# Your First Horse



## Cheyennes mom (Aug 6, 2010)

Hey guys! 
I think I can post this here... Anyways, here's a place to share your first horses, how old you were, stories about the horse, when you got another horse (if you did) and why, etc. I thought this might be kinda fun 
you can also post a picture of your horse (s) and you can post your horses after the first one! Also you can say what your horse was like before you got him/her and after  Have fun!!!


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## Cheyennes mom (Aug 6, 2010)

Well I've never had a horse before, but I now lease a horse named Cheyenne  She's a quarter horse mare, and even though she's 24 she's completely insane! I'm not kidding, sometimes I have to deal with bucks. Not often though. Anyways, if you don't believe me, come to our gymkhanas. Once someone won High Point on her! What a crazy horse. Anyways, she can also be a show horse. Right now I'm working on our collection and jumping and she's doing great! 

Before I started leasing her, she was skin and bones. You could see her ribs, she wasn't rounded out the way she should be, she had hollow withers, etc. Now she looks great!! she is WAY in shape and she's only been on grass and hay for the past few years and you can't see or feel her ribs at all now!

I've been leasing Cheyenne for a year now and I hope to stay with her for a long time


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## Gallop On (May 1, 2011)

Okay, so the story leading up to my first horse is a long story... Too long to post on here  Any how, Ill give a shorter version. 

Some friends of ours had recently bought a horse and asked me to go riding with them one afternoon, they plunked me on a horse that I had ridden before and once I had ridden awhile they asked me if I wanted to ride the new one. My reply was "YES!" So they plunked my on the newly bought, 5 year old Arab. I had hardly EVER rode before. As I cantered around their field with him my horse craziness deepened  When I went home that night they told me they had originally bought "Nacho" To sell, but that they changed their minds. After that first ride they invited to go riding with them, on Nacho, plenty of times after that.

Then the words that changed my life. I was on a trail when Nachos owner said she'd sell him to me. I remember that as being such a great ride, one of the best rides I had ever been on. I went home and told my parents, they kinda blew me off. After that many more rides where taken on him and my craziness and love for horses grew so strong that my brother was getting SO annoyed of hearing all about horses. Horses, nothing but horses. Only horses. That was also when I realized that Nachos health was steadily DE-clining. He was getting skinnier and getting really beat up and bit by the other horses in their field. I also started hearing talk of getting a fence put up. Then, it happened. My dad went out of town to get fencing material to get a fence put up. And he broke down on the way home. The trailer tire popped. He broke down in Texas and we live in Arkansas. He left the trailer at a strangers house and drove home and went back the next day with a tire, fixed it and came home with all the fencing material.

We started putting up the fence, and I stopped riding Nacho. Too busy and he was also now to skinny to ride. We finally finished all the the fence, on a snowy day we hooked on the last gate. A few days later our friends called saying that if we were to get Nacho it better be right then, before the snow storm hit. We drove over their and I rode my newly bought horse home.

When we got him home and started to fatten him up I realized what I had gotten into. I had a 5 year old Arab, green broke, with a very green rider. (I had never in my life taken lessons) And I realized what a problem it was. He bucked me off, he reared, he bolted, he bit, and kicked. Mum and dad were trying to persuade me to get rid of him but my stuborness was holding on. 

I started to lunge him, and do very basic ground work after he bucked me off. And slowly, he started to show my respect. Mum and dad were still trying to get me to get rid of him. A month later, after tons of ground work I got on him and rode him, for the FIRST time since I bought him he didnt rear nor buck. Since then he has progressed to be the best horse imaginable. He has never been rode bareback before, now I jump him bareback  I didnt realize what a horse can do to people, how they can change peoples lives, especially a teenaged girl 

The one thing that amazes me about him is that even though he was neglected, abused, and treated horidly in his life before, somehow he still managed to show me all of his love, and trust. He had one owner every yea of his life... poor baby ): He is my life, and my love. I cant imagine what I would do without him. 

I have always wanted a horse that would run, run fast! And I have one, Rusty (I changed his name) is always wanting to go go go, never satisfied at a walk.  I cling to him more now that my best friend, my ultra close friend, my brother has left me here all alone. Rusty helps me through it and makes life without my brother bearable... I love him  

I can ride him at dusk now, bareback and bitless and he behaves like a perfect little gentelman. I can hop on him in the pasture, and take a nap on his back. (While before he'd try to kick me if I got near him) I can always, always, lean on him, when things get tough  I never sent him to a trainer, I did all the training by myself even though I had never owner a horse before or had any horse expierence.

So I have a photo of the day I brought him home. Its the first two pictures. See how skinny he was? Then I have a photos after he was with us for about 5 months. Most of the photos are like before and afters. You'll see  (Like their is one of the first day he went under my training on learning how to jump) (And then after he learned how to jump)


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## Cheyennes mom (Aug 6, 2010)

wow he looks amazing!! he's beautiful!!


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## Jessabel (Mar 19, 2009)

Gallop On - What a transformation! You have done an awesome job with him. 

I have 2 first horses, really. And I still have both of them. 

Technically, Norman was my first-ever horse. We got him when he was a year and a half old, and I was 13. It was a really dumb thing to do, obviously. All I did with him for the few months we had him was brush and feed him. I couldn't handle him beyond anything else. So in the spring, we traded him and got Victor instead. 

We bought Norman back less than a year later. :lol: I guess we're destined to be stuck with the knucklehead forever. I'm glad, though. I have no intention of ever parting with either of them. When I buy a horse, I make a commitment to keep it for the rest of its life, for better or for worse. They are nowhere near perfect, but they're mine.

As for Victor, I have no clue why I chose him, and it was a huge mistake at first, but in the end, it turned out to be the best stupid thing I've ever done. He's a completely different horse now. He's my heart. :wink: He has the personality of a cat, and I'm a cat lover, so I think that's why we click so well. He's just a big kitty. :3 Vindictive, condescending, prim and proper. Exactly my kind of horse. 










Norm is 7 now and Victor is 11. This was taken last summer.


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## Cheyennes mom (Aug 6, 2010)

aww pretty!!


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## Cheyennes mom (Aug 6, 2010)

That's what Cheyenne looked like when I started leasing her, last year and above is a newer picture. it was taken early July I think. She's rounding out beautifully now. I showed my mom this picture (the old one) and she asked me what horse I was riding


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