What made you start riding?

[MerryMaker]

so....?

I used to watch people hack past our house and think it looked like the greatest thing in the world, after much begging i had my first lesson for my 4th birthday and was told horror stories about it to put me off. Hahaha yeaaaaaah course it did. not.

 

[carys220]

I've always ridden....my mum had a horse.

 

[MerryMaker]

Lucky

I just converted my mum into riding, and she's in the process of trying her first share horse

Mind you it's taken nearly 20 years to convince her it is good and fun! she even likes mucking out muhahaha!

 

[carys220]

Here's me and my mum's horse.....the one nearest the camera

 

[Kal]

Luckly my mum always rode from an early age. My dad had to join in just so that they spent weekends together i think, so they had horses and my sisters and myself sat on ponies before we could walk. Always had our own. Don't think i could ever be without them now.

 

[devilinajar]

It was something i had always wanted to do, so at the age of 16 i finally got to take lessons and iv never looked back!!!

 

[Hullabaloo]

When I was 8 my parents thought I ought to have a hobby and made the mistake of asking me what I wanted to do. I think they were hoping I'd go for ballet or something suitably girly, but I was only interested in riding. They were very good about it though and took me to lessons almost every week without complaining.
It took me til I was in my 30s to get my own horse though.

 

[Enfys]

I have no idea.

I can't actually remember a time when I haven't ridden, certainly not my first lessons or anything like that.

 

[kerilli]

my mother! aged 4, apparently i kicked and sobbed and screamed No! until put on the pony (a black shetland called Grandad, at a riding school) and the moment i was in the saddle a huge smile dawned...
i have no memory of this momentous event, unfortunately!

 

[the watcher]

White Horses on TV - that series has a lot to answer for! And my aunt rode when she was younger, and encouraged me.

 

[hannah_karina]

I got dragged to the MK Eventing Cetre which is just down the road from where i live and my famile have always been good friends of the current and previous owners. My dad was helping out, i spent a couple of hours there and was just amazed by the horses! shortly after that i started helping out there, and the rest, as they say, is history!

 

[Walrus]

I was 8, my dad thought it would be nice as a one off for me and my mum to do as she hadn't been well. We went in the freezing cold, my mum rode a huge chestnut called Deirdre, I can't remember the pony I rode - it was freezing, my hands turned blue and I cried and wanted to get off (what a wimpy child!). After that we didn't go back and I thought about it and decided ponies might be quite fun so started pretending my bike was a pony, I think when my dad then found me sitting on the dustbin we used for toys with a skipping rope tied to it and my bike helmet on rocking back and forward he decided that to avoid daughter's insanity getting any worse I should have a few lessons. 16 years later and I still put a pony on the top of my christmas list, I think my dad thought it was just a phase!

 

[xnaughtybutnicex]

[ QUOTE ]
my mother! aged 4

[/ QUOTE ]

Same with me, im sure i probably didnt mind though lol

 

[jesterfaerie]

My grandad used to breed shire horses so I was around them since birth, when I was very younge he would put me on one of his mares backs and walk me around on her.
I then started lessons at around 3yro I think.

 

[vennessa]

I was 2 years old. Can't remember it. My parents wanted us to ride. My older sister was already at the rideing school and the owners babysat me.
I spent all wakeing hours at the rideing school. Often they would take in rescues and transform them. I think that is what got me started.

 

[FinellaGlen]

My paternal grandfather rode. He was a blacksmith and I was fascinated by the forge at the bottom of his garden where the horses would come to be shod. I was horse obsessed from as far back as I can remember. My grandad bought me a pony and my parents wouldn't let me keep it because the didn't have the time. I was devastated and decided to turn into a horse myself!! I tried to achieve this by eating raw porridge oats. In case you're wondering,no, it didn't work

It did make my parents take me for riding lessons once a week though and that quickly led to me spending all day up at the stables. I have very happy memories riding as a child on my borrowed pony.

 

[PurplePickle]

My friend started riding at a local dealers, she dragged me down and I then asked for lessons aged 11, my parents and my husband wished that day never happened constantly

 

[charlyan]

My family come from a country/ agricultural background so animals of all shapes and sizes have always figured largely in our lives.

My great aunt rode, then my mum started out being led around on working clydesdales as a toddler so I think it was an inherited gene!

