How did you get into horses?

[GraceLikeRain]

My older sister rode until her late teens at a barn a mile down the road. It was formative for her but boys and school eventually took priority. My parents thought it was a nice posh hobby but akin to dance or soccer where you eventually aged out.

A decade later my parents took me out to the same barn at age 6. I was instantly hooked. Growing up in a metro area in the 90s meant the mile away barn quickly grew to a 40 mile round trip by the time I graduated still only riding 1-2 times a week.

My freshmen year I realized I could go to the barn every day and that I was decent enough to exercise ride for people. Since 1995 the longest I’ve ever gone without riding was 12 weeks for a broken shoulder. Between owning horses I’ve catch ridden, taught lessons, and done whatever I needed to be around them. It is an all consuming and at times toxic love affair but it’s all I want to do.

[OnAMission]

My mom had happy horse memories but she wasn’t and still isn’t a horse person. Her and my dad moved to MT when they got married and part of that was “oh hey go get a horse” so they did and also got 2 year old me a shetland pony. They played around with the horses but I was infected; I still remember sitting on that pony in the yard. Bless them that they didn’t bond with horses but they kept getting me ponies and then horses b/c I definitely had the disease. They would buy me ponies/horses and then just walk away, no saddles, no bridles nothing but I had places to ride i the mountains and I did. Had a lapse when they sold my horse in HS and then I went to college and bought another, never been without since.

I did family geneology 20 some years ago and found a lost offshoot of my family raised horses… found out my mom’s grandfather trained draft teams… I do really think it’s genetic. One of my grandmother’s favorite memories of 3 year old me was taking me to see some horses across a fence and they pooped and I looked up and asked “doesn’t that smell good??” LOL It’s deep stuff.

[2DogsFarm]

I’m calling Genetics too!
My Dad & his younger sister rode livery horses in Chicago’s Lincoln Park in the 1930s.

My very earliest memory is of riding a red wooden horse on wheels.
This was prior to my 5yo year because family had relocated from the house in those memories before I went to kindergarten.
In the new suburban house a neighbor girl a bit older had a Miraculous Rockinghorse, the size of an actual.pony, covered in horsehide, real horsehair mane & tail, leather saddle & bridle
As an adult in my twenties, living in Chgo, I learned this was made by a man named Nik Klein, whose workshop was on Lincoln Avenue, still making these wondrous horses in the '70s.
Neighbor kid was a Capital B Brat - I was scandalized hearing her backtalk her mother, but I looked past this to get a chance to ride her rocker
Later I had a school friend who lived right across the road from a Thoroughbred layup & broodmare farm. We were frequent visitors, wandering the aisles, back in those pre-litiginous 60’s.
They also had a herd of Shetlands (companions?) that shared a pasture with a billy goat. We could never catch the ponies to ride, but would get on the goat, grabbing his horns & when he got us off, learned to roll under the nearest fence before he came back to butt!
We’d also play with the foals turned out with mares in the Spring. Mares who tolerated us playing with their babies, I don’t remember ever being scared by a mare.
Remember the chapter in National Velvet when she visits the Old Gentleman’s stable?
My memory of that place is like that

I bargained with my parents. A weekly riding lesson in exchange for going to Sunday School.
Even then, I was leaning agnostic
When I earned money babysitting, that paid for my lesson.
Lessons went on until I was 15 & decided Boys were a better use for my earnings
I never lost my love of horses, but it was 20yrs before I became a re-rider.
Then a stable in the city - mainly for Carriage horses, but with a small lesson string - caught my eye, as it was visible from the El(evated train) I took to work.
Back to a weekly lesson, then Working Student & finally followed a trainer there to a suburban barn she leased where I bought my first Very Own horse
That was in 1989.
I’ve never looked back

[Calvincrowe]

I was horse mad from birth apparently. I would steal the caps off of aerosol cans for “hooves” as I trotted around the house on my hands and knees. I drew them, played with Breyer horses, and finally got a pony when I was 10. I “rode” our barstools— placing my western saddle over two of them when I wasn’t riding my pony.

