Spinoff of Prudent -- your riding genesis

[boots-aregard]

Pick the option most descriptive of how you first began riding, then tell us more...

[Dapple Field]

Started with lessons for one year at a local farm that actually taught horsemanship when I was in 10th grade after years of begging. Got a horse from an auction for $250.75 who luckily was an absolute saint. Parents didn't think we needed lessons after we got the horse but fortunately we had a great 4H leader who instilled more necessary stable and horsemanship skills. Showed 4H till college, then in college received a lot of good instruction from a student of Dr. Van Schaik and also rode on the drill team (really good for instilling the sitting trot ). After graduation and marriage went to clinics, read, and some regular lessons. Did three summer camps with Pony Club at GMHA in VT with instructors such as Lendon and I think Bruce D. although that is pretty hazy as it was 1964, 1965 and 1966.

[StraightForward]

I got my first set of weekly lessons when I was nine at a sort of backyard trainer type barn, and then did maybe a year(?) of group lessons at a more upscale barn outside of Seattle, where owners were showing, but shows were never on the horizon (or in my mom's budget). Then we moved and I started lessons with another backyard western trainer (previous two were huntseat), that eventually turned into getting permission to ride one of the lesson horses on my own, and entering a couple of the tiny shows there at the boarding stable. Then my non-horsey parents set a budget of $600, and after looking at some horses more suitable to a 12 year old beginner, at my insistence bought me a 2.5 year old Arab/Welsh gelding that I proceeded to train bareback totally on my own (lessons were no longer in the budget once we were paying board). Somehow we didn't kill each other, and I also got lots of other horses to ride at that barn in the meantime. I went through a growth spurt to where I could touch my toes under the girth of my little gelding, so I ended up trading up for a 4 yo super green QH whose owner was scared of him, and turned him into a pretty nice all-around horse and rode him through HS. In college I took over training on a QH stallion and briefly showed him English and western pleasure on the AQHA circuit, and trained other horses here and there, but really all by the seat of my pants and self taught.

I took a hiatus to finish college and grad school, then fell back into the WP world a bit with an APHA mare I bought from a friend. Now I've been dabbling in the world of dressage for 10+ years, but with very little instruction and an inconsistent string of green horses. I hope that will change soon, but do feel that I've managed to become a decent rider maybe despite my checkered past.

[Kyra's Mom]

I didn't have a pony as a youngster but I bought this semi crazy, mildly lame ex posse horse off a co-worker of my Dad's for $125. The parents finally relented and gave up on the horse front. And yes, we literally rode all over town. I rode to 4-H lessons about 5 miles away a few times. Her lameness was intermittent. I suppose arthritis or navicular from pounding the pavement as a posse horse. Oh...and she was pregnant unbeknownst to any of us (including the ex-owner)...baby was a mule. The mare would not wean the baby and I never could devise anything on the property that would work (no trailer available to move one). I tried spikes in the halter, petroleum jelly on the udder caked with cayenne pepper (she liked it or at least ate right through it), separation with one in the back half of the pasture and one in the front (bisected by a canal) and she (the babe) jumped the 4 foot barrier I made in front of the bridge. Yeah...a jumping mule. So, her weaning came when I sold her at 13 months, I believe for that magic $125 price. I learned a lot of things owning Penny. Unfortunately, when I was picking my career and realized I would have to go to school out of town, I sold her for the same $125. My parents wanted nothing to do with horses and if I wasn't there, horse wasn't going to be there either.

So, in casually talking to the neighbor's farrier, I said what I need is a horse I can ride but I don't have to buy. Gotta love teenage ignorance... I never heard of a lease. The next day this woman called me and asked if I wanted to come exercise her horse. Darryl (farrier) had given her my number. I barely let her finish and said YES! Then I was wondering what I got myself into. I got myself into a free lease of a fantastic gelding. He was a 1/2 Arab with the other half being Morgan and TB. He looked like a Lippizaner. He came to be when Daddy got loose as a long yearling and bred all the mares on the owners ranch. So he was a half arab out of 2 half arabs and therefore not able to be registered. He was a gem though...papers or not. He was 15 when I started riding him (if I remember correctly).
I graduated to a much better 4-H leader that also taught English and found a friend that had a trailer so we didn't have to ride the town anymore. Surf would do anything I asked him. I rode him mostly in local Arab shows in the open (all breed) classes. I showed him saddle seat, hunt seat, and western. I even was able to borrow a cart and harness and teach him to drive then he promptly went in an open class and won the class beating the purebred Arab stallion of the people I borrowed the cart and harness from . We worked cattle one day when a friend and I were trail riding and met up with some people whose cattle got out of the fence. He and I had a blast. I basically adopted him and took care of him until we had to put him down at 29 due to unrelenting laminitis. I am positive he was insulin resistant (just look at his breeding) but that was years before anyone knew what caused it. I knew he has 'grass foundered' a couple times before I started riding him and he had a couple other manageable episodes before the end. I learned so much with him. I just discovered dressage about the time I had to retire him at about 25 or 26.
Damned, I wish I knew more of it when he was serviceable. He would have been great. His one quirk was that he could be very nervous and tense in the arena with other horses. Sometimes he was really good and but sometimes he was just too tense to go well. Dressage where he could perform solo would have been right up his alley. I was able to ride him all through college. He was always waiting for me for summer break and any other school break. I had a lot of good years with him.

