What made you take up riding?

Born in the centre of Birmingham in the late forties, the only horses I ever saw belonged to the scrap man but aged 10 I discovered that a friend of my sister had a pony and I went along to watch and generally get in the way. she let me have the occasional ride and i loved it, even when it bolted home with me! I had a few riding lessons but my parents really couldn't afford it so it passed me by. I did do a few treks on holiday on plods and the desire to ride was always with me but I didn't do anything about it. In my early forties I had a second child, she sat on a donkey aged 5 and her face said it all, the biggest smile you've ever seen. i was in a position to encourage her and pay for lessons, so initially it was all about her but eventually I decided to join her and had some lessons, bought my first horse for my 50th birthday, bought the next for my 60th and have just bought another for my 65th. Daughter had quite a lot of success eventing but no longer rides except when she comes home and hacks out with me. I just want to keep riding for as long as I can and it's a great incentive to stay fit and healthy!
 
My Mum was a teacher and she became friends with a fellow teacher whose husband was a jockey. They had horses of their own too and when I was a toddler i was put on their gentle ex-racer and led about. That was it - I was hooked and my poor non-horsey parents rue that day! :) ;)

The lovely thing is that they are still friends with my parents and they have met my horses and both have taken a shine to my grey. It's really lovely that the people who sparked my interest in horses like her so much. :D
 
42 years ago moved from llford to the countryside. First thing I asked for was to have riding lessons. I was 6 years old. Have never stopped. So grateful I had such understanding parents.
 
Lovely thread :)

I started working with a lady 4 years ago who had horses- she let me visit, and it became a regular occurrence. Then she let me show her 2yo in-hand, and we came 1st and 2nd :). Then a little under 2 yrs ago one of the girls at her yard stopped loaning Red, and his owners asked if I wanted to- my response was 'but I can't ride!' and their's was 'Well, Red'll teach you'- and he's doing just that :) Tests my patience sometimes, but he's wonderful. When I tell people that 2 yrs ago I hadn't even sat on a donkey, they're quite shocked!

Have since found out that my 'non-horsey' family actually has a lot of horsey/agricultural ties! Great-Gramps rode in the Cavalry in WW1, Nan on the German side lived on a farm. Dad used to do pony trekking as a child (he was quick to tell me what to do when I told him Red had nearly bucked me off the first time!) and my Grandmother and Grandfather (Dad's side) every year of their marriage until he was taken ill would walk out with the Beaufort Hunt every Boxing day!! Dad didn't tell me any of the above because he was worried I'd cost him a fortune- turns out I got into it anyway!! :D

Ax
 
When I was two and a half my parents hired a little grey pony called Puff from an American national park and led me out on him so they could go on a longer walk than I'd have managed. I still remember the guy they hired him from choosing me a horse out the barn and the way the light streamed into it.

I'm luckier than a lot of the people on this thread in that all though my mum isn't horsey or doggy my wider family is and my mother accepts she is abnormal. We couldn't afford regular lessons, but I usually got a holiday hack. From 11 - 15 I'd spend a week with my Grandmother (who had ponies growing up). She took me to own your own pony days at the local riding school EVERY DAY! When I was 16 my aunt got my cousin a naughty pony & I went over to ride it sometimes, but by that point I was more interested in boys (what a waste).

I found myself getting increasingly interested in horses again from about 22 and started riding regularly at 25. Can't believe it took me so long.
 
I refused to go to my ballet classes, and when my aunt introduced me to her friend's horse I was hooked ! must have only been 3 at the time, started lessons aged 5 and had a share pony aged 8, then a loan aged 11 and bought my first pony aged 12. My mum and aunt had lessons when they were younger, they never knew why as their family was completely unhorsey- I just think my grandparents wanted to offload them on the riding school all day :D nobody else has horses in my family, or even rides. I have 3 now and my mum, sister and aunt are all really involved with it all which is lovely :)

I do wish my family were more horsey, so I could learn from them and pherhaps have done more when I was younger. But im lucky to have what I have, and have had to learn everything myself so I think that's made me a better "horse person".
 
