Your fondest childhood memory of horses ....

[skewbaldpony]

I have a few ... hunting for the first time, getting stuck in the plough on my 13.2 and being towed out by a really kind gentleman ... the lovely lady (who it turns out was a really major FBHS!) over the road who always stopped and helped, pointing out when I had my noseband wrong ... the nice bit was when I realised who she was ..... having a clipped pony for the first time, folding a blanket back over his jute rug and fastening the roller ... being given a leather headcollar as a gift ....hacking to shows ... soup and sandwiches at the riding school .... so, so many kind people, who taught me so much.... where ever they are, Gail, Lynn, Jane, 'Mr Bill' .... my heroes. Such a long time ago! So much has changed!

 

[Lippyx]

My first day as a YTS student... Helping my instructor back a pony... riding and competing the naughty 12.2 welsh pony... jumping a 3ft fence on same 12.2 pony... doing XC... after a bad fall jumping a horse, eventually taking same horse around a course of jumps, with no problems... going to the pub for lunch... teaching all the children from beginners and watching them progress to mini SJumpers!

Oh, so many friends, memories and experiences!

 

[help1]

My first lovely grey welsh pony who didn't like being cuddled but was the most genuine lad you have every met...hunting with my little sister and being asked to go up with the huntsman for the first time....opening my christmas present to find the lovely day rug I had saved for a year for and my dad had got me and embroidering my own initials on.......the kindest instructor who used to get us saying tongue twisters whilst jumping grids with no saddle and reins...feeling proud as my pony had our first trace clip....me and my sisters pride at the most perfect beds we had created for our ponies with huge banks (straw of course)..practising hunting with our poor ponies and a labrador who just gazed on in puzzled amusement....my dad digging us our own water splash so we could practice going through water....people who encouraged and inspired me some of who are no longer with us...Derrick, Carol, Mrs A, can't remember her name but the lady who said i could do tetrathlon and i did!!

Like you skewbald a long time ago and loads has changed

 

[kimky]

Trying to look clever infront of my little brother, bareback cantered my 13.3 old nag towards her field and she shot off that quick i went out the back door hahaha

 

[Box_Of_Frogs]

Bearing in mind my advancing years (ahem), my fondest memory of horses was when I was in junior school. We used to collect milk bottle tops (from the free milk for schoolkids!) and turn them into money that we then used to fund the retirement of the working horses that were still reasonably common. I was only about 7 but I remember it as if it was yesterday. All the kids were ushered out into the playground as a huge lorry rolled in. They led this humungus, enormous (to me) cart horse down the ramp and he stood there calmly and happily, surrounded by about 300 adoring junior school kids all clamouring for a stroke. I remember stretching up in awe to stroke his nose and being enchanted by the softness and warmth. The school always did this whenever we had collected enough to rescue another working horse. The lorry taking them to their new retirement home would stop at our school so the kiddies could see what they had achieved and so were spurred on to save more money and so more horses. Wonderful. I like to think my love for horses started that day, though it took half a lifetime for me to stand in front of my very own horse. The memory still makes me smile now x

 

[jenbleep]

Galloping bareback over the field when we turned out....bareback riding in general! We used to ride one, lead two or three along the main road.....no fear....thinking pulling a horses head in was "on the bit".....taking rides out for the riding school.....races across the beach and across the common.....pulling a friends bridle off when riding....i did not do this but rather my instructor....how happy I felt when I was picked to take my favourite horse to a show....Mystic....Tangle Lady, and her foal, Rebel.....riding out over the River Gannal, and coming back when it was high tide and having to swim with the horses...!! So much fun!!! Jumping a wrecked boat on the Gannal....the Gannal being a river estuary near my riding school!!

God I have so many more memories!

 

[foxhunter19205]

Golly, there are loads, but the two that stick out......Going to Pony Club Camp at Huntingdon Racecourse on Risdy, and getting my first rosette (making the most effort to improve!); hacking out on a friends pony and being told to 'be in my yard at 7 in the morning' by Macer Gifford, leading to years of being late for school riding out, hunting, drinking, pointing and team chasing. Thereafter everyone I worked for knew Macer and so I owe him the biggest thanks for a wonderful career.