About the time Surf was retired and I had graduated and making 'real' money, I was able to get my own horse and that first one was a snazzy little Arab gelding. Mahogany bay with 4 white socks and a big blaze. Not super typey but his coloring made him stand out and I wasn't much interested in halter anyway. I got him as a long yearling and when he was 3 started him...by myself. Just got on one day (after lots of ground work prep) and walk, trotted and cantered the first ride and never looked back. He too was a jack of all trades until I decided that dressage was IT. About the time I was going to specialize and really learn dressage he came up NQR which we later discovered to be early onset hock arthritis. He was only 7 or 8 . I was able to re-home him (gave him away to a good friend) with the stipulation that if we could not make him comfortable and serviceably sound for light riding, he would be euthanized. Again this was before the days of joint injections or Adequan or any of that fancy stuff. His new owner took it slow, allowed his hocks to fuse and turned him into a mountain pony supreme. He roamed the wilderness areas of Idaho until he was well into his 20's and she finally had to put him down when he was 30.

So, you can't say I didn't work hard back then. Until I graduated and had a good job, I scrimped and yes, rode my horse to where I needed to be. I am not particularly a talented rider. I try hard though . In adulthood, I have had a string of horses. I never have progressed very far (have gotten 3 of them to legitimate 2nd level) mostly due to my unsoundnesses...no fault of any of the horses. They were/are solid citizens that were sold on and gave their new owners a lot of pleasure. You would be hard pressed to call me pasture sound anymore but I sure enjoyed those early adventures totally going by the seat of my pants.

Susan

[Chancellor]

I had a crabby little shetland pony who taught us how to be horsewomen. If you didn't approach her right in the paddock, she turned her fanny toward us and threatened to kick (although I don't think she ever did). We had a children's western saddle that tied on and that pony could BLOAT. We didn't really ride all over town since we had the farm to ride about and the woods to ride in.
Mamie also drove and we had a little sulky that we would ride in. If you stopped and weren't careful, she would rub her bridle off on the shafts of the cart and go running off for home. As I type this I think, man, that was a bad pony. But she taught us a lot and my memories are all fond of her.
My aunts actually owned the pony and horses for themselves. As we grew up, we graduated to their horses. We had Nutmeg who was pokey pokey pokey. And my sister learned to stand on her back!
I was hopeful to be that aunt to my sister's kids. Sadly, my sister and I had a serious falling out (twice) and we barely speak. She is also a snowplow mother. Trying to change the world for her kids.

[Ponichiwa]

My parents have been incredibly supportive of any endeavors I had/have/will ever have. I'll just start there.

My sister and started off in the horse world taking group lessons from a local woman who roped, barrel raced, and pole bended. So I got a crash course in staying more or less in the middle at speed. When it was clear that once-a-week lessons had led us to a plateau in our riding that could really only be fixed by more saddle time, my parents bought two horses that we boarded in a 80-acre pasture/self care boarding situation.

We spent probably 2-3 years free-ranging around in the pasture, punctuated by some light rodeoing and many many grand entry/flag drill team things. Started taking dressage lessons to improve general horsemanship/pattern accuracy. Got hooked and have been training solely dressage ever since. Parental support up until I graduated from college and got a real job.

Nowadays I train my own horse with lessons of diminishing frequency as real life gets in the way.

[PaulaO]

I didn't start riding until I was in my late 20s. Never rode as a kid growing up on the south side of Chicago. My mother rode as a teen in Jackson Park, down the midway. I used to tell her "if you had let me ride as a kid, I wouldn't be a horse crazy adult."

