how did you become interested in horses?

xMoodyMarex

xMoodyMarex

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Just interested to know what got you all interested in horses?

I'm the only one in my family who's horsey, and being invited to come along to watch a friend's riding lesson many years ago, was what began my horsey journey :)
 
My grandad had a farm with liveries on it. I'd sit on their horses in the stable as a very small kid and hang onto the rug for hours. Loved it. Health and safety would have a field day!
 
I too am from an unhorsey family. I can not not remember not being interested in horses (if you follow!). My earliest memory is of horses. There was a field across the road from my house that had horses in it. It was developed into houses when I was about 3. I remember I used to love to look out the window at the field. Someone once suggested it could have been as a result of displacement of feelings during toilet training.
 
It was in my blood lol. My mum had horses as a child, but then gave up & when I was born she said I just took an interest at about 2, if it wasn't for me she wouldn't of got back into them :p

My daughter is 2 & also showing a massive interest loves helping me with mine & brushing/riding them. So I better get saving the pennies lol
 
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My family aren't horsey. I remember visiting some of my mums relatives in Gloucestershire when I was about 9 and we went for a walk and I ran away crying from the big scary horsies in a field. I don't remember what happened but something must have clicked in my head cos I was given riding lessons for my 13th bday and had been pony mad for a little while before then.
 
My daughter had an accident when she was 4yrs old. She was on a ventilator in intensive care for 3 days. When she finally left hospital she became extremely clingy to me so my friend started to take her to her yard to give me a break. It was there that she fell in love with horses! The friend started to teach her to ride & then loaned us a pony. I had to learn too! I did have lessons to learn to ride but packed in as I much preferred just caring for them!

That was nearly 12yrs ago. I am no longer in touch with the friend but the daughter is still horse mad & is now competing at a pretty decent level :D
 
All I can ever remember is a passion (obsession??) with horses from when I was tiny. Have no Idea how or why as grew up in a big town and my family hardly knew what a horse was. I can remember walking miles just to pat a horse in a field. Im lucky to have my own now.
 
Another one from a non-horsey family. I've just always had this thing for them. I don't remember it, but my Mum told me I was found after going missing at 18 months old hanging onto a horse's tail out in the field behind our house. I've worked with horses professionally all my life since leaving school at 14 in order to take up an apprenticeship with a very old trainer (not racehorses, any horses).
 
I used to do dancing all through my childhood and had a friend that had ponies. I remember always asking to go outside with the ponies rather than play with my friend! I went to professional dance school but failed :( had a few knee probs in professional training.
So then I moved back home got a job and then thought I M going to get into something I always wanted to do now I could find myself. So got my first loan horse at 24 and after a few dodgy purchases I now have my perfect horse cleo who I see me having till te end of her days she is 10 now x
 
Friend I was going on hols with wanted to go trekking as she was horsey, no one would go with her so I said if you teach me to cling on and not die I will come with you :)

The rest is history, a year later I owned my own little Teddy and 8 years on I have my gorgeous Arnie :)
 
When I was six my (non horsey) grandad died and left me a box of books. One of them was 'phantom horse goes to Ireland'. It was cold when I was reading it and the descriptions of rugging up and hot mashes really caught my imagination. I finished the book, went downstairs and asked for riding lessons. I remember it so vividly, my mum was sat on the living room floor on the phone and said yes right away - I remember being surprised but oh so delighted. To this day I still love the feeding and rugging as much as the riding!
Thanks grandad :) x
 
My mum had horses when she was little so I sort of have a horsey background. My sister had a few riding lessons and as soon as I was old enough to go there, I started too! Rode at a RS and rode friends' horses until I was 14, then I got Bella and have had her for 2 1/2 years now :)
 
I'm from a previously non-horsey family too, but I've always just had this obsession with them! I can't remember not liking them. My mum tells me that when I started speaking one of the first sentences I came out with was 'Mummy, look at that horse's bridle' when one walked past the house once. She insists that she hadn't taught me the word 'bridle' so no idea where I got it from!

I begged and begged for riding lessons and, after being told I had to wait until I was 5, they finally caved in when I was 4 and let me go. The rest, as they say, is history :) Needless to say, my sister came to watch my lesson and a week later wanted to start herself too!

ETA: Not that I'm superstitious or anything but it was interesting that I seemed to have an 'inborn' obsession and when we traced our family history back a couple of hundred years they were all ostlers! :)
 
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I don't remember any of this as about 3 at the time.

My mum took my older brother for a lesson at the local riding stables. Somehow I managed to get a sit on a Shetland pony. When the lesson started I refused to get off and had a bit of a tantrum, ended up joining in the lesson. Apparently I fell off more than once but rather that crying I got up and ran after the pony more worried that he was going to taken away from me!

Needless to say my passion for horses and ponies has stayed with me ever since.
 
I've always been interested in horses and apparently asked for riding lessons from a small age. Mum and auntie rode sprodically as kids and were also horse mad so I think they encouraged me.

Auntie got back into riding in the 80's, I started riding around then, mum started riding again, my cousin and brother started riding. Auntie then had several horses, I had bit of a "break" whilst at uni then when I was 22 met the OH through horses and the rest is history! :D
 
I come from a non horsey family and had no means to have regular access to them as a kid, but I can't remember a time when I didn't love them and want to be around them. When I was about 2 my cousin had a pony at her birthday party my mother says that every time they tried to take me off the pony I screamed and wouldn't let any of the kids have a turn. :D
 
My mother (who is so unhorsey it isn't even funny) would tell you that from when I could speak I plagued her to let me go on a horse. When I was 3, out of desperation she took me for a riding lesson expecting that I would hate it and be terrified. 55 years later she's finally got the message that I really wanted to be with horses. She is still unhorsey though.

Not sure where the longing came from it was just always there.
 
My parents lost me at a friends party when I was a toddler (parent fail!!) and when they finally tracked me down I was in their paddock hugging the leg of their thankfully quiet and ancient polo pony kissing it on the knee.
 
Like many others on this thread, I am from a non- horsey family but always was obsessed by horses. I begged for riding lessons but wasn't able to have a lesson til i was 11. I finally owned my own horse at the grand old age of 30.
My earliest memory though is being about 3 and seeing 2 big bay horses hack past me. I thought they were so amazing.
 
I'm from a completely un-horsey family. About 5 years ago, one of my friends from karate told me I should come and see her horses some time (can't remember how the subject came up), so I took her up on the offer and I went up and met them.

Fast forward a year or two, she'd only got one by then but had moved near to where I live. I ended up getting roped into nipping round, then into helping with the mucking out and eventually into learning how to ride. She and I became (and still are) an item, that horse was very sadly lost to colic but a year or so later, we were fortunate to be blessed with 'our lad' who we share.

I'm still very much the 'second rider', but our lad's a very special boy and a pleasure to be around! :)
 
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