The amount of hours I spent running round my garden. Did anyone else build their own fences or was it just me being sad? I'd do it now if I could get away with it....more fun than a tredmill!
Ommigod!!! I would have adored those as a child!!!
Nope, not sad. I did the same thing & as well as SJ'ing I also did Dressage & Cross Country. I was a talented 8 year old
We even used to drive our mother mad by moving the table in the 'posh' room & the chairs so we had a rectangle to hold indoor dressage competitions
Not long after we moved there my parents gave in & bought us ponies. Wise decision in some ways!!
Me too, my sister had a triple fracture at her elbow aged 10 from mistiming the water jump aka the paddling poll with two deckchairs and a broom. I still jump the fences in the field, all in the name of exercising the dog of course...
I used to use garden canes and clothes line props much to my mum's annoyance - then I graduated to spacehoppers! They were a bit spooky tho' and sometimes refused
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My daughter did just the same thing - it really brought back memories
They are fantastic - but don't you think half the fun was building the things? We used to use canes and pots, chairs etc.
I used to ride my bike really fast and pretend it was a pony galloping, I even had a clump of 'hay' in the saddlebag for it to eat! (too too sad).
My daughter, even though she has a pony and does SJ for real, still goes in the garden with her younger sister to play 'ponies'. I even have a video of her doing a dressage test - one to show at her wedding perhaps!
They are so cool!
We used to make a show jump course with chairs/brooms etc and take the dog over them
We also had our own stables and schooling area. The stables were locally known as 'the black' (area of black tarmac with paving slabs in between, stable size!) and the school was 'the green' (patch of open grass where we used to have bonfires)
Ah such fun.
As an ex instructor, I can tell you I've been forced to jump an awful lot more proper showjumps whilst leading than I ever wanted to. I've also trotted and cantered a few too many circuits of indoor and outdoor schools, all leading various equines....
Aaaarggghhh
S
Haha,me and my friend used to make jumps mostly out a gaden chairs, broom sticks etc.
Then we'd go for a 'hack' down the lane behind my house , lmao
We used to jump the proper jumps at the RS whenever we went there as well, and pretend we were 'in a competition'. I still know some young girls at the RS who do it now too.
Then I got a dog and made him do it instead, poor thing
Oh my - my girls built so many jumps in the garden with brooms, chairs, paint tins etc, before they got their own horses. Now they are doing it again for the dogs to jump!!
My mum has a video of me going around the backgarden with hat on, stick in hand and me "cantering" around the garden popping over brushes, mops and buckets , I watched it the other day actually and O M G !!
i used to do this too, garden canes, broomsticks, anything really!!! my friends and i used to act out the film 'international velvet' and of course, we would always win gold
I did that too! Those jumps are super!! I used to make my own wings out of bamboo canes with the hook bit from coat hangers sellotaped on - except they were so curved the poles didn't fall easily and I came a cropper a few times. We had a tiny garden but I used to put together a brilliant course
I never imagined anyone else did it too - was always thinking I was a total weirdo (my parents certainly thought so!!).
It's good to see that so many other people did this and I'm not alone. I never had a water jump though - would have loved that! I agree, looking back, the fun was definitely in the making of them. It's nice to see that youngsters are still doing this today (and adults when we can get away with it!).
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I did that too! Those jumps are super!! I used to make my own wings out of bamboo canes with the hook bit from coat hangers sellotaped on - except they were so curved the poles didn't fall easily and I came a cropper a few times. We had a tiny garden but I used to put together a brilliant course
I never imagined anyone else did it too - was always thinking I was a total weirdo (my parents certainly thought so!!).
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Oh gosh, the memories in this thread!
We just used to make ur wings from buckets & the like. I remember being really proud of this triple jump we'd built. The tallest bit was two tall buckets & the remaining two stands were a saucepan at each end & then a brick at each end for the lowest triple bar. It was quite wide & a fair few times I think we winged it!
We had a little stream at the bottom of our garden & at the end you used to get marshy sort of ground & a puddle, that was our water jump. & we used to hold showing classes & things. (ponies were dogs
) used to pretend we were showing youngsters in hand!!
I nailed two bamboo canes together to make a cross pole.... misjudged it when jumping and pulled it down with my second leg..... the nail stuck into my inner thigh and pulled down through the flesh for around 5inches