Random Question (Open Discussion)

It probably varies from person to person i would think. My first horse was a pony
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I adored her and we had a great time and i won hundreds of rosettes on her. She was a little chestnut mare and could be a right cow at times but she was also wonderful and could jump the moon. Two more ponies later i got my first horse, and it was a pain in the bum and it really sunk in how much i prefered it when mum and dad used to pay for the ponies!!
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So i would sum it up as:
Joyful and expensive.
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my first pony was compleatly wrong for me. but we still have him now sitting in the field
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after a year of battles, lost confidence, gained confidence and rosettes, he turned out to be the best little horse ever!!
 
It was educational and fun - my 1st horse was very trying on your patience - some days i could catch her others i couldnt - some days she would jump some she wouldnt - i was pretty novice then and i did more of what she wanted than i wanted thats for sure but she was a super fun hack and would never rear or bolt so i felt safe - and she was so stunning - a white arab with a long flowing mane so i loved spending hours grooming her (once i had caught her)! And when i rode her out people used to stop and point at how beautiful she was and it made me so proud she was mine.
 
My first horse was the love of my life. (I was about 8 or 9) I had him on loan from a local woman whose daughter had outgrown him. He was an absolute terror. He bit, kicked, bucked me off...but I adored him. He wasn't much for schooling or anything like that - he was the local PC nightmare. He was a scrubby really scruffy dun - usually up to his eyelashes in burrs. But if you showed him a pack of hounds he'd go all day. All I had to do was stay attached. We hunted almost every week for a season. It was all I dreamed about and he was a perfect gentleman when he was hunting - as long as you were sort of at the front. Didn't refuse a thing, never ran over the hounds. Great lad. (Waxing lyrical here...)

Anyway - I got sent to boarding school just before my 10th birthday. The first weekend I was away he went out cubbing with the girl who took him on, slipped at a stile and broke his leg. He was shot where he lay. The first letter I had from my mum in school was to tell me he was dead. I still have it.

I swore I would never ride again and I didn't. Then 20+ years later my daughter started riding. 3 horses later and still going....
 
A real shock to the system for my OH. He'd been used to me riding other people's horses, so no real commitments as far as time, money etc (although I'd accumulated a terrifying amount of tack and rugs to use on horses that weren't mine!)
We also used to borrow a lorry and after he nearly had a nervous breakdown when it wouldn't start on the morning of a clinic, he went straight out and bought a trailer.
Sadly the horse wasn't right for him (tho I loved riding her!) so he had the big decision of sending her back, as luckily for us she was only on loan. Still it made him realise that he really did want a horse (as long as I do most of the work
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) and exactly what type of horse he wanted. He's now grudgingly coming round to the idea of buying a second horse so we don't have to share his..result!
 
I was so sad to read Shays' previuos post; what a terrible thing to happen to your poor pony, when you were sent off to school, you must of been devastated!
I am so pleased to hear that you did eventually get back to riding, even though it took you 20 yrs. (By the way are you sending your children away to school?)

To get back to OP question; I got my first horse a year ago on Valentines day, so he will have been mine for nearly two years . I have to say it has been a roller coaster of emotions since he arrived, we have had a fair few ups and downs with health, the worst was when he got choke and I thought I would lose him! Fortunately he recovered, the other problems have been that I have had to move yards three times since I have had him. I hope we will not have to move again as I think we could not find a more perfect yard where he is now!

I think owning a horse is a bit like when you have your first child, you lie awake worrying if you are doing everything right, you endlessly torture yourself about 'what if'. But I do think it gets easier the longer you have them, unlike some children! I have learnt a huge amount in the process of owning him.

I would also like to say that this forum has been a fantastic source of help, encouragement, knowledge etc. and a big thank you to all of you!( Sorry didn't mean to highjack your post!)
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I was about 23 when I got my first ever horse, a Welsh sec D who in reality was probably totally wrong for me as a novice so I had a vertical learning curve. I kept him with my instructor though so that helped so much. He was on full livery mon-fri so she did everything and rode him when I couldn't get there to stop him getting too silly. At the weekends I did stable duties and rode but she was around to help out.

