How did you first get into riding/horses? Whats your story?

Started at age 5 when i first rode at my mom's best friends wedding...After 7 long years i finally got my first horse...we just celebrated out first full year together, my roads been unique and even though my first trainer screamed at every little thing i did wrong (even when i was jumping 2.5 ft at age 7 and showing with people twice my age) I tried really hard to do something right and i never could do enough for her...I was the first to leave out of my group and don't regret it. Even with a few bumps along the way i could never be separated from horses. :)

My mum's side of the family was really into the gambling side of horse racing, and they used to take me to the races when I was a young one every now and then. And plus we knew someone who was a clerk of a course back then, so we also had some connections.

I guess thats how it started, took my first riding lesson at seven and have never looked back since.

my mom put me on old ranch horses before i could even say a sentence(she just led the horse around and someone held me on) and well, i still love them the same today, from the first time me and my cousin got to ride out of the corral on a trail ride alone to my last dressage show... haah if it is a phase...it is a VERY logn phase and i will drop this phase when i die

When I was around 8-9 years old, I suddenly had a great interest in horses. I live in "cowboy country" so I saw horses fairly often. I read every single book in our library about horses, fiction and non-fiction. Then I read them again. I wanted to ride. But I wanted to ride English.
My mom started asking around to see if anyone gave English lessons in our town. A lady from our church told us about a barn where her daughter rode, the only English barn near us. So I grabbed my best friend (we did everything together) and we did our first horse summer camp together when we were 10.
Over eight years later and I'm still riding at that same barn and even bought my horse from the BO.

Both of my parents were born and raised on farms in the days when they used horses ... by the time I was born they'd long ago lost any interest in horses (we lived in London at the time) but for some reason I was obsessed with horses and used to ask for one every year for Christmas or birthday.

When I was 7 we moved to Scotland and we lived near fields, so I doubled my cries for a pony ...

When I was 13 a riding school opened about a mile from our house and I was finally able to start riding - the instructor at the place took a dislike to me and used to put me on the worst ponies they had and it took me forever to learn how to do anything, but I stuck at it. I went for a lesson every week and booked myself onto every 'camp' they held during the school holidays (I never helped out at the yard because of the instructor not liking me) and I kept asking for a pony and was still being shouted at for mentioning "that word" in the house.

When I was a baby my parents had started paying an insurance policy for me, when I was 16 it matured and I received a couple of hundred Pounds - I started saving like mad and when I was 18 I had enough money saved for a pony. 18th is your Big Birthday in Scotland and you're supposed to get a special present for it, so of course I asked for a pony and was screamed at again I showed my parents the money I'd saved up - they didn't care, I'd committed the mortal sin of saying "pony" in their presence...

I ended up buying a pony myself in spite of their objections, she was a 15hh fleabitten grey mare, very well mannered in the stable, had a terrible sense of humour, was crazy to ride, loved jumping and galloping. And I had a lot of fun with her in the two years I had her.

Then I was offered a job as a live-in groom to some show ponies - and the woman wouldn't let me bring my pony with me. I wanted to put my pony on loan just in case, but my father made me sell her. Since I didn't really want to stay at home any more anyways I sold her to a man I knew from the riding school who was taking early retirement and had decided to buy himself a horse (I found out a few months ago that he kept her till she died about 5 years ago).
I phoned the woman to tell her I was on my way, and she coldly told me she'd given my job to someone else ... so there I was with no pony and no job (my mother laughed in my face) I had no money to buy the pony back as I'd spent it all on things I'd need for leaving home

I stopped riding for a few years, then I started again ... Then I damaged my back really badly (nothing to do with a horse!) and 3 days later - while I was at my parents' house I became more or less paralysed. It took me over two years to recover from that [mis-diagnosed by 4 doctors] injury, during which time [while I was out of my head on pain-killers] my parents decided to retire to Ireland, and I ended up moving with them.

All of a sudden my back 'righted' itself and I started exercising to get myself fit again and loose the weight I'd gained! My cousin knows a woman who's son was starting a riding school a couple of miles from our house, so I started going there - having not ridden for about 10 years. I got back into the swing of it very quickly tho' and started thinking about buying myself a horse again, then the economic boom started and horse prices went through the roof and I couldn't afford to buy.

I stopped riding at that place and started looking for somewhere else, but I couldn't find anywhere in walking distance (I couldn't drive at the time), then when I was on a computer course a woman noticed I had "horse riding" listed as one of my hobbies [on my CV] and she asked where I rode, I said I wasn't at the time, and she said she was going to a place that wasn't that far out of town, she asked them if I could join on the lesson she was on, they said yes. And I've been riding there ever since (about 12 years)

A few years ago I hurt my back again (same injury - again nothing to do with a horse!) and had to stop riding for a few years, then last year I started again ... and I started thinking about buying my own horse, prices had started to drop to a more reasonable amount by now, and 6 months ago I bought my new horse! a 16.2hh 6 year old chestnut Irish Sport Horse who's been used as a showjumper, but I'm hoping to turn him into a useful all rounder ...

A common route for us to drive to the 'big city' would take us by a large horse ranch that always had a small 'Foals for Sale' sign by the road. We drove by this ranch for 15 years before one day, having some extra time, my wife wanted to stop and look at the foals. We stopped, she went off one way talking with the breeder, and I wandered around looking at the farm. An hour later we met back up, my wife very excited with a paper flapping in her hand.....which turned out to be the bill of sale for our first Paint filly.
We're up to 3 wonderful Paint mares and have enjoyed every minute.