10yrs ago I used to ride the pony i had on loan down to the field in a headcollar, gallop it accros the field and it would start slowing down before it got to the gate!

I think all the H+S is just stupid nowadays....

 

[hoggedmane]

Riding my dad's 16.2 flat out across the field in a headcollar as my mum drove up the drive when I was about 11.

going hacking with my friends. There were 5 of us and we had 4 ponies...

riding across the golf course ( now that was dangerous!)

water fights on pony back

bringing my pony into the kitchen

hacking everywhere bareback

bareback jumping competitions at shows

 

[MrsMozart]

Another one! Friend's pony used to go into the sitting room and lie down in front of the fire lol. And her Mum didn't mind!

.

PMs cleared, but am orff to bed as am old and need m'beauty sleep

.

 

[charliesarmy]

God I going back to my youth me and best mate decided we wer'nt going to pay the £1 electricity charge to clip out our ponies we would take em to my house (garage) and do em there so armed with our set of trimming clippers (which we had pooled our spend's for) set about clipping first pony took forever then realised it had be pouring rain and all the hair that had blown out out the garage was stuck all over our neighbours cars

hence we had to finish off clean out my mums garage...then wash most of the neighbours cars all for the sake of a £1

 

[k1963]

Stuffing my 2nd hand hat with newspaper as it was too big & kept falling over my eyes .
Galloping & jumping on hard ground ( remember the boiling hot summer of 1976 ? ) Sorry Beech & Cocktail .

Racing your friends on small , elderly ponies to their field , bareback , hatless & pony only 'wearing' a lead rope around his neck - yes , I fell off several times as the elderly ponies loved to race , then stop suddenly at the gate .

Dislocating my nose as I flew over a jump ( pony wisely refused ) & injuring my nose on the stiff peak of my hat , which needless to say had come off & was lying in wait for me as I flew over

The riding school I went to knew little about these exploits , mainly because the above exploits took place on friend's ponies . We did race the old r/s ponies though , but the field went down a dip & we couldn't be seen .

I'm feeling rather ashamed now

 

[Linz75]

PMSL

Where to start? Daring my sister (with the help of an older friend) to ride the Shetland pony in the field opposite the farmyard - God knows whos it was, whether it was broken etc, we didnt care! She climbed onto the top wire of the fence & he was stood eating grass with his back to us, she lept off the fence onto him, his head shot up & he screamed off bucking & farting around the field with my sister clinging on for dear life!! He galloped to the muddiest part of the field & ditched her beside the water trough..I CANNOT explain how funny it was..!

Also, leap frogging onto our ponies over their bums..how we never got kicked I will never know..

3 of us riding a 12hh all at once...

The list could go on all night!

 

[miss_bird]

bridles, saddles and riding hats what were they.
In winter remember not riding ponies all week then going on a sat and sun, dragging them in from field and going on 2-3hour rides with plenty of galloping and racing, how cruel

 

[Fletchersmum]

Riding pony in from field bareback with just the headcollar and makeshift reins from the leadrope!!

Riding in the summer in shorts and vests through barleyfields!!

I got my very first riding hat from a second hand ad in the local paper. It was horrid, smelled gross and had a navy nylon type material with an elastic chin strap and the name Jill Henbury in biro written in.

Jill if your out there...LOL

 

[YorksG]

QR
Ditto taking RS ponies back to the field, often riding one and leading another.

When got the first horse cantering him on each and every grass verge (In my defence there was not as much traffic as now)

Hat with a knot in the elastic, 'cos it had stretched

Horse putting head round kitchen door and knockin the jam pan off the cooker, while it was full of blackberries mother was making jelly with

 

[k1963]

Sliding off a r/s pony in ' Best Turned out' as I had used about 1/2 a tub of saddle soap on the saddle.

Emulating (sp ? ) the mounted Police rides in our lessons , cantering & jumping bareback whilst taking off your hacking jacket & throwing it into the centre of the school . My Mum was nervous of horses , but what really got her was the state of my jacket

Being run away with a strong pony in Epping Forest where I originally came from . Hat over one eye , praying we'd miss the trees & being stopped ( thankfully ! ) by a man in a pub beer garden

 

[Azabache]

What a hilarious post. My main adventures were as others, galloping bareback with headcollar and leadrope. Hacking out for hours in all weather at 11 years old. Used to work from 8am to 6pm at the RS for £2! My friend used to canter along the verge of the A45 by Birmingham airport and said that her and her friends would take it in turns to lie on the ground and jump their ponies over each other! It's such a shame that kids don't get to have the fun that we did with ponies.

