Imaginary horses

I had several imaginary horses, can't remember all of them but one was a piebald mare and another was a dark bay mare ... I used to ride one or other home from school (as long as there were no other people walking along the path!)

I also built a course of showjumps in the back garden using brooms and other long handled garden tools as poles and anything I could find as jump stands...

When I was a bit older I ran an imaginary riding school/livery yard - I drew maps of the fields and stable yard, and had over 30 horses and ponies!

*wallows in nostalgia* :D
 
So glad I started this thread :-)) I've also just remembered that my sister and I used to ride our imaginary horses in the common area of my grans sheltered housing using waste paper bins as jumps :-) oh such happy days although it's even cooler having the real thing!!
 
Love this thread, shows that we are all actually "normal" lol - I had several imaginary horses, one of mine was the bannister at the top of the stairs although if my dad caught me I got a rollocking.

Me and my friend also played a game called "string horses" where the string was put round the "horses" waist and they became the reins, the "rider" followed behind, whacking with a stick as and when necessary :D
 
Haha me too!

Mine was throughly thought out - most of the time, I was the horse (almost always a palomino), hold my neck in and do some impressive lateral work! My garden was always set up with jumps and sometimes used to "refuse" and get a telling off! I used to "canter" whenever I ran as a fast human "trot" was boring! Always used to get the mickey taken out of me at school!!

Even as a teenager when I part loaned a pony, all the girls were a simular age and we set up jumps all over the yard - used to borrow everyones brooms, shovels etc - it was a proper jumping course! Someone would do the announcements "And here we have Vicky riding Spirit"!! Someone would time the jump off's too and would have to do a lap of honour!

In the summer, we would be sent off to poo pick - we probably did about a barrow before we practice dressage tests - or do XC!!

I also was another one who would imagine jumping fences when being driven along in the car - or thinking - thats how big I jumped in my lesson!

My horse mad 5 yr old niece wants my advice when setting up fences in the garden - and even how I have to show her how to jump them, and being on the correct leg :D :o
 
Spotsrock said:
I Used to ride mine alongside the car on longer journeys jumping everything in the way.
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So did I! And the school bus - some great hedges. Not at all scary on the imaginary horse, wouldn't do it on a real one... And I made a XC course in our big wild garden that I would gallop round. Family had to spectate. I was a fit'n'active ten-year-old...
 
This is all terribly reassuring :p

I was once taken aside after PE by my teacher who asked if I genuinely believed I was a horse. I remember wondering what answer would get me away faster... I used to jump hurdles like a horse, "school" in the living room, jump in the garden, jump the dog, ride the arm chair (as I recall it could put in a fair old buck!) and I had dozens of horses for different fantasies - big Shadowfax types for fantasy, LOTR daydreams, an eqyptian arab for normal horsey fantasies, a highland for treking during my "far distant oxus" phase etc... I still occasionally shy or stop at things in an oddly equine manner, and as a reflex I go to give myself a smack with the whip (whatever I'm holding :o) And I'm mid twenties now :eek:
 
My best (sadly, late) friend and I used to run a riding stables in my back garden. The horses were, of course, broom sticks with skipping ropes as bridles. We used to love the brown one best because it was the most horse-like. The red one wasn't quite so authentic! Happy days .... :D
 
Oh very much yes to a lot of the above!! I seem to recall at one point I had a whole yard of different pure breeds.... having spent hours pouring over a book about horses (and evidently the different types :o )

For some reason I remember a chestnut Gelderlander called Prince (who was a devil to ride I can tell you :D ) and extremely randomly.... an Italian Draught Horse called Tramp, who was a beaut to look at because he was dark liver chestnut with a bright flaxen mane and tail - I don't remember ever riding him though!

Empty flower pots were the best for building puissance walls (unless a sudden gust of wind picked up!) - a few of my horses would take it in turns and then the dog would have to have a go - for good measure or competition I can't remember!!!! Love it :D
 
Reading these through has just reminded me too that I used to put 2 chairs together pulled out from the table and using string as driving reins tied around them had a prairie wagon or a gypsy caravan...had to crawl underneath to be "inside" was great when I was allowed to eat my lunch there,my mother still thinks Im bonkers to have horses!
 