My first lessons were at Rock Creek Park Horse Center in Washington DC in the 80s. I was taught "the balanced seat" with occasional jumping. I was as much a barn rat as I could be. Hung around, mucked stalls, learned about horse care. I remember when I jumped 3 feet. I thought it was the biggest fence in the world. I had never heard of dressage. About 2 years later I moved to Minnesota and took lessons, again balanced seat. Ended up buying my beloved Bob as a rising green broke 3 year old. Moved back to Illinois having no idea what I was going to do with him. Another boarder kind of took me under her wing. She was a dressage rider and that sealed the deal.

I was never a good dressage rider although Bob turned out to be an excellent dressage horse. Had him for 25 years, trained with Bodo Hagen, George Schimpf, Tom Poulin. Learned a lot, but I am not a natural rider. I just like being around horses. At age 60 I'm still a barn rat and learn stuff from the 16 year olds, and the pro h/j trainer. Still take W/T/C hunter lessons (and a random dressage lesson) and hope at some point that I can jump Miss A. around a baby course. Cuz I'm a fearful, talentless ammie rider.

[DJR]

I started riding at age 10 when we moved to an acreage and bought our first horses. My first was a pinto pony, Bridget, who bucked me off a few times the first time I rode her. We didn't have a saddle for awhile so I rode bareback. Loved every second of it, even the many times I hit the dirt. I didn't start lessons for quite awhile, then ended up in the pony club system for a few years, but also participated in gymkhana and even rode twice in the Calgary Stampede parade in the 1970s!

[Cookie]

I was a barn rat. I started at age 11 when I went to summer camp at a dressage barn and then got hooked. I continued taking lessons after the camp and then slowly started staying at the barn to do work, then my weekends were at the barn, then every day after school, then all summer. I did that until I graduated high school. Afterwards, I stayed as a part time working student and waitressed at night. Did that for a couple years until I went to college.

I never had my own horse until I was an adult. I rode all the "misfits" as I like to call them. I don't mean that in a derogatory way at all, I LOVED it! And I learned a ton from working at the farm and riding all types of horses. I was slightly obsessed with going to the barn and was there every free minute I had.

[piedmontfields]

I started riding at age 30 (!) and am now coming up on my 20 year riding anniversary My mother rode as a child in New York City and would have loved to given me opportunities with horses, but we could not afford that. Once I had a good enough job with good health insurance, I arranged for riding lessons! My DH joined me. My mother eventually got back into horses in her 50s.

I went fairly quickly from weekly lessons (first working western, then balanced seat, then dressage) to leasing various horses and working independently while continuing lessons and working in barns. I also rode 100s of gaited horses while field trialling pointing dogs during the first few years of riding. It's not the same as being a young barn rat or having a pony and all the time in the world to explore, but it did expand my learning well beyond the arena. I agree with Cookie that riding and caring for many different types and characters is a great experience. I am not a naturally talented rider (my DH is), but with work and time I've become pretty competent----and I know my limits. I've also benefitted from living in dressage-friendly areas (North Carolina in the past) and have had both good local instructor luck and good access to high quality clinicians.

Emi is the first horse that is actually mine. I've now had her 3+ years. After years of wonderful and not-so-wonderful lease horses, it is really nice to ride and care for a horse who is just my type.

[khall]

I wanted a horse from the time I could say horse. As a young kid I rode anything I could throw a leg over (not necessarily a pony). I rode bare back, often with just a halter. Was usually barefoot with shorts on. I spent summers with my grandparents because they had neighbors who had horses and kids. Many many hours riding like wild Indians!

My parents finally decided the horse bug was not going to go away, so enrolled me in lessons with a couple of different local lesson barns. Nothing fancy at all. I wanted to jump, did not care for the flat work:) When my sister moved out and got married, they bought me my first horse I was 14. $500 special, mutt of a horse Rajahi. Who knows what he was, possibly some ASB in there. He would jump though! I evented him through Training and schooled Prelim with him, all 15.1 hh of him. Wonderful trail horse and was very good at taking care of you. As a senior in high school my parents bought my "moving up" horse. An unbroken 2 yr old TB filly bred by the Gosch's Wood-N-Horse stables in Newnan, GA. Cors de Lis. She was supposed to be my next eventer, while she did not mind jumping, she was not brave over cross country fences so I focused on dressage with her. She also BTW put me in the hospital with bilateral chest tubes from bucking me off at 4, she was recovering from tweaked tendon, no TO and stupid me got on her with no lunging or ponying. Despite that nasty fall, I loved that mare. She could be ridden bare back, would haul anywhere, just a lovely mare. I raised 5 foals out of her and she is the grand dam of my Lusitano X filly. I schooled her to 2nd but she would not stay reliably sound, hi/lo issues. I had to euthanize her at 19 due to pasture accident, fractured RF above the knee in 2001.

