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 Expert
Posts: 1631
   
Location: Somewhere around here | Tell us how you got your start in riding horses? Was it already something big in your family and you just picked it up, or did your parents realize that you were never getting over the "horse stage" and went along with it?
Personally, I think my mother got sick of me reading so many scientific and fiction horse books and asking them questions just to see if they knew the answer. Pretty sure my dad thought that after one old horse and a couple of years I'd turn my attention to boys and leave the horses...nope lol, big surprise for him! |
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  Witty Enough
Posts: 2954
Location: CTX | When I was 9, my friend went along with her mom to the barn and started taking lessons and I thought that would be cool. So I bugged my parents to go too...
Of course mom was not happy about it, she is terrified of them... (after 30 some years she still prefers a fence or gate between her and them....) So I am sure she was hoping it was another one of my fads..... I stuck to everything for about 3 months and then got bored... ( swimming, gymnastics, soccer, judo.. you name it, I've probably tried it...  )
Even though she was scared of them and I did end up in the sand a lot both her and my stepdad were (and she still is) always very supportive. And I know she is proud of what I have accomplished in all those years. Every competition I had they were there cheering me on, and whenever she comes to visit she is always there, videoing me, and telling me what I messed up... 
I don't know how long I begged them for my own horse, but they told me if I wanted one I'd have to buy it myself.  Well, growing up a citygirl in the Netherlands that never happened, not till I moved to this country.... Horses are very expensive to keep there because most people have to board them and there are not a whole lot of place you can do that, so I realize I would have never been able to own 1, let alone 4 of them, and better yet, have them at home.
It's not really the buying one, but what comes after that... and we all know what that is... lol, tack, vet bills, farrier and so on...
Anyway, I know I am very fortunate to be able to do what I love now, and hopefully I can keep doing it for a long long time. It's not a hobby, it truly is a lifestyle.
 
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 Expert
Posts: 1395
Location: Missouri | When I was 9, we moved out of town and built a house on some land. My mom had horses as a kid and wanted to be able to have a few again. They bought me a little 15 yr old Foxtrotter. I didn't have a clue, my mom really didn't either, so it was a good thing that mare was extremely patient and mild. Learned a lot from her. When I was 12 I started taking lessons, at 14 an old friend of my mom's let me show her older WP horse for a few years (mom was hoping I'd back off of the idea that I wanted to barrel race...didn't work) and I started barrel racing around 18ish. :) |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 682
Location: Northwest | My grandma was toting me along on her horses before I was even out of the cradle... Much to my non-horse parent's dismay  |
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| My sister wanted riding lessons at the age of 8. I would tag along and they would lead me around on some old nags. I started riding as I got a little older (6). My parents bought us sale barn horses and we didn't know what breed they were half of the time. They ended up buying me an Arabian pony with a colt on her side for $250.......I horse showed on my Arab pony until I was 11 years old. She did all the events like poles, barrels, speed, keyhole, flags, and barrel pickup. Of course she wasn't very good at any of it. When I was 12 years old my parents finally bought me my first quarter horse gelding. He was a 3/4D barrel horse and as sweet as they come. At this time my sister was showing western pleasure, AQHA shows mainly. Our parents bought her a nice gray gelding for 10k. In the 90s we thought that was a lot for a western please horse. She went to Fort Worth, Congress, Jackson.......you name she was there showing. BTW western pleasure is soooooo boring to watch when you're a kid! My sister quit showing when she was 16 and was more interested in boys. I however continued to ride and run barrels. My parents started buying me nicer horses and I started doing jr rodeos. I was home schooled and worked at a barrel trainers place every day cleaning 20 stalls and riding colts for them. I did all that for free in exchange of learning how to train my own barrel horses. So here I am today....29 years old and still at it.
The end!
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 Expert
Posts: 5290
| My mom was 2 months pregnant with me when she ran at the NFR. Beings Im a guy, its the only opportunity I will have to run at the NFR! I was sitting on my first horse the day I got home from hospital. |
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 Take a Picture
Posts: 12838
| Grew up on a ranch in E TX. I have never been without a horse. Ran in my first barrel race in 1959. Met Martha Josey in 1964, we have been friends and competitors since. Always appreciate that free help.
Funny thing, Pro barrel racers and many others have moved to the Marshall area because Martha lived here. I have always lived about 25 minutes away.
Edited by streakysox 2016-06-02 9:02 AM
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 I hate cooking and cleaning
Posts: 3310
Location: Jersey Girl | I started riding because of my dad. He grew up on a dairy farm but was never allowed to own a riding horse (my grandfather was afraid of horses due to an accident when he was a kid). When my dad moved out and got his own house the first thing he did was go out and buy a horse.
I had my own pony as soon as I could walk. My parents divorced when I was 5 and the horses had to be sold so I didn't get my own horse again til I was 15. I am 49 now and have had one ever since. |
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 Elite Veteran
Posts: 678
Location: Canada | I was horse crazy pretty much from the time I could walk. I begged my non-horsey parents for years for a horse and when I was about 7 my parents said if I took four years of lesson they'd buy me a horse. They of course were hoping that I'd grow out of this "phase". Well twice a week lessons and four years later I had my first horse. She was a miserable cow who could turn on a time and if you weren't 100% prepared for your fence she'd turn on a time and send you flying.