 

[k1963]

YorksG - Same here , a grimy piece of elastic with a knot in it as a chin strap .

The hat came from a hotel we were staying at in Warwickshire & cost £3 in about 1972 . ( It was well past its prime then

By the way , I meant I grew up in the Epping Forest area - I wasn't born in the forest & raised by the deer , in as far as I know

 

[miss_bird]

great stories, glad i was a kid when i was so i had a chance to do all the things that were fun then but called dangerous now.
Now sitting with a glass of wine wishing life was as it was then, when everything was fun and carefree, not all H&S

 

[Cliqmo]

ROFL at the sofa!! I would have killed you!!

I remember riding in shorts and t shirts in just a headcollar and without a hat on, I also remember lying about having my body protector on under my jumper at PC camp when we went cross country because I hated it and didn't want to wear one! SOOO dodgy!!

 

[Cliqmo]

Just read through this whole thread and have tummy ache from laughing- happy days! Thanks all

 

[brighteyes]

Local farmer had non-existant fencing but still took in grazing liveries. These various creatures inevitably escaped and had to be returned to their fields (naturally) although the routes used were extremely circuitous, to say the least. Equally obviously was the need to undertake the exercise aboard the escapees (for safety reasons

) although the only equipment available was - you guessed it - headcollar and leadrope.

I recall returning one particular animal (a grumpy 16.2 chestnut mare) to its field on several occasions by this rudimentary method and being rather bemused to see the owner come down one day to ride it - but not before she had strapped it up and down with every conceivable restraining gadget available in those days!

We rode up the M55 just before it was opened

and watched (from rather closer range than expected, or even anticipated) a test pilot from British Aerospace fly a Tornado (I think it was) under one of the bridges. Merrylegs and Dinah were truly bombproof...

A friend and I rode one of the Landau horses from its winter grazing the ten or so miles back to Blackpool - bareback, two up, with only a driving bridle and our Christy Beauforts with elastic chinstraps. We repeated the exercise on a different occasion on two less charitable animals, one each this time although mine hadn't actually been ridden before. It was fine though, because this time I had a saddle with a girth - a bit short, but never mind, I had lengthened the girth-straps with baling string

My first riding hat was very second hand, had a cork lining and a massive dent in the top. It's 'elastic' wasn't, and also featured a knot.

My mother had absolutely no idea what I got up to, nor how dangerous any of it could have been

 

[Chavhorse]

ROFLMO here what a bunch of horrors we were talk about small pony abuse no wonder they all had "personality'

My Mum was a pony club instructor and I can still remember her tying knot in my hat when the elastic strap became too big.

Do you all remember HOYS and Hickstead as Primetime TV? used to be allowed to stay up on a school night to watch....Harvey's V sign at Hickstead I had a major crush on Harvey

and who used to practice bending using cones with razor sharp garden canes standing up in them?

Elf & Safety pah

 

[cariadssogreat]

This is so funny, H&H ought to print this post in the mag, lol. Thanks for the giggles.

Sadly the only sin I can admit to is cantering bareback with only a headcollar and rope, no had, across a council "green space" with no riding permitted. Well I did keep to the sides lol.

Kids these days really dont have this amount of fun

 

[MrsMozart]

[ QUOTE ]
This is so funny, H&H ought to print this post in the mag, lol. Thanks for the giggles.

Sadly the only sin I can admit to is cantering bareback with only a headcollar and rope, no had, across a council "green space" with no riding permitted. Well I did keep to the sides lol.

Kids these days really dont have this amount of fun

[/ QUOTE ]

Gawd, these really are teasing the memories out

Two of us cantering (actually more like being bombed off with

) over the school's eight hundered metre track!

. Then being in Games at school the next day and trying not to look guilty

. Oh so bad me

.

 

[starsky]

We used to lie on the ground under jumps and jump over each other