My mom grew up with work horses in the 30s on the family dairy, but she never did more than ride them to or from fields. My brothers were into motocross. I was definitely the odd ball. I’ve never not had a horse in my life. 46 years and counting!!

[exvet]

I grew up on dairy farm. My family (extended and nuclear) raised Morgans. I wanted a ‘pony’ from the time I could walk/talk/do anything. My grandfather bought a pony when I was 4, my father was in Nam but on a brief leave at the time. He went ballistic and said I couldn’t have my own horse until I could buy it on my own; so, when my father shipped out my grandfather started giving me an allowance for chores - collecting eggs, cleaning out the chicken coop, bucket feeding calves, etc. I was given riding lessons for that birthday. Almost 18 months later I had saved up enough money to buy the pony I was taking lessons on from my riding instructor who was shipped out to Nam later that year. My guess is that she knew how much I saved up because the pony was the cost of my savings. Either way the rest was history. I was very lucky because I grew up with a lot of pony owning kids like myself with families who didn’t think twice about the desire or reasoning. I am now 61 and own a total of 4 horses though one is retired. I still ride and show and train my own from the ground up. I recently purchased a 2 year old who I’m looking forward to backing next summer…I will die with my boots on God willing.

[barnesthenoble]

Born this way, according to my parents! Nobody horsey in my family for generations, but the first toy I ever asked for was a little stuffed horse, apparently.

I know I’d done some carnival pony rides or nose-to-tail type trail rides when I was quite young. If there was a horse to be found, I’d find it. I always bought horse books at the book fair, was HUGE on the Walter Farley books, the Thoroughbred books, got really into racehorse biographies…

Mom says I used to ask for riding lessons all the time, but this was pre-widespread internet and I think she was hoping I’d grow out of it. Until one day in first grade or so they handed out a little booklet of local coupons, and somewhere in the middle I spotted it: $5 riding lessons!!! I clutched that little book of coupons for the rest of the day and just about tackled my mother with it at school pickup.

The rest is history…friends’ parents told mine that I’d grow out of it, I’d grow up and get into boys or whatever else…joke’s on them. I spent every possible day after school and on the weekends being a barn rat, mucking, cleaning stalls, turning in/out, whatever was needed to get rides and just spend time around the horses. My parents did hold off on getting me a horse of my own until I was 17, and I distinctly remember them telling me that if I lost interest after said horse arrived, they’d never forgive me. Needless to say, their worries were unnecessary.

The madness continues and I’m going to keep doing this horse thing in whatever form I can until I’m utterly priced out or rendered physically incapable of petting one.

[trakehners]

I suspect I was born this way but in terms of concrete causes: my aunt and uncle own a farm a couple of hours away that we used to visit regularly til I was about five. My cousins (ten and twelve years older than me, respectively) both rode, my aunt and uncle had a small breeding operation on the side (their full-time gig at the time was making jewelry, for which they had a workshop on the farm), and they also ran their local pony club.

I have no recollection of the first time I was sat on a horse but it definitely happened there. I do remember being three and terrified of being too close to the horses because they were so much bigger than me but also desperately wanting to be around them, so I’d beg whichever adults until someone gave in and took me down to the barn. I also remember going to watch my cousin at a local pony club show, watching her jump a course, and declaring to my three- or four-year-old self that I was going to learn how to fly.

I relentlessly begged my parents for a pony until they put me into lessons when I was eight and it’s all been downhill ever since, lol. I think they thought I would grow out of it but that hasn’t happened yet.

That same aunt and uncle also took me to my first Rolex when I was thirteen—they used to exhibit at the trade fair every year (there was a lot of equestrian-themed jewelry in their line, including a whole collection of stock tie pins) and they still knew everyone when we went so it was really cool to see it through their eyes the first time. I’ll have to ask my uncle if he still has any pins lying around since I’ll be in stock tie land next year. He still does custom work for family and friends (mostly engagement rings and wedding bands at this point) so I may end up commissioning one from him if he doesn’t have any old stock available.

