Me too.
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My mother had ridden as a girl and young adult, and she made sure all of us had riding lessons.
She exercised a neighbor’s field hunters as a young mother (I think before I was born) but stopped because of a scare and the fact that she had small children and a husband that traveled. It was that neighbor’s horse that she propped me up on as a four year old.
One of my favorite memories is that when she was terminally ill, she came to visit me and I had her ride a wonderful, safe schoolie. It was the first time she had ridden in 30 years, and she was over the moon.
Two of my sibs took the riding lessons, enjoyed it, but never did anything further. One sister still rides and takes lessons to this day, but has never owned or leased a horse or ridden about the riding school schooling show level.
Then there was me. I got the full dose. Completely horse crazy. Dropped out of college to ride, never been without a horse after college except for a few years after we bought our farmette. (Still was riding other people’s.) Absolutely smitten.
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“Most expensive 25 cents.”
When I was 5 and my sister was 3 we went to the PNE (Pacific National Exhibition, somewhat like a State Fair) and went on a pony ride. I immediately started demanding riding lessons.
Later that year we were moving from Vancouver to New York State, so we were told “You can start riding lessons after we move.” But immediately after moving, my mother my sister and I sailed back to England to visit relative. “You can have riding lessons after you come home from England”. When we came home from England it was late November, and we were told “It’s winter. You can have riding lessons in the sprng.”
This was followed by repeated questions of “Is it spring yet?” “No, it isn’t spring until April.” “Is it April yet?”
Finally it was April, and we got weekly riding lessons at a local stable. It wasn’t anything fancy, but we were hooked.
Years later my father referred to that first pony ride as “The most expensive 25 cents I ever spent.”
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Another ‘born that way’. Much to my parents consternation.
I was told horse and cookie were my first words 
. They would get me a stick horse to ride around and I would wear the stick off just like it was put to a grinder.
Our neighbor had horses that she would let me ride occasionally. I would pretend I was Little Joe on Bonanza 
.
I got my first horse in 8th grade. An old posse horse (used for parades) that was kind of sound? I imagine she might have had some ringbone from all her parade years prancing on asphalt.
She had a bonus too. She was pregnant…and the foal was a mule! Talk about getting some experience fast. I could never get the mule weaned. The mare just kept nursing her and I had no place to take either one (no trailer). So I tried various ‘local’ barriers to keep her from nursing and she managed to figure out a work around of them all. So, at 13 months, I sold her. If I knew more about training I would have sold the mare and kept the mule but hey, I was 15.
I knew I couldn’t take the mare college (230 miles away)…still no trailer and my parents wanted nothing to do with horses so I sold her. Out of the blue I was able to find a wonderful free lease. A teenaged half Arabian that was the bestest horse around. I trained him to do most anything. Showed him western pleasure, English pleasure, trail, trail rode, and I even taught him to drive. I learned so much from him. I rode him for years. I retired him about age 25 and he succumbed to recurrent laminitis when he was 29.
I was able to buy a youngster in my early 20’s and trained him up and this is when I discovered dressage.
I have enjoyed buying youngsters and starting them. I have done this 4 times. The current ‘youngster’ is 22. My dressage career isn’t much to write home about as my body has kind of betrayed me and for the last several years have only been able to dabble. But I love the structure and I love putting together exercises to improve the horse.
Susan
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I don’t know. I seem to have just woken up this way when i was about four. Nobody in my family was horsey. We lived in a city. I don’t think I had ever even touched a horse at that point. But I was sick with the desire to be a horse girl.
Sheilah
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I’m also in the born into it camp.
My mom rode with me in the proverbial oven until the doctor made her stop, and was trail riding with me perched in front of her in my bubblehead 80s baby helmet as soon as I figured out how to hold myself upright.
I always joke that walking is harder than riding because I started later, lol.
I was a terrible fingernail chewer as a child. If I could go the whole week without gnawing my nails away my parents would take me to Port Dover, ON for the pony rides every Saturday. Worked like a charm.
A barn burned down in a small village not far from us and all of the ponies needed new homes. For $50. each we became the owners of King, and Lady.
I remember one day falling off, and laying there crying. I was told that if I didn’t get back on the ponies were gone.
My father would years later remark that he wished he had never made me get back on when I ended up breeding and racing Thoroughbreds. lol.
To this day, at 67, I still own a whole lot of horses, retired and actively racing ones.
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