Since the first 2, I have bought a few (OTTB g that was mental wreck but fab mover and Gallie, bought at 3 months old) but mostly bred and raised my riding stock. I had 2 of Lis's offspring I kept and rode, lost her first offspring Cori (Han/TB mare) at 21 to bad DJD. Then lost my mare Anna last Oct from colic at 16, dam of my filly and the nicest of all the Lis offspring. The others were sold as young horses, 2 Han/TBs and one Conn/TB. I started Gallie myself, still ridable today at 22 even after nasty laminitis in 2015. Bred her for my two main riding horses now Rip and Gaila, both GOV registered by Paparazzo. Gallie is Han/TB inspected by GOV. I have also bred a few others but moved them down the road, not suitable for me.

I have also ridden many many other horses over the years, some just because, some to learn from (3 FEI GP trained horses), some to train and/or start for others. I am still on this journey of learning, have become much pickier over the years of what I will throw a leg over now. Picky about who I ride with. Have run the gambit of competition based dressage riders to NH to Mark Russell. I have learned much over the years and am so appreciative especially of Mark's wisdom and knowledge that he shared so freely with us all. Now excited to learn from Jillian Kreinbring, who brings in a different set of thoughts but still so very correct.

[heddylamar]

Started way too young! There are photos of me at 3yo being ponied on Mom's old pony. Every summer I spent at the grandparents was spent riding all over the place on my aunt's horses. Sometimes with my much younger, less horse-savy cousins in tow (my aunt nearly strangled me one day )

Mom signed me up for riding lessons, and it quickly became my thing. First western pleasure (plus some barrels), then a touch of hunter/jumper, before I became thoroughly immersed in eventing.

[musical comedy]

Aside from some group trail rides on western horses as a kid, I start english huntseat as a young adult.
I took many lessons, some private/some group for several years. These places taught how to tack up, etc.
By the time I purchased, I was a balanced rider and could jump around a 3ft course.

I've owned several horses including foals (about 11) and ridden many that weren't mine. I've always stayed in a consistent lesson program until the last 5 years. Even so, owning a farm and keeping my horses at home, I definitely put in the hard work.

I transitioned from hunters to eventing and then to dressage.

I've been fortunate in that I've trained with some good trainers. I should be a lot better than I am. I guess put me down for fearful, talentless, ammi.

[Chisamba]

When I could walk but before I could talk well, up was my favorite word, and of course it applied to being lifted on Red.

Red was an Arabian stallion that lived in the orchard off our back yard during the day, because he was Dad's work horse on the farm.

After getting all my older siblings in trouble for putting me on Red's back and leaving me unsupervised, my mom caught me sneaking out of the house, she watched me walk straight up to red and thump his knee. He kneeled, I scrambled on, he stood and I sat there perfectly happy.

No one taught him that, it is assumed that he chose to be accommodating because I thumped his knee often enough saying up.

It was my first successful training. attempt. When I was about 2 I fell off. I remember that. A horse trailer pulled up, which usually meant a mare for Red, and he threw up his head and pranced to the fence and I fell.

When I was five I was children's gymkhana champion of Northern Rhodesia. I beat my older brother, he was 8, in the last event because his girth broke and so I won. The children's division was 12 and under.

In short, I can never remember not riding.

I became interested in dressage when dad advertised in Horse and Hound for a classically trained riding instructor to come to Zambia and teach us and neighbors kids riding lessons. The lady who came was taught by Charles Harris. (workbooks of Spanish Riding school) she told me about the SRS, Alois Podhajski and taught me to ride with 2 reins.

So from humble beginnings I came.

[Racetrackreject]

I didn't choose because I wasn't sure what choose.

I started with a pony at age 4-5, then had horses/ponies off and on until I was an adult. I didn't ride after I left high school until I was 29. When I started back, I wanted to ride english and there was an eventing barn about 30 minutes away. That's how I had my start of formal riding training. Before that, my friends and cousins and I were just a bunch of kids doing stupid things on bratty ponies.

[piedmontfields]

For all of you from "humble beginnings" on "bratty ponies", please know that some of us (me!) consider you incredibly lucky and gifted with horses. I held this dream in my mind for many years but could not pursue it until I had the means, insurance and time. I love hearing all of the origin stories!