As kids we were offered the usual ballet and horse riding lessons from age five- both my sister and I gave up ballet fairly quickly but the horse bug stayed! (Although I had a fiteen year break until three years ago, and my sister hasn't ridden seriously for a few years now)

 

[BackInBlack]

nobody in my family are into horses so i really don't know why i got into ponies. all drawings that i have done when i was about 5 yrs old were of a pony in my garden! every christmas and birthday list had 'foal' or 'horse' at the top of it...eventually my dad caved in and i haven't looked back since. 30 years later i'm still nuts for them - it'll never change

 

[PeanutButterDragon]

My family were horsey as my Grandad was a jump jockey before teaching riding in the armed forces and then backing/bitting/training once he had to leave the forces through getting arthritis. So my Mum was surrounded by ponies and horses growing up and was constantly riding, mucking out etc. The horses were all sold after my Mum and Dad were married and my Nan got breast cancer. But then when I started begging for lessons we became horsey again

 

[0ldmare]

No choice, my horsey mum put me on a pony before I could even walk! I have ridden ever since.

 

[sidesaddlegirl]

My cousin gave me her old riding boots when I was a kid!

 

[Jiffy]

I loved to watch Harvey Smith & David Broome show-jumping on (black & white) TV & used to build courses with bamboo canes on top of flowerpots in the garden to jump over.

Eventually, after much pestering I was taken to start lessons.

 

[Rachel_M]

My father used to ride and my mother was a countryside women, so my eldest sister started to ride and I followed at the age of three.

I have the picture somewhere of me riding a fur-ball of a palomino pony called Sandy (I think that was his name) at the riding school. Where my feet wouldn't reach the ends of the tiny pony saddle and the leathers had to be shortened so much that the trail peice was hanging nearly to the floor!

 

[Fairynuff]

for me it was so natural that I cant even remember the first time . My Grandad was a dealer and I was bunged up to let the prospective buyers see how quiet they were.......I was 2 years old and survived to to tell the tale

. It was written in my genes. M.

 

[Ebenezer_Scrooge]

I always loved horses for as long as I can remember. My family are all townies so no chance of lessons they couldn't afford them. I played horses at school with my friends usind scarves as reins!! At home my swing would be my horse and my Dad had a wooden DIY horse that I used to "ride".

A pony was always at the top of my wish list. My nan and grandad used to take me to the farm in their village to see the horses and that just made me more determined. I then rang the local riding school where I cycled 3 miles to get there at 12 years old to help out in return for a ride. We then moved house further away and I couldn't get there. Years later my parents said that if we had not moved to a bigger house then they could have afforded to get me a pony. At 19 years old after my first year at university I brought my first horse and have never looked back. I love having a horse it's my only reason for living.

 

[moneypit1]

I was 7 and visiting my aunt in Sevenoakes, Kent. We wre out walking and a lady rode past on a horse called Spice. (still remember it) and I was dumbstruck. She asked me it I wanted to ride and picked me up in front of the saddle and that was IT!

 

[Fiorano]

I don't come from a horsey family so not really sure where the inspiration to ride came from - the TV I think. I rode when I was about 7 in the days of gripping with your knees and, continued to ride until about the age of 12. Sold my hat and crop to have my ears pierced!! When my children had grown up my OH suggested I get a hobby - I think he was thinking badminton racket - went to a riding school and had a re-kindling of the passion and after a 30 year break, bought my first horse.

 

[Flibble]

Someone sat me on a grey pony when I was a toddler my parents have no recollection so I reckon it might have been friends of my Aunty .
Then my Aunty on my dads side used to tell me all about her horse Flag. Both Aunies passed away but remembered with a great deal of fondness.

Didnt actually start riding until I was 27 a good friend was fed up with her husband spending Sundays in the Pub so we went to lessons together. Couple of years later she got a new husband who didnt go to the pub and I got a horse!!

 

[malibu211211]

Had a small racing yard at the end of our road and the lady who owned it had known me since I was born (everyone knows everyone in small villages

) I used to watch her with the horses then started helping and that was it I was hooked.
It's also where my passion comes from for chestnuts and TBs
My favourite horse there was a 6yo chestnut ex racer named Ginger

I used to sit in his stable with him for hours talking utter rubbish to him whilst he slept