 

[Enfys]

Being collected from primary school by my Mother riding one pony and leading another for us to double up on.

No saddles, we never bothered, I even used to hunt stirrupless because I was saving the 6 pounds it would cost for new stirrups. It wasn't that we couldn't afford them, just that my parents thought I should pay for extras myself. Can you imagine that nowadays?

 

[Sugarplum Furry]

Box of Frogs....awwww.....that's a really sweet memory!

When I was about 3 we lived in a house along a track, and opposite the house was a dealers yard. I used to toddle across the track into the yard, and the dealer, a woman, used to lift me up on to whichever horse she had tied up there at the time. I can clearly remember sitting on the back of a dark bay cob mare, on a warm summer evening, playing with the mare's mane, the smell of the horse mingled with the smell of hawthorn blossom, and my Dad walking across to find me, he lifted me down and I screamed to be put back on again.

I seemed to spend my whole childhood at that yard. If anyone remembers Pam Bannister, dealer, from Essex, I'd love to hear from you.

Enfys, I used to ride to and from school as well, great memories. Hunt stirrupless? Gulp!!

 

[badgerdog]

Christmas morning when I was 12. My dad taking me to feed his friends pigs only to find a pony in a stable. It was beyond my wildest dreams and still brings a tear to my eye when I think about it.

 

[Tnavas]

Waking every Birthday and Xmas morning racing to window to see the pony that my parents would have bought me - big dissapointment as it was never there.

My very first riding lesson a ½hour - in secret my parents didn't find out for nearly a year. They didn't approve - too dangerous

My very first ride on a friends pony Shandy - I fell off

Winning my first rosette on a friends pony Tango for ride and lead.

Buying my first pony - I was 16 and had saved for years.

Giving one of the huntsmen a lead over a fence his horse was goggling at!

Passing my AI and also Grooms Diploma - for once I had done something my sister hadn't.

Telling mum a big fib that the pigs at the farm had knocked me over - I'd been dumped by a friends pony on the tar seal -I later found I had actually ruptured a disc in my back but never dared tell her it was the pony.

I could go on for ever, there are so many special moments.

 

[Stoxx]

I was bought my girlie for my 4th birthday and so I've grown up with her.

So my fondest childhood memory of horses is every single moment I spent with her. I can't single out one.

 

[MrsElle]

Long day rides in the summer, stopping somewhere to eat my sandwiches that my mum had packed up for me. Riding a mad mare at the riding school who always used to take off on the journey home. Nutmeg, a horse who shouldn’t have been in a riding school but who I loved and who loved me. I begged my dad to buy her for me when she was sent off for sale, but he couldn’t afford it. Having jumping lessons and on the only occasion my non horsey parents came to see me I fell off twice and ended up with a bloody nose and a sprained wrist!

 

[Lobelia_Overhill]

My first proper riding lesson on a hairy little pony called Kipper - he looked just like his Thelwell namesake!

A "pony camp" thing one summer where I got to ride one of the good ponies for the show on the last day and came home with 4 rosettes instead of my usual none

The day I finally got my own pony (the one in my avatar) She went berserk in the stable trying to look at everything - there was a window in the back wall and she was whirling like a dervish going from the door to the window and back

The day I showed her her New Zealand rug. She pretended to be terrified of this big green crackly "monster" and stood at the back of the box snorting. I laid it on the floor in front of her feed trough when I fed her, and she refused to eat while it was there, making a big show of straining her neck to try to get to the food without touching the rug. I walked away and when I came back a minute later she was happily standing on the rug chomping away. When she realised I was standing watching her ...

Riding her out in the "cross country" field (just some jumps we'd made ourselves) we'd a disagreement as to whether we were going left or right around the tree, I wanted to go right, she wanted to go left - we parted in the middle LOL

That mare was mad (in a good way!)