[saddleup]

My mom was from a small town in southern Utah. My grandfather would work as a wrangler whenever a film crew came to town to film one of the many westerns filmed in their area, and he always had several horses. When we’d come from California in the summer, from the time I was a tiny girl, I spent as much time as I could riding, brushing, dreaming of owning one of his horses.

No one else in my family got the “horse gene”. When I was in my 50’s my parents were in town and my mom asked me when I was going to “get over this horse thing”. Cracked me up. NEVER.

[2DogsFarm]

@clanter

remember seeing the rail cars loaded with thoroughbreds setting on the local rail siding waiting to be taken into Louisville.

I have a Happy Ending story about one of those TBs.
Horse was on a boxcar headed from OK to Chgo as part of an oil deal with a Chgo Broker whose wife rode at the city stable where I was WS.
Somehow that boxcar got shunted off to a sidetrack & sat for a week w/horse in it. No one providing feed or water.
When Broker finally tracked down where the boxcar was & got horse to Chgo, that horse was skin & bones & not trusting of any human, proved too much for the novice rider wife & was sold to a friend of mine who boarded there. Handsome 17h black gelding.
Friend had a DraftX mare, DH (retired Chgo Detective) rode that horse while she worked to retrain the TB.
She & her DH moved the horses first to a suburban barn, then to their own 70ac property near Shipshewana.
My friend worked with that horse & he came around enough to become her Husband Horse.
Horse was always a bit quirky, but got along great with DH, who - at 6’7" - was better matched than with her 16h mare.
I went on a trailride with them at a place in MI (Sturgis?) that had a pond by the trailer parking.
TB was led to that pond to drink, but waded in until only his head & neck were above water.
Would.Not.Come.Out!
They ended up leaving him there, property owner agreed to catch horse when he came out.
They picked him up the next day.

[steelerino]

My parents. My dad liked to drive and my mom rode as a little girl but much preferred horses from the ground.

[Indy]

I blame two dudes named Herman.

When I was a kid, my passion was ballet. The little town I lived where I lived had a renowned performing arts summer camp that I would go to. In addition to dance, drama, and music, all the campers had to learn to ride horses. The summer I turned 9 I fell in love with a gentle plain bay horse named Herman. That fall we moved across the country and I discovered that I didn’t like ballet quite as much anymore in my new studio. But my new best friend from school rode horses so I decided I wanted to try lessons. Within the year ballet was a thing of the past and it’s been all horses all the time since.

The reason we moved across the country was because my grandpa had died and my mom wanted to be closer to my grandma. My grandpa’s name was Herman. Call it coincidence, but if it wasn’t for horse Herman and human Herman, I don’t think I’d ever have gotten into horses.

[tabula_rashah]

None of the people in my family were outdoorsy or horsey at all but I was both since I can remember. I think I drove my parents crazy. When I was in 1st grade, my brownie troop went on a nose-to-tail trail ride and that was it lol. My mom finally relented and found me a local place to take lessons, which led to pony club and leasing and friends with horses and horse jobs, eventually equine college, etc and so on. My youngest brother too- although he’s never been interested in riding oddly. He’s worked as a handler at some top places - include running horses on the triangle at DAD and his now a farrier. I’ve got several nieces and nephews with the bug too lol.

[LCDR]

Am I the only one who didn’t grow up “horsey?”

DD started taking riding lessons at 13, started begging hor a horse, and saved enough baby sitting and from gifts from relatives to buy a horse and join Pony Club. Said I, "if you save enough to buy a horse, I"ll take care of the rest. Not realizing that that meant board, lessons, vets, farriers, tack, truck and trailer, entry fees, and loads of my time. So in a defensive move and wanting to not be totally bored at shows, I decided to borrow the horse to take a few beginner lessons myself.

Something clicked and I have been involved in eventing and fox hunting for forty years now, have a horse farm, and before my retirement I even arranged with my boss to take Wednesday afternoons off to puppy walk, cub, and hunt. DD stopped riding three decades ago, BTW.