IIRC I spent most of the time absolutely terrified that I would break him, that the saddle wasn't right, my bit wasn't right, I wasn't feeding him properly, that he might get too hot / cold / wet etc etc. Totally neurotic for the first 12 months! Then I moved him to a bigger livery yard where he was on DIY and it was totally different because I realised that it doesn't matter if he's a bit cold, he will keep himself warm, it doesn't matter if he gets wet, doesn't have exactly the amount of hard feed the bag says he should.... I loved it and I adored him but I think I did spend most of the time totally terrified that something would go wrong.
 
My first pony who I had when i was 7 was a proper 'Thelwell' type, a 13.2 NFxconnie, built like a brick poohouse with a firm belief in looking after number 1. He hated being in and lived out 24/7, unrugged and with no hard feed - in fact when old YO tried to bring him in for the winter, he booted a hole in the wall, dented the door and lamed her favourite horse by booting it on the hock and taking a lump out from under its throat!! He was as wide as he was tall and if he didn't want to do something, he wouldn't, end of! He bucked me off more times than I can remember, though would always stop once he'd decked me and look at me as if to say 'what are you doing down there'. He would set his neck and sod off if he wanted to go in a different direction to the one you were going in i.e. away from home, normally with poor Dad puffing away on his bicycle trying to catch up with us!

Having said that, he was actually pretty safe (if you stay on!), he had a huge amount of self preservation and common sense, was brilliant in the heaviest of traffic and never spooked. He taught me a huge amount and I'll always be grateful for that. Eventually sold him to the RS where he was on livery (when we first moved him, he buggered off with two of their instructors and decked one of the hacking escorts!) and they used to use him for any 'brats' that needed taking down a peg or two...

He took me to extremes of joy and the depths of despair but I have very fond memories of him and I'll never forget him.
 
My first pony was foxy lady, a 14.2hh tb x nf, was what you woudl of called a riding/show pony. I was 12 years old and my parents bought her at hereford market, from a lady connected to the BHS.
She was 6 years old and had done all sorts, had hunted, evented, she was a very serious pony, and not a novice ride.

I had only ever known life at riding schools and despite having foxy on a helpful livery yard i did not have a clue what i was doing. She was also cold backed, it was a psycological problem with her, and you had to slowly girth her up and lunge her before you rode her. She also did nto liek it if you shifted your weight in her saddle, she hated a contact and any leg would send her off into the distance at about 100 miles an hour.
I spent the first month falling off her every day> eventually i stopped falling off and began to enjoy her. We did eerythign together, huntertrials, crosscountry, showjumping, she was nto really much of a show pony really but we had a dabble and she did well.

In the end i tottaly outgrew her as she took after the tb more than the nf. I sold her to a pony club home.

I learnt the hard way with foxy, and against the odds it worked out for us.

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I waited 40 years to own my first one (never thought it would happen) and then I bought a foal from the Beaulieu Road Sales. He turned out to be 4 months old to the day and wasn't weaned. Taking him away from his mum to the sales was his "weaning". He was 3/4TB 1/4NF. I was wildly excited at having my own at long last but the day after I bought him I had a phone call from someone who had seen him at the Sales but had been unable to wait until his lot came up. he offered me three times what I had paid for him . . . . . at first I refused the offer but as time went on I never "gelled" with the foal and when the guy rang me again a couple of weeks later, I gave in and sold him BUT the plus point was I then had the money to go and buy the Arab that I had always wanted and really, really never thought I would get. The Arab was a horse in a million.
 
When i was a small person longing for a Pony I used to sit on a hay bale with my friend and say daft things like "when I get a Pony I'm going to keep him for ever and ever and when he gets old I'm not going to sell him, I'll just walk him in hand and groom him etc" *Sigh*

Well... 31 years later... my First Pony is still here and yes... I walk him out in hand and groom him... but he is a cantankerous old b*gger who doesn't accept he is old and he rears and broncs, worries me sick and generally carries on like a spoilt brat! *bigger sigh*
 
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