What Attracted You to Horses in the First Place?

Eventer96

Eventer96

Well-Known Member
Joined
13 June 2009
Messages
2,017
Location
Chester
twitter.com
As title, just very bored at the moment and interesting in how people first got into horses. Whether you were spurred on by your parents as a child or whether you didn't get into it all until you were slightly older.

The more stories the merrier. :D
 
One summer holidays when I was about 7, my Mom just came to me and told me she'd booked riding lessons for us both! It was a complete shock as we hadn't even talked about it before. We went, I was hooked and carried on. Mom gave up after a while though. All in all, one of my Mom's better ideas!! :D
 
Last edited:
no idea.
NONE of my family is interested in ANYTHING horsey (this goes back about 8 generations.)
when i was 6 we went to visit my uncle in aussie, and then i asked to sit on a horse randomly :\ they drove out 2hrs to a farm to let me get led around by a girl for 5 minutes.
i love my parents :)
my dad hates horses but my mom supports me.
 
i started riding when i was about 7 years old - i am, and always have been, a complete animal addict and my parents let me start riding at the local RS. I LOVED it. Parents let me go on a week riding residential holiday when i was 9 but they staved off my pleads for my own horse.

Several years later - my mum (who had also ridden many moons ago as a child) suggested we try going back to the RS for lessons. So off we went.
6 months later, a thoroughly hooked again (forgot how much i adored horses), i decided now i had my own job, own money and own life I would finally get a horse of my own. :D
 
Apparently, aged 3 I toddled home from kindergarten and announced that because another girl there had been on a pony ride, I wanted to have a go too.

Mum had ridden as a girl and been taught by her father, so she thought - why not? She'll probably do it once or twice and lose interest...

So. I started riding. With Mum. Then sister started. Then brother. Then other brother (although he went back to restoring steam trains). Poor Dad.

Then... we got our first family horse. And another. Then we managed to move to a house with stables. Then I took up hunting. After that, polo and now, 41 years later, I'm as hooked on horses as I was aged 3.

Moral is? When your 3 year old says they want a pony ride, go and see your bank manager pronto! :D

(ps thanks Mum and Dad xx)
 
Sounds daft but they are in my blood, I only really feel myself when i have horses in my life.

My mum is horsey with non horsey parents.
My dad is of the '*****ing horses* brigade but his Dad and Grandfather both worked horses on our farm.

I was a flakey child though and although mum always had a horse I wasn't allowed to start lessons until I was 9 and then had to have lessons for a year to prove I was serious before I got my 1st pony (20 years ago) x
 
Well my 2 older sisters had had riding lessons and I just thought it wasn't fair if I didn't get lessons too. I wasn't particularly keen to go it was just a case of they had lessons and so I wanted them too. I went for the first time and was absolutely hooked!
 
My parents had a riding school so you could say I don't know life without horses except for 3 months or so in-between horses, I could' imagine life without them :eek:
 
My grandparents and before them etc were farmers so always had work horses, then my grandmother had a love for horses an used to ride/own riding horses. Mother got her interest in riding horses from my grandmother and I was set on a pony/ had my own pony bought to me when i was very small so always had love for them too from very young, never known anything different always had a horsey in my life. :D
 
It's in my blood apparantly :p
I have an uncle on both sides of family who showjump and produce horses professionally and my great uncle was a very good dealer!

But as for getting into riding, I was taken to riding lessons when I was 5 and told to come back when my legs grew :p

Only started riding when I was 10, and my neighbour moved in & taught me to ride!
 
I was about 3yo and on a day trip to a petting zoo I wanted a ride on the shetland pony. I never saw the rest of the zoo because all I did for the entire day was go for one ride after the other on shetlands. I then took riding lessons (my mum managed to find a place that took 4yo) and I got a horse for my 12th bday :) Neither of my parents are in the slightest horsey (none of my relatives are- the same goes for 100s of generations back, you get the idea!) but they are very supportive and even built paddocks at home for me to keep them at home and slowly I'm building up a mini yard, so it's not easy coming form non horsey stock but they are so supportive that it doesn't matter :)
 
No idea! My mums side of the family are all horsey (although she sold her last one to get married - bad plan!) and there are photos of me as a tiny kid sat on ponies. No idea how I got started but it was always me wanting to ride/ help out, no pushing from my mum at all. So desperate to be around horses we used to spend hours poo picking my cousins field for her whilst she was out hacking, to be allowed a 10 minute sit on and walk around the field on her return! :D
 
age 4 i wanted to go riding lessons :D so mum joined in (non horsey hated it etc but decided if i was going to go hacking she would have to learn!)

helped out at every opportunity at yards/trecking centres on holiday etc.... and then age 15 my parents felt sorry for me and bought my own

sold that bought another age 17 (i paid for the upkeep of that one)

then now (well last year) bought another (sold 2nd too) and bought her and pay for her myself :)

and i know this one is my lifetime horse :)


p.s my parents still dont like horses haha :D
 
My mum and dad both used to hunt and as soon as I was old enough I was down the riding school, then had a break because I was a slightly fickle teenager. Then got back into it, got two beautiful horses and I'll never look back! :)
 
I had a pony ride on the beach when I was small. Then my best friend (she's now an equine vet) had lessons so I wanted them too. It was love from then on. Sadly life never wanted to play ball and I had to wait 15 years till I got bored asking Santa and just bought my own. :D
 
My parents had always owned/been into horses, but didn't actually own any until I was about 13! I got my first horse at 15! I rode friends ponies/loans/shares from a young age though.

I have always loved animals (much prefer them to people!! :p) and being a bit arty I always loved the form and movement of horses, I think this is why I got into them in the first place... I didn't actually click that my parents were 'horsey' until after I had got into the ponies in a big way!
 