She taught me how to sit a horse through pretty much anything and gave me my start in dressage and eventing.
My switch to barrel racing wasn't until I met my husband who is a roper and now I barrel race, team rope, and breakaway rope. |
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 Serious Snap Trapper
Posts: 4275
Location: In The Snow, AZ | I think you should get an award for how many threads you start. |
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 Money Eating Baggage Owner
Posts: 9586
Location: Phoenix | We've always had horses and my parents rodeo'd before and after my brother and I were born. Mom quit rodeoing as we grew up but dad kept on and was still entering up with my brother and I at the amateurs. Before we were in school we lived on the rodeo trail. We've always had horses and not having my horse for 3 years when I moved to the city were the 3 most miserable years of my life! |
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 Extreme Veteran
Posts: 575
| I was lucky, and have never known what life was like without a horse.
My parents had horses, and I never stood a chance to not love them.  |
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 Born not Made
Posts: 2931
Location: North Dakota | My mom grew up with horses and we always had them. So it was automatic for us kids to start riding at a very young age.
With that said, I only have seen my dad on a horse ONCE in my entire lifetime, and I think I feel safer when he is on the ground, haha. But he's supportive of our "horse habit".
My brothers lost interest in horses as they grew up, but my mom and I still are both horse crazy, and that's something fun that we can do together.
I'm due to have a baby girl myself any day now, so I hope the "3 generations" of us can enjoy horses together! I will absolutely be getting her on a horse at a young age.
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 Balance Beam and more...
Posts: 11493
Location: 31 lengths farms | My dad grew up on a farm in NE during the Depression and so had horses to pull farming equipment. He ended up going into the military and often the bases he was stationed at had stables, he would take us out there to ride and then as he grew in rank he made arrangements to take a horse or two home on his dAys off so we could ride with him if we wanted to. I fell in love with horses at an early age, had an old pack saddle that at 3 I was constantly trying to saddle the family German Shepard with. Dad finally broke down and got me a pony for my 6th birthday, handed me the lead rope and said "here you go, see as you don't get yourself killed...your mother would't be very happy with me". I didn't really learn to ride so much as how to survive that little turd. With the next pony came 4-H, I think I was 9, and that is when I guess I really started to learn to "ride", leads, diagonals, etc. and proper care of my horses. |
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I just read the headlines
Posts: 4483
| Both parents grew up on farms and my granddad broke mules to harness for farming. So when we went to visit, we would get to ride. But when my Dad was transferred to Libya when I was 5 he found a little grey Arab mare for lease on the American base stables. We were in heaven until we had to move back when Kadafi (?) came into power. We could NOT understand why we couldn't just ship her and our dog back to Texas, lol. Fifty years later, I have never forgotten our little Beraga and I am still riding. |
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 Elite Veteran
Posts: 725
| My dad was a team roper and my mom a barrel racer. My mom hauled me along to barrel races every weekend when I was a year old, I started doing leadline pee wee barrels at about that age. My mom retired from rodeoing when I was six, by that time I had a pony and she thought I'd just ride horses occasionally for fun. Little did she know I would catch the rodeo fever even more strongly then she ever had it, I've been running barrels ever since! She always jokes about how she "Created a Monster" by letting me start running barrels and getting hooked at such a young age. |
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 Elite Veteran
Posts: 964
Location: Alberta, Canada | My mom was a horse crazy little girl who's horse craziness went nowhere living in a big city. So the first chance she got to get us kids out to a farm and into horses, she took it. I was 9 and wanted to be a showjumper. Then a jockey. Then I was introduced to barrel racing and never looked back!! |
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Location: Not Where I Want to Be | I was hanging out at the feed lot back when I was pre-teen,
The cowboys were riding pens on a horse that kept bucking everyone off. I asked if I could ride him and eventually bought him because he didn't buck me off so much.
Went on to win 11 world titles,
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 Undercover Amish Mafia Member
Posts: 9991
Location: Kansas | I started out in Walmart, rode the hair off those horses there. Haven't looked back since. |
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 Extreme Veteran
Posts: 582
Location: Wherever They Send Me | I always loved horses, my parents sent me to horse camp in the summers (not one of those "we have 5 horses, horse camp" but a "we have 60 some horses and you can spend all day at the barn, horse camp"). My world revolved around my summers and I got riding lessons if I made the honor roll.
My parents are not horse people, I bought my first horse as an adult (the first time I rode him, we clicked...he is currently 24 and still my best friend). My husband isn't a horse person, he says he "doesn't get it;" but he is very supportive in every way possible (going to races, cleaning stalls and financing, if needed).
I have owned horses in five states (Texas, North Carolina, Kansas, Alaska and Louisiana) and trailered them over 10,000 miles (not including shows) - I don't think it is a phase. |
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