[moonlitoaksranch]

It was a pillow on a railing for me. I think I was imprinted on horses when I saw my grandma’s dun mare. She retired her mare shortly after and I never saw one in person until I was about 7 years old. In the meantime, I imagined them running alongside the car when we drove somewhere rural. I pretended I was a horse at recess in elementary school. I had a few friends that would play horses. We ran around on our hands and knees in the grass. My friend had a birthday party at a rental stable. It was all my dreams come true riding that rental horse. I remember being shocked at how big real horses were, lol

[Arelle]

My mom suddenly died a month before my 13th birthday. My dad, bless his heart, didn’t know how to raise an almost teenage daughter as a single dad but for my birthday that year got me a prepaid pack of horseback riding lessons at the local stables.

Six months later, we bought my first horse - now, 23 years later, I have 11 horses currently in my barn and spent the weekend in Vegas at the APHA Western National Championships. Best mistake he ever made.

[gradytb]

@Calvincrowe

I would steal the caps off of aerosol cans for “hooves” as I trotted around the house on my hands and knees.

Hilarious! Pranced on hands and feet on the floor playing horse too, but didn’t have the inspiration for the aerosol can caps!! Brilliant! I go with the genetics too. My mom’s mother, Daisy, apparently loved horses and we have a B&W photo of her from the early 1900s or late 1800s holding 2 horses. She died from flu when my mom was only 6. But my mom must have had some of it, because she would take us and go to Thistledown racetrack in the summer when we were kids. I grew up drawing horses as soon as I could hold a pencil, apparently. Pony rides were birthday presents each year. I had a horse cake when I was 9, I think. But I had to get my piano lessons up to a certain standard and if I did, I would be allowed to take riding lessons. So I did. eventually after 6 or 8 years of piano lessons (started at 6) I was able to ditch them and riding took over. Tried to teach the dog to jump. Had plastic horses (before Breyer was known or existed?). Got first horse, then 2-year old OTTB with a bowed tendon who was the sweetest baby horse, then my junior horse who took me to the Maclay finals and after college—nothing for about 25 years. 21 years ago moved to my ranch here and was able to have horses again and have had OTTBs again since then. Funny, funny…

[Mango20]

Here I am pretty shortly before horses entered my life permanently. This was before Assateague had multiple warning signs about staying a bus length away from the ponies. At least I’m keeping an eye on where the feet are, with only my squishy 5 or 6 year old toes between the asphalt and those hooves. If I was six here, we moved that winter and I would have begun lessons in the spring. My 10 year old sister (arm showing on the other side of the pony) started lessons, too, but only lasted 4 years.

[applelover]

I mean, there definitely could be something to the genetics thing. If there is a gene that makes cilantro taste like soap, why not a gene that makes all things horse smell good?

[MunchingonHay]

My mom was that horse crazy kid you guys all grew up being. I was born into it. I joke and say my mom needed a groom so she bred one, me. LOL Like people breeding their favorite mare to keep the legacy going.

I was sitting on and riding before I could walk and my first memories are of sitting under our little QH mare. My mom used to bunge cord my car seat to the floor of the pipe cart. She started driving (pleasure and CDE’s when she had me). My parents would buy junker carriages and my dad would restore them.

I remember doing a little local show that she entered me in as a junior driver at the age of 6/7 and she did not tell me. I just cried and cried the whole time. I could hardly see there were so many tears. I did not and still do not like being the center of attention.

Mom would train, buy/sell ponies, we had a pony party business and I grew up with having at least a pony or 4 in our backyard. I did pony club, spent every birthday at Devon in May, and did all of her grooming. So naturally, that is the route I pursued as a young adult until I was in my mid-30’s. I perfer being the support crew, the behind the scenes work.

For me, horses are family members and they used to be the fibers of my being. And caring for them is like breathing. Completely second nature. When I stepped away from working as a groom, I mourned for a very long time.

[appypaint]

No horsey people in my family either, so I can’t say how I bit the bug since I wasn’t around them from an early age. Mostly likely saw them in books and movies and became enamored. My parents probably assumed I’d grow out of it.

I vividly remember drawing horses and unicorns a lot as a 5yo. Lots and lots of crayon drawings. 25 years later, not much has changed (well, I guess I don’t use crayons anymore )