How did you get started with horses??

Pretty much what the title says. Interested to see why we all wanted to get that first horse and how we got to the point we are now.

For me I guess it first started watching My Little Ponies and then horse movies. When I was 4 we moved to a huge 300 acre farm and an old man who lived down the road would drive his bay mare DeeDee by our house almost daily and I started waiting for him so I could pet DeeDee and maybe feed her a treat. That turned into a friendship with the old man and he'd give me rides down the highway and he taught me how to drive her and he gave me an old 1940s edition of Black Beauty and I read that book as a very young kid.
When I was 8 my dad found an old Quarter horse gelding named Champ who wouldn't go above a walk and I was so scared of him I only rode him once. I loved him but was too scared to ride so he was sold. Then about a year later I saw an ad in the paper for someone giving riding lessons and I begged my parents and they let me take lessons for one week because it was all they could afford. I learned the basics on an ex barrel mare named Shawma who gave me my confidence back but I didn't learn much except for how to mount, walk,trot,turn, and stop, and basic grooming.
When I was 13 I again started asking for a horse and I found an ad in the paper one day and we went and looked at her. She was a sorrel QH mare named Sugar who had been used for rented trail rides but had sat in pasture for a year. Needless to say I had no clue what I was doing and that little mare ended up being my best horse yet. She taught me so much and forgave my beginner mistakes. I didn't have anybody to learn from so I absorbed every bit of info I could like a sponge, I read as many books I could get, magazines, watched every training show on RFDTV, read my vet reference book cover to cover, took notes and quizzed myself over every bit of it. I broke my first 2 year old when I was 15 and she ended up being a nice mare that was very safe. I have since then owned 14 horses. Some were rescue cases, others I bought for riding horses, and some were trades. Each horse taught me something new and then in 2006 I went to college for Equine Science and learned a ton more.
Now my goal is to open a riding program and have a center to take in horses for training, teach lessons, etc. I've taught lessons before and have also worked with horses who have bad habits. Me and my husband want to do all we can to educate new owners and that is what our whole plan is aimed at. I'm a Psych major and want to also use horses as a treatment for people who have confidence, self-esteem, anger, etc issues and horses are very helpful in these cases. It's just a matter of being able to buy the farm to do this on LOL

My dad bought horses when I was 2, and put me on them. TaDa! It has just progressed from there. Probably not the best way to get into horses. Oh, how I remember all of those low tree branches...
Posted via Mobile Device

My Father owns and runs his own Gold Mining Company, and when I was growing up we spent many summers out on his claims camping while he worked.

During one of these summer camping trips, when I was just a little girl, there were these Ladies out riding their horses, and my Mom was able to get me on one of their horses. My Mother said, that from that day on, was the worst mistake she ever made. She said that since that day, I was obsessed with horses.

In grade 4, that was when I started to take riding lessons. My Grandma, for my B-day, bought me riding lessons and, well, here I am.

My grandparents gave me a rocking horse (the kind with springs) for my first birthday. By 14 months I had taught myself to scale the sides of my crib so that I could ride him any time I wanted to. There was a pony ride at a fair just after my 3rd birthday. You'd have thought I'd invented the pony all by myself by the look on my face in the pictures. Then my cousins had an irascible backyard pony - she taught me to stick on the back of a bareback horse that is trying to throw me, and I taught her that not every kid is going to get thrown and stay off. We had an amicable relationship after that.

I'm still waiting on my own first horse, though. Next year, maybe the year after that, but it's coming. I can feel it.

Really fun story here -

Aside from being like every other little girl in wanting a horse, there's a barn near where we live that we gave our cat to. As soon as I set foot in there I was hooked. They had an adorable paint for sale and I wanted him soooo bad, but of course, that was a no-go My parents actually started to cave, so we ended up calling a lady who gave lessons (and told us immediately that getting an untrained 2yo for a little girl who knew nothing about horses was a bad idea...who knew? ) and that's where it all started. So my cat was really the one who started it, I knew I loved that kitty for a reason! That was in third grade and I've been riding ever since

I was born into horses. My gpa started the family QH farm in the late 50s. It was never forced onto us, but I have been in love with them for as long as I can remember. My sister on the other hand hasn't been on a horse in almost 10 years.

I started with a chunky pony mare that racked, she was so much fun! I sold her myself (with a bit of gpa's help) when I was 8. A man was at the farm picking up a mare that was in to be bred and asked if gpa knew of a kid broke pony. I raised my hand and said "I do" and he then asked why I wanted to sell her, my response "If I sell her gpa will get me a Quarter Horse." 2 weeks later I had a bay QH mare that was born on the King Ranch. I've been hooked since and now run the family farm, raising my daughter the same way I was :)


Dolly the pony, I'm the kid in the life jacket....


And, Kings Hot Bunny the mare gpa bought me after I sold her.

My Mom had a friend who had horses. She put me on when I was 18 months and I refused to get off. 28 years later I still refuse to get off LOL

I was also blessed to be poor and have a very kind trainer who let me work for my lessons and work to buy 2 horses from her. I have ridden hundreds of horses from dead broke baby sitters, to completely green and everywhere in between, even highly trained show horses. I had no idea the gifts she gave me but I appreciate it all so much now.

I am a city girl so seeing a real live horse never happened until I went to a horse camp at the age of 12. HOwever, my love of horses started when I was 3-4. I came downstairs to watch TV with my dad and a horse race was on. Wasn't my dad's usual and I was so intrigued by this new "thing" on TV. I foudn the horses so beautiful and WOW! COuld they run! I told my dad I wanted to do that too. Gosh it scared him, lol. He tried to scare me out of it by saying that riding horses were dangerous and people died. Didn't get to me though.

I just went upstairs to ask my mom if I could have riding lessons. I still remember that day when I looked up at her and asked the question that I knew had a negative answer. My moms excuse though wasn't the fact that horseback riding was dangerous, but that it was expensive and that it wasn't called the sport of kings for nothing. My parents didn't know ANYTHIng about riding, horses, or where to find lessons and what equipment to buy if I were to start.

I religiously went on the pony rides on Canada day though. From 4 to 7 if I didn't ride that pony I had a fit! ;)
At 12 I looked up a horse camp and my parents accepted to let me go since it wasn't too expensive and far. After that camp I was hooked and found a barn and now have been taking lessons ever since. :)

I have wanted a horse ever since seeing Roy Roger's horse Trigger. That was 47 years ago, and just this past April (3rd to be exact), I began my lease of Flash, a 24 yo Appaloosa mare. The option to buy in April 2012 turned into my buying her one month later. Now I'm not sure if $2,000 is on the high side for a papered, show horse with points, 4-H and lesson horse at 24 years, but that was the price stippulated. The owner told me in no uncertain terms that if she sold the horse for what she was really worth, I couldn't afford her. All that being said, I finally have my dream come true and I'm grateful for it. :)

My mom used to throw me on our old gelding moses. And she would go running around the barn yard working. I think I was about 2 on this 16hh horse. But he never went over a walk with me on. And mom always made sure I had a helmet on. And from than I was hooked. When I was 3 my mom and dad bought my mare sassy. The best horse I ever had. The guy we bought her from said not to put kids on her. And I told him I was going to ride her. And the week later mom had me on her. And I would do EVERYTHING with her. Was almost to brave for my own good. But it was the beginning to my dads nightmare. Haha that I would show and he would flip the bill for my entries. :). Once sassy retired I bought my gelding buddy who is 10 now. And I love him. And my mare ms mary is a rescue I got last summer. And. She is an amazing horse. She reminds me so much of sassy:)
Posted via Mobile Device