Oh dear, I've just remembered the trials I put my poor dog through - not only did I make her go "showjumping" over brooms laid across chairs in the garden (she loved that actually), but I used to try to lunge her in the living room. I'd stand in the middle with poor dog on the end of her lead and make my sister grab her collar and drag her around in circles... :o I also once tied my toy horsebox behind her like a chariot and made her drag it along our shiny wooden hallway floor - she was petrified by the rattly plastic thing chasing her, and got it wrapped around the end of the banister! I'm surprised the poor animal wasn't traumatised.
 
Gosh, this brings back memories! I progressed from using baby reins on a friend to make her my horse, through "riding" the back of the sofa and making the dog do showjumping in the garden to the ultimate "horse" - the local railway bridge! Heavens, I could so easily have fallen to my death doing that....................
 
devilwoman said:
Love this thread, shows that we are all actually "normal" lol - I had several imaginary horses, one of mine was the bannister at the top of the stairs although if my dad caught me I got a rollocking.

Me and my friend also played a game called "string horses" where the string was put round the "horses" waist and they became the reins, the "rider" followed behind, whacking with a stick as and when necessary :D
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I love this thread.

The banister on the landing was my main riding place - don't remember getting into trouble for it, though. Maybe I was never caught.

I did the string horses thing too with 'skipping ropes' which were actually plastic clothes lines. My friends and I were avid watchers of show jumping which was on the telly a lot more in those days and we often set up 'show jumps' in the garden and pretended to be David Broome, Harvey Smith, Anneli Drummond-Hay et al. ( I'm definitely showing my age here. ) I seem to remember trying to force the poor dog to jump the course at one point.

My horses were nearly always Lipizzaners because I loved " White Horses " and I desperately wanted a Lipizzaner called Boris. I still do as a matter of fact.

Happy days.
 
Am showing this thread to my family as proof I was not a weird child lol! I had an imaginary horse too, palomino welshie called Okapi. The garden wrapped round the house so I used to run round it using kitchen steps, flower borders, the small hedge and various bricks and sticks stuck together to make jumps and pretend I was riding round Badminton or I'd pretend I was winning he Grand National lol! I have never been able to jump over something like a normal human since those days lol! Also used to pretend I was galloping across country when trapped on a car journey! Poor dog got it as well, tried lungeing him which was unsuccessful but he liked the jumping lol!
 
tinuviel said:
Am showing this thread to my family as proof I was not a weird child lol! I had an imaginary horse too, palomino welshie called Okapi. The garden wrapped round the house so I used to run round it using kitchen steps, flower borders, the small hedge and various bricks and sticks stuck together to make jumps and pretend I was riding round Badminton or I'd pretend I was winning he Grand National lol! I have never been able to jump over something like a normal human since those days lol! Also used to pretend I was galloping across country when trapped on a car journey! Poor dog got it as well, tried lungeing him which was unsuccessful but he liked the jumping lol!
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Thays so funny, can just imagine trying to lunge the dog, thank you, you've just made me belly laugh, thank god there's nobody here to see me laughing at the computer!!!!lol!!
 
I had a dun lusitano called Lady who I rode western, a blood bay TB called Red who I steeplechased, a black Hanoverian dressage horse with 4 white socks and a perfect white stripe called Darkness and a liver chestnut arab with long white stockings and a splattery white neck, a blaze and blue eyes, she was called Heart and I rode her in gymkahnas (she was only 14hh) and for endurance. :D

I took it all rather seriously.
 
I had a whole yard of horses! All of which I think were 16.2hh considering I was only 6/7 I think I might have been slightly overhorsed ;) ;) I used to sit in the car pretending I was riding one of them instead!
 
aha this thread made me laugh affraid mine may be the worst swallow a cheeky 14.2 arab... who was a wooden beam! just threw on the double ended oven gloves obviously after a thorough groom and off we went! hahahaha
 
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