Originally Posted By smedley I love horses, I took a few lessons in my early teens at a local riding school, but then didn't get the opportunity to do any more. I always wanted a horse of my own. I decided about 2 yrs ago that I was going to go again and learn 'properly' and was doing ok, before I decided to break my arm snowboarding, so had to lay off for a bit. For some reason I never got back. I think for the most part because the stables I was using changed ownership, and I was not as happy with the new people. I did notice the other week that a stables close to us has put up signs saying it has become affiliated and is now offering riding lessons, so I am seriously considering going to have a look and arranging to take some more lessons. On a side note, the stables I rode at as a teenager was beside the beach (I grew up on the coast) and there is nothing more fun in my opinion than cantering along the water's edge with the spray throwing up.... Those were the days
Originally Posted By Big Thunder <-- tips hat brim toward ChickendumPling regarding post #20 why thank ya mam
Originally Posted By dltraveler Count me as another horse nut! When I was really little, I also preferred toy horses over barbies. I was completely obsessed with horses. If we passed by a horse while out on a fieldtrip, my classmates would all go "Look, dltraveler, horses!" When I was about nine, I found a stable where they used horses as therapy for mentally and physically handicapped children. For the next 8 years, I volunteered there working with the kids and mostly with the horses. I practically lived at the stables during the summers, even sleeping there. Around the last year of high school, things changed at the stables, and I drifted away. Since then, I occasionally find someone who needs their horses exercised, and I'll get to ride for a year or two until they either decide to pasture their horse or sell. Right now, I'm horseless. I've got a lot going on, so it's ok. I'm sure that in a few months, I'll start getting that longing to be around horses again. I'll spread the word that I'm available as a rider, and hopefully, something will come up. I can never go very long, once horse crazy, always horse crazy.
Originally Posted By Pixie Glitter <----grew up on a farm and rode her pony or horse nearly every day until the fateful day when she was sixteen and her parents sold the farm (and the horses). Misses them to this day.
Originally Posted By 4Disnee I grew up most of my life with a pony or a horse. I rode High School Rodeo and loved it. I had to have my horse of 19 years put down about 6 years ago and have not gotten another one since. I sure do miss him and all the horse stuff. I have kept my saddles and some of my good tack. Someday I will have another one but the cost of hay and board is really expensive so I will wait until DS is older or if he wants to ride and rope then that may be a good reason to get another horse. I read this post and started to tear up when I think about the good ole days with my horse. He was a quarter horse that stood 14'3" he was not very big but his heart was huge! I sure do miss him. Well that is enough now I am crying. It does not take much to make me cry but I am with everyone else I would love to ride now also. Maybe someday soon.
Originally Posted By officerminnie I am in the same boat as many of you - I love horses, but have never owned one and probably never will. I just think they are one of the most beautiful creatures on the earth. Whn I was a little girl (7-8 years old), my older sisters and I were so fortunate to be able to ride horses that lived a couple of blocks from our house. Mr. and Mrs. Curran had an 8 acre apple orchard with 250 apple trees - and horses! We rode old Scout, who was a dapple gray (I don't know if that's an official "breed" or not), so gentle that we rode him bareback and slid of his rear end to dismount. My oldest sister got to ride Back Interest, a retired race horse who was somehow part of Man O' War's family tree. She may have been retired, but she was fast! I remember you could see her racing serial number tatooed underneath her upper lip. And then there was Brewster Boy, or B.B., Back Interest's son. He wasn't broke yet so we didn't get on him. We rode the grassy hills of the orchard, wearing trails between the trees where our usual "route" was. We had a couple of really fun summers, riding every day, feeding the horses apples that fell off the trees, helping clean the barn, and grooming the horses. I now live only 3 doors away from my childhood home, and I drive by that apple orchard twice every day. The Currans have passed away and the horses are gone, but the orchard was sold to the city on the condition it remain an orchard, so all those trees are still there. 40+ years later, the memories are so vivid, it's amazing.
Originally Posted By JohnS1 I work in a bookstore now, and it is common knowledge that at approximately age 8, all little girls want to read everything they possibly can about horses, whereas all little boys want to read everything they can about dinosauurs. Especially dinosaurs that eat horses.
Originally Posted By TALL Disney Guy LOL...I was a dinoholic, that's for sure, but I was too nice a kid I guess...I always favored the gentle, loping herbivores like the "duck-billed" dinosaurs ("hadrosaurs"), Triceratops, lumbering sauropods, and swooping fish-eating pterosaurs and ocean-dwelling beasts. T-Rex, Allasaurus, Velociraptors---eh, they never grabbed me like the Niceasauruses.
Originally Posted By JohnS1 Yes, but didn't you know that the Niceasauruses captured their prey by luring them in with their niceness, then revealing their claws and attacking??!!! Sort of like wives... (Just kidding, really.) No, really. I mean it. Really, I mean it. (She was looking over my shoulder when I wrote this)
Originally Posted By chickendumpling LOL @ John! At first I thought John was talking about Tall and I was like, "What?!"
Originally Posted By JohnS1 No, I'm sure that Tall is definitely a herbivore. ...unless his prey is Vickie Lawrence.... (-;
Originally Posted By TALL Disney Guy I'm a FOODivore baby!! lol And are you crazy? The only thing I wanna do to Vicki is promote her. lol (and love the wife analogy...heh heh heh)
Originally Posted By LadyKluck >>>My oldest sister got to ride Back Interest, a retired race horse who was somehow part of Man O' War's family tree.<<< That is awesome! <----Has been to Man O' War's grave (if that doesn't prove I'm a horse nut I don't know what does)! So am I really the only one here so far that owns horses currently? How strange.
Originally Posted By LadyKluck Well I'm definitly no millionaire - I got my horse as a gift from my mom and stepmom!! (Yes, you read that right - my mom and stepmom. My stepmom owned him and was going to sell him, my mom knew how much I loved him so she talked my stepmom into giving him to me.)