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10 years ago (to the month) a friend and I had booked a holiday, she wanted desperately to ride with a western trekking centre up in Scotland, I said teach me how to hang on to a horse and no problem. A mutual friend of ours taught me stop, go, left, right etc on her ex-police horse Bobby, I loved it and never looked back!

10 years down the line I have owned a Welsh D, loaned a 17hh ISH and now own my beautiful Arnie (it was our 2 year anniversary last week, he didn't buy me flowers!)
 
Another person from an unhorsey family (though both my Dad's parents were from farming background and we do have a picture of Grandad on his pony c1925!). I honestly have no idea as to how I got interested in horses. My Great Uncle did keep donkeys which I rode when we went over there but I can't remember being very interested in them when I was little. I do know I started getting interested in horses around the time I started getting interested in history so maybe it was the Knights in shining armour? I was 7 or so at the time and after a couple of years of begging my parents agreed I could have weekly riding lessons (in fairness I think their resistance was largely down to finances).

In terms of getting children interested in horses, when the RDA group I am involved with go fundraising in town we take a mini Shetland with us. I fear we may have corrupted several children.
 
My Aunt has horses but my sister started riding before me as she was 5 years older and I kept on and on and on until I was allowed to have lessons when I was 8. I have always been pony mad though and hopefully our little girl will be too.
 
I started at five years old, with my neighbour, it was riding or ballet.......neither of my parents were horsey except that apparently my Granddad worked teams of horses on the Lambeth docks, Dad always said that's where I got it from :)
 
I should add that my non-horsey mum spent many years ferrying my sister and I to riding lessons too terrified to watch us or even get close to the ponies but now has decided she is really quite fond of her "four legged grand-daughter" and will go in her stable and groom her. She hasn't been brave enough to lead her or sit on her but it is great progress!
 
At 5 or 6 I was bundled of to local RS so my mum could get the weekly shop done !! Started of being dropped off and picked up afterwards for my sun am lesson( she showed willing and watched the first couple! Then I was dropped like a hot potatoe to the call of Asda),then just got left for longer and longer she actually used to forget to get me!!! ,one day turned to two ...... And here we are 35 yrs later.
 
My parents took me to London Zoo aged 2 yrs 2 months and paid for me to ride on an elephant (many, many years ago), unfortunately there are no photos but my earliest memory is of riding on 'a red settee' on an elephant, so it obviously mad an enormous impression on me. We do have photos from the summer of the same year of me riding on a beach donkey. I grew up watching SJ on the TV and always wanted to have riding lessons. Eventually a school friend invited me to go to her house for tea and to a local RS with her. I continued the lessons and as they say the rest is history.
 
There is photo somewhere of me at 18 months old, being held on a donkey by my Dad, grinning like a cheshire cat :D I didn't want to ride a pony, BUT my big sister, who is five years older than me wanted to go riding when we were on holiday. Our parents said that she could only go if we both went, as otherwise it would take too much time out of the holiday, for just one of us. Sis told me I wanted to go and that I WAS going to go! So undersized 6 year old me did as I was told :D Started riding with Sis at a local RS with sis when I was 7, again the rest is history. None horsey parents, but paternal Grandfather had a horse and Mums family in Ireland breed Shires. Dad learnt to drive and has had two driving ponies in the past. Dad still helps with our horses, but is still more comfortable with engines.
 
I actually wanted to start riding in my teens as a friend rose and asked if I wanted to come have lessons at her riding school as they may need to close down due to lack of money. My parents flatly refused, saying it's dangerous and look what happened to the actor who played superman! When I went to uni, I joined the horse riding club and never looked back! I got my first horse nearly 10 years later and ask anyone who knows me, and they'll tell you horses are my passion! No one in my family rides or are particularly horsey either and it was a bit of a challenge learning to ride as an adult. I met Richard Meade many years ago and he admires people who learn to ride when they are an adult as you have the fear factor that kids don't (and neither the bouncibility!)
 
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