[Woost2]

None of them actually fit me. Started one lesson a week at 8 in a large huntseat barn where your assigned horse was brought to the mounting block. On leadline to learn to post, in walk/trot class for one year, walk/trot/canter class for one year and then jumping. If the basics weren't installed you didn't jump. In 5th grade my BF and I lucked into some amateur polo ponies and field hunters who needed exercise. There was no arena of any kind. Hence began the riding all over hill, dale and town. Also local little league baseball diamond. Much stupid stuff ensued. One lesson a week continued but lots of time in the saddle just going down the road with the polo horses. Best shape they were ever in.

As I was in the Detroit area, I remember "LIttle Katie Monahan" with her pigtails and pony at the Detroit Horse Show. She was about 6.

[Borrowed Freedom]

Started riding in a riding school, after about 4 years of lessons half leased a pony for a few months and started competing in local shows. After a few months of flying lessons my parents decided to rather look for a pony more suitable to me. Found my pony who was seriously awesome for improving both my confidence and my riding. He was one of those rare ponies that was safe enough for a beginner but at the same time challenging enough for an advanced rider. He just knew with his riders when he needed to be calm and when he could fool around and throw a few bucks. I must admit selling him was the worst thing I ever had to do, have never come across another schoolmaster like him again

[Xanthoria]

My dad put me on the back of a random loose draft horse he didn't own in some random pasture as a tiny kid and I was sold. I can't think of anything more dangerous and nuts right now looking back!

I did 10 years of Pony Club riding borrowed ponies and horses, all day every weekend, starting with Tinkerbelle the 9hh Sh!tland pony/devil. Then I progressed through all the ponies on the year - the bolter, the bucker, the biter, the impossible to catch, the spooky as heck, the kicker, the "if I stop dead you cannot make me move" and more... I survived and progressed to the "A" level test which I failed by ONE POINT and then I went to university... I rode all over the place, went to lots of shows, drag hunting, events, tetrathlons etc knew the pain of getting really attached to horses I didn't own, was the "head girl" at the yard and took people trekking on horseback in the mountains for the yard owner's business, and was qualified to teach kids at PC rallies by virtue of passing the B test.

Then I took a break after school, moved to the US, and felt like I'd never be able to afford a horse. Picked up the Decrepit OTTB at a feedlot and away we went! We evented, did awful dressage, showed at local hunter/jumper shows, horse camped, even tried team penning and barrel racing! He's 23 now, and his suspicion that I am an idiot has calcified into resigned certainty

Since then I have had a couple other horses who have passed on but luckily I've got a 5 year old KWPN gelding I started myself who thinks I am AWESOME so, there's that...

[exvet]

My grandfather facilitated my introduction and lifetime with horses. He bought me a pony when I was about to turn 5. He brought him home from a sale after taking some bobby calves to market. My father found out and had a fit. Said I could have a pony when I could take care of it and pay for it on my own; so, one of my older cousins got the pony. Well my birthday was coming up and my grandfather's best friend's daughter was going through nursing school and taught riding lessons on the side. She went out and bought a pony to teach me and other kids how to ride. She came home with a 5 year old Welsh/Shetland mix - chestnut with a blaze and two hind socks. I was so in love with this pony and would ride over with her father or anybody who would cart me over to their house just to brush, ride, fall asleep on his back, etc. I also started taking weekly lessons and my grandfather started paying me to do chores around the farm. About a year later, my riding instructor finished her nursing program and got shipped to Nam. In preparation, she sold all of her horses. When it came time to tell me she was leaving and that she was selling the pony, I told her what my father had dictated; so, she asked me how much I had. I let her know that I had saved $85. She told me that Duke's price was exactly that (clearly my grandfather had informed her of my father's stipulations earlier)..................I've never looked back. I rode that pony with my friends and their ponies all over........the neighborhood got use to seeing me ride back and forth from the library on my pony, occasionally to school, etc.

I haven't been without a horse since that time. I rode everything I could get my hands on including those I owned. I rode at the track. I rode multiple disciplines and showed on many different circuits growing up and had the advantage of my grandfather who competed in draft pulls and on his morgans. I learned to harness/hook and fair-life, competing all sorts of livestock as well and of course breeding, training, raising all types of critters including horses. I started driving barn vehicles when I was 8 (we had an ancient truck with a hand clutch and hand brake) and my mother who to this day hates to drive had no trouble 'fudging' my age in order to facilitate me getting a drivers' license at an age, a bit, earlier than the law intended. Growing up the way I did and having access to means to haul my ponies/horses gave me so many opportunities I am grateful for and treasure. My kids grew up on horseback too. I'm not sure both feel the same way about having those opportunities as I did; but, I'm glad I was able to give it to them.