What was your childhood "horse"

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Equi

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Had this convo with a firend, I had three.

The head rest on the car, it had reins and i would turn the car using my hands and make it go fast or slow by tapping or pulling up. The other was a rocking horse that was pretty tough, i would do rising trot on it and eventually made it canter across the yard. Poor thing suffered a broken back and leg eventually. Then i moved on to my bike, who was perfect for practising poles and drops! lol
 
My bike - tied rope to the handlebars and held them like reins . . . the back of a wing chair in my parents' bedroom - I tied the belt from my Dad's dressing gown into a loop, slung it over the back of the chair and put my feet in it and pretended I was a jockey while I watched the racing on the tv in their bedroom.

P
 
I had a rocking horse I used to play the white horses theme over and again on a old record player and rock.
It must have driven my parents mad.
 
My mum's garden wall was the back (cushion for a saddle, and sometimes drape her handbag strap across both sides so I had loops as stirrups!) and the stone raised gate post was the neck/head, so again, another one of my mums handbag around that for reins! This was only when I went to see her at weekends!

Other than that, not really a horse, but going down my road we had speed bumps, so in the back I would adapt canter and jumping position to jump the 'bumps'....clear round every time!
 
joulsey said:
Other than that, not really a horse, but going down my road we had speed bumps, so in the back I would adapt canter and jumping position to jump the 'bumps'....clear round every time!
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Ha yes i did that too!! Worked my hips and core. I still do it really to minimise the impact on a bump lol
 
My grandma had this long stool/table hybrid from the olden days with four metal legs...I wrapped towels up and safety pinned them into the shape of a horse's head, made a bridle out of rope, padded the seat then slung a blanket over it - instant jousting! I believe one picture survives somewhere....

I graduated to bike and did the speedbump jumping too!
 
I used a rocking horse, a bike, grooming and 'lunging' the dog, pretty much everything I could use.

I also had a large stuffed horse which I placed onto a stack of boxes to make it about 12hh and sat on that.
 
I used to "compete" at badminton, Hickstead and in the horse races on my rocking horse by riding him in front of the tv when they were on and jumping along with them :p

I had scores of model horses that joined me on car journeys

I used to build jumps out of garden canes and flower pots and jump them either on foot or on my space hopper would spend hours out there

I was an odd child :p
 
me&Harvey said:
I used to "compete" at badminton, Hickstead and in the horse races on my rocking horse by riding him in front of the tv when they were on and jumping along with them :p

I had scores of model horses that joined me on car journeys

I used to build jumps out of garden canes and flower pots and jump them either on foot or on my space hopper would spend hours out there

I was an odd child :p
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Yes! I did that too!
 
We had a rocking elephant, she's a wooden rocking elephant! Had a hobby horse as well.At my nana and granddads, my cousin and I use to use to build fences out of mops, yard brushes and buckets and gallop round pretending we were in the Olympics! Granddad was the "commentator", we'd dream up these really fancy show names and he use to tease us by saying and "here's such a body on yard brush"
 
A tree trunk, then a space hopper on which I did show jumping over jumps made with flower pots and garden canes. Then my bike.
 
I was lucky enough to be given two really old saddles when i was little, so i rode the gate, skipping ropes as wonky stirrups...impossible to get them level and skipping rope around the gate post for reins! I was lucky as my 'pony' was about 12hh and i could 'ride' with a friend!
 
I was lucky that my mum used to ride and had her own saddle. she let me put it on the bannisters at the bottom of the stairs and I used a skipping rope for reins...kept me amused for hours...
 
The labrador, Liquorice with my mum's hand bag over his back.

The car head rests with orange bailer twine as reins.

And then I had imaginary horses from when I was about 5 to 7 (the main one was called Charisma after Mark Todd's great eventer) which I show jumped daily- over garden chairs and brooms, clothes horses, boxes, towels as water jumps and down the steep bank on our driveway- Hickstead!

