# How did you learn how to ride?



## bucky (Sep 10, 2009)

I remember when I was about 5 my father had bought a racing 1/4 horse named Aramiz. One day on the ranch I decided I was going to ride him bareback with no gear. Well I got on and he went from 0-35 before I knew it and I was off in the dirt. Got up and looked at myself and said that didn't hurt at all lol. I repeated this for about an hour climbing the fence drawing him over with some hay and jumping on. Being only 7 or so I guess falling off a 15 hand horse wasn't that bad. If I was to fall now who knows what would crack-snap-pop. My dad did make me learn to ride bareback first and learn to use my leg strength to stay on the horse and control him. Can't say I didn't pull some hair out of horse on my way off a few times .


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## 7Ponies (May 21, 2009)

I bugged and bugged and bugged my parents for riding lessons. I got them for my 11th birthday. That was 41 years ago, and I'm still learning and still riding


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## roro (Aug 14, 2009)

I was 8 and I had english pleasure lessons on an old lesson quarter horse. I am now doing dressage on my own young Warmblood (I am 15 now). I have come a long way and have a much longer way to go. My first 3-4 years of riding were just once a week lessons without much progression but then I got serious about it, I quit the soccer team and ballet to devote all my time to riding.


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## Gidji (Dec 19, 2008)

When I was about 7, I'd been helping out with some of the horses agisted at our place. My friend had just fed her mare some hay, and then she just found a bucket and popped on to her bareback. I just followed her on. That was the first time I ever sat on a horse, and I begged Mum to let me ride her horses.
I wasn't a very smart kid, I thought you just popped on and uh......kicked and said giddy-up. That didn't work very well. Until I was about 10, Mum never let me out of her sight around horses, cause she was afraid I'd just hop on and get bucked off.
My Mum and her friend (whos an instructor) taught me how to properly ride.


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## Hunter65 (Aug 19, 2009)

My friends and I had ponies (I had a welsh mountain pony) when we were younger and we would spend hours riding. Then I worked at a riding stable for many years taking out trail rides 9 - 10 hours a day. Plus breaking in the new horses at the end of the day. In those days there wasn't enough saddles so all the trail guides rode bareback. Ahhh I miss those days - strong legs. Now I've ridden Duke bareback twice but not very fast as its a loooong fall and I know I would break something. I've never had proper lessons until now (30 years later). A bunch of us who have been riding most of our lives are actually taking lessons, its cool.


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## dee (Jul 30, 2009)

My husband bought me my first horse as for our fifth anniversary. I had only ridden a couple of times before that - but I've always loved horses. He could ride - he had owned a horse while he was in the marines. My first horse was a two year old that had only had a saddle on a few times. He was really sweet, and really lazy. He would walk all day, and trot if you made him - but anything faster than that was absolutely out of the question - which was fine by me, for a while anyway. Eventually I sold him to a lady wanting a quiet ride and went through a succession of three or four horses - each with a problem I didn't care to deal with, until I found my beloved Sugar. _She_ taught me how to ride - at least - as much she could. I was still a chicken, but she required a firmer hand than my others and provided me with a challenge. She was up to anything I asked of her, and was very forgiving of my stupidity after we got used to each other. I had her for years and miss her very much. My new mare reminds me of her, but I'm not sure I'm as brave/stupid as I was 20 years ago! (and at a very large 51, I don't bounce like I used to!):lol:


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## Kentucky (Aug 2, 2008)

i had a horse when I was a kid. Ebony, sehe was not much of a horse, her papers claimed she was a Tennesse Walker, and 5 years old. It any of that was true, I'm the King of the British Empire. She was a pinto that was foundered (we didn't know what to do about that). But she was a claim kid mount. Her plus about 6 other rides with various horses not counting pony rides at county fairs. I thought I count ride anything.
Then I meet Pancho, and a stupid fall later . this horse learned if he bucked or more correctly crow hopped, I would get off. my confidence was destroyed. And a buddy from work helped me, and I got a much better horse. But I am still learning.


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## Mrs B (Sep 9, 2009)

For some reason, I've always had a love for animals, even though we never had any because my mom was allergic, but horses were my absolute obsession. I still remember that when my mom drove me to kindergarten, we would pass a pasture on the way there that had two horses and I would stare at them out the car window until I couldn't see them anymore. I would read piles and piles of books about horses...stories about them, how to ride, the different breeds, etc., and I would only watch movies about horses lol Then when I was old enough, I begged my mom to let me take lessons, and she did for a while until she decided that it was too dangerous, and I completely resented her for that. But when I moved out, I started riding again on my own


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## Mrs B (Sep 9, 2009)

dee said:


> My husband bought me my first horse as for our fifth anniversary.


I thought the fifth anniversary was wood!!! Wow, horse is much better!! lol :wink:


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## RadHenry09 (Mar 22, 2009)

I grew up in a horse family, My Mother and many of my aunts had a passion for or owned horses so having access to them was pretty easy for me. I have always loved horses as a young child and my aunt would sit me on her 12 hand bay pony named Liza (bareback w/rope reins clipped on her halter) she would allow the horses to graze in her yard and Liza was perfectly content to eat grass with me aboard. She didnt have any desire to leave the grass which was fine because I was just thrilled to be able to sit on her. After that my aunt would put me on varies ponies/horses and I kind learned the hard way and fell off a lot too ! I was about 8yrs old at that time but I was hooked for life! I finally was able to own my own pony(Frosty, 13.3h Arabcross mare) when I was 12 and joined 4H , I rode Western but wanted to learn English so then I would get off the bus after school at my leaders farm who was a riding instructor and took structured lessons weekly for about 2 yrs which was great because I was able to ride different lesson horses while I still owned my pony. I also bought an Appy wealing when I was in my early 20's and learned a lot about training, I even put a few first rides on him too until I found out that I was preg myself and I actually got out of horse for a long time...then 3 yrs ago I rescued my Mustang gelding and He has taught me a lot more about horses and that you just dont get on a ride...If I would have known that back then I think I would have a lot different with horses but as it was stated arent we all still learning?


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## RadHenry09 (Mar 22, 2009)

Mrs B I love your signature , it is so true!