Always loved horses but didn't come from a horsey background so it wasn't until Uni that I started riding properly and started loaning, as I'd only dabbled before whenever I could, been hooked for the past three years and there is no going back...
...poor non-horsey family at home lol
 
My grandfather insisted I learn to ride. He worked with the lipizzaner horses in Austria after he was stationed in Austria. Apparently the stallions and brood mares were evacuated from Vienna during the war, but were returned to Vienna when the war was over. Can't remember where he said the stallions went to, but anyway, my grandfather was a stablehand and looked after them for a short while and rode some of the other horses - not the stallions though. He even had lessons from Pojhadsky (sp) himself!

When I was a child learning to ride, my grandfather would come along and watch and say things like - relax your back, stirrups longer, free your collar bone etc and I never used to pay much attention to him.

It is only in the last few years or so that it became apparent that he actually really knew what he was talking about! Wish I'd listened to him.
 
myhorsefred said:
My grandfather insisted I learn to ride. He worked with the lipizzaner horses in Austria after he was stationed in Austria. Apparently the stallions and brood mares were evacuated from Vienna during the war, but were returned to Vienna when the war was over. Can't remember where he said the stallions went to, but anyway, my grandfather was a stablehand and looked after them for a short while and rode some of the other horses - not the stallions though. He even had lessons from Pojhadsky (sp) himself!

When I was a child learning to ride, my grandfather would come along and watch and say things like - relax your back, stirrups longer, free your collar bone etc and I never used to pay much attention to him.

It is only in the last few years or so that it became apparent that he actually really knew what he was talking about! Wish I'd listened to him.
Click to expand...


Wow that is so cool about you Grandad!!! I read Mr. P's (I also find spelling his name difficult) book and made lots of sense and yes I am of the relaxed back, long stirrup brigade!!!
 
Well, I go back to the time when the milk was delivered by a horse & float so that was my introduction - United Dairies! I loved the smell of the horse and was fascinated by the way the milkman would be running up and down people's paths while leaving the horse to walk up the road by himself.

Much later, I pestered my parents to sit on a horse at a country fair and was absolutely dumnstruck by how far the head was away from where I sat and all that movement! My dismount from that first ride could have been my last if the horse hadn't been so forgiving as I ended up hanging from one iron underneath him!

Black & white T.V. in those days and you could watch a cowboy oriented programme every day - and I did - I had cowboy and injun (always injun!) wallpaper would you believe!

Not surprisingly I gravitated to an old woman who kept three lunatic ponies in conditions warranting a raid by the R.S.P.C.A. these days but I thought it was heaven and spent every waking hour there, where I was kicked, bitten, bucked, reared, thrown and bolted - miles from anywhere and the nearest telephone box - happy days.
 
myhorsefred said:
My grandfather insisted I learn to ride. He worked with the lipizzaner horses in Austria after he was stationed in Austria. Apparently the stallions and brood mares were evacuated from Vienna during the war, but were returned to Vienna when the war was over. Can't remember where he said the stallions went to, but anyway, my grandfather was a stablehand and looked after them for a short while and rode some of the other horses - not the stallions though. He even had lessons from Pojhadsky (sp) himself!

When I was a child learning to ride, my grandfather would come along and watch and say things like - relax your back, stirrups longer, free your collar bone etc and I never used to pay much attention to him.

It is only in the last few years or so that it became apparent that he actually really knew what he was talking about! Wish I'd listened to him.
Click to expand...


Oh my! We are not worthy! My dearest friend ( avatar ) was Anglo-Lipp and spent most of her working life boxed between two stallions - Maestoso and Caversano lines - one of whom went to the Tokoyo Olympics and came back with the bronze medal. While at that yard I met nearly everybody in the dressage world and became completely hooked.

Lippanzanner and Andalusian horses are the sweetest of breeds.
 
its' in my blood and i guess i was born in the saddle (almost!), my mum used to take the treks out and did so up until the day before she gave birth to me and was back in the saddle 2 days after having me with me in a harness on her back/front.

my mothers family have always been horsey (going back generations) so i guess it was a natural thing for us all. my father hated horses and wouldn't even let us take a riding hat into the house!
 
From a VERY young age, maybe two or three I have just LOVED horses, apparently it stemmed from a random pony ride on the Isle of Wright....bet my parents regret that move :D

Had riding lessons for a few years but parents (who are completely non horsey) wouldnt let me have my own despite my begging and pleading daily, finally at age 14 they relented and I got my girl Sadie, nearly 19 hearly later I still have her and she is with me for life.

The only way to sum it up is as someone else said its in my blood I couldnt imagine not sharing my life with a horse, they complete me as a person :) I love everything about them.

Sadiemay
 
Nothing!I only started riding because my sister wanted to start but wouldn't go without me. I couldn't stand horses then and wasn't in the least bit interested, but the tables have turned and now I'm hooked with 3 of my own and my sister isn't bothered any more!
 
It has remained a family mystery why I love horses but from a tiny age I begged and begged for a pony. My mum rode as a child with her best friend but is petrified of horses and my dad still thinks its a phase (I'm 28 on Sat been riding since I was 4 - pretty long phase!)...

My mum's best friend still had horses and whenever I went there her children (who are all older than me) would pop me on their ponies for a ride. For my 9th birthday I got riding lessons - parents thinking I'd give up quickly as I never stuck with anything else. Big mistake - got a job at the yard as parents couldn't afford the lessons and never looked back.

I wasn't allowed my own until I could buy and keep one myself, aged 18 - but I had loans, shares and worked on yards from my 9th birthday onwards...

Parents still don't get the horses, but are more supportive these days. As many have said its in my blood - I don't feel right without a horse, and am at my happiest and most content when down the yard just milling about!

x
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top