I went through a phase of proving what a responsible owner I would be, by marking out "stables" on the patio and piling it up with bedding (pine needles and leaves) and empty ice cream buckets of water. I would get up before school every day to muck out.

Parents eventually tired of sharing their home with my pine needles and bought me a pony. Charisma was retired when the real pony arrived.
 
LadyGascoyne said:
The labrador, Liquorice with my mum's hand bag over his back.

The car head rests with orange bailer twine as reins.

And then I had imaginary horses from when I was about 5 to 7 (the main one was called Charisma after Mark Todd's great eventer) which I show jumped daily- over garden chairs and brooms, clothes horses, boxes, towels as water jumps and down the steep bank on our driveway- Hickstead!

I went through a phase of proving what a responsible owner I would be, by marking out "stables" on the patio and piling it up with bedding (pine needles and leaves) and empty ice cream buckets of water. I would get up before school every day to muck out.

Parents eventually tired of sharing their home with my pine needles and bought me a pony. Charisma was retired when the real pony arrived.
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I LOVE this!
 
oh god this is so adorable!

I had my older sisters' two hockey sticks, Thor and Odin, with their horsy faces painted on in marker pen.

I used to dress up in my sisters' jods (the ones with the sticky out thighs!!) their hat, hacking jacket and my school shoes, and gallop round the garden doing little jumping courses on Thor and Odin.

I also had my Dad's Easy Stage (a kind of scaffolding) where I had a plank about 14hh which you mounted via a scaffolding pole, and I made a horse head out of the old milk bottle holder you put out for the milkman (handle made a good muzzle), plaited some reins using wool, and sat up there for hours. Unfortunately on one occasion I slipped when mounting and came down astride the scaffolding pole (horizontal I hasten to add) and couldn't walk for a week. Still loved that horse though!
 
I also had a Cardboard Box horse. She was white as snow & made from a box suspended over my shoulders & mane and tail from shredded shopping bags. Shame.
 
joulsey said:
Other than that, not really a horse, but going down my road we had speed bumps, so in the back I would adapt canter and jumping position to jump the 'bumps'....clear round every time!
Click to expand...
Sorry, are you saying I was supposed to stop doing this at a certain age?!?

My horse was also a bike with reins. Didn't go well...I used to canter and gallop with my back feet, lying on the floor watching racing. My earliest horse was a plastic one, between ages one and two. I remember pushing myself along. Apparently it neighed until I tried to feed it!
 
Haha at least i'm not alone!

I always used to play yard owner too, and every sat when i went to the chippy with my friend we would talk very loudly about what horses needed what doing and whos turn it was to ride the stallions and what mare was due to foal etc lol
 
I had several childhood horses..... the arm chair of course, our rocking horse, Joey, who is still upstairs at my parents. Me and my sister trained our two dogs Bonny and Jenny,to run between our legs, we even jumped, don't tell the rspca because they loved it. I also had invisible horses.......I didn't walk anywhere I trotted and cantered. I even attached baby reins to my sister and we cantered around everywhere. I think my parents just gave up in the end and bought us a pony.....Star, still missed greatly!
 
equi said:
Haha at least i'm not alone!

I always used to play yard owner too, and every sat when i went to the chippy with my friend we would talk very loudly about what horses needed what doing and whos turn it was to ride the stallions and what mare was due to foal etc lol
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I used to write up lesson schedules for all my model horses then set up each of the lessons, they went for hacks in the garden or along the landing!
 
The tallest cow parsley I could find! Galloped endlessly around the garden. Definitely trotted and cantered around jumping everything, even in the house which would drive my mum crazy. I also made the cat jump over things, putting 'jumps' in all the door ways, although he would run off when he'd had enough. Friends with skipping ropes for reins and jumping over garden canes too. When I was about 10 some stables near us came up for sale and I remember planning with my friends how we would get our parents to buy them and run a riding school. We worked out how much everything was going to cost using a Robinsons catalogue and pony adverts in the back of Horse and Pony??? magazine. We were sure our parents would go for it!
Loving this thread, brings back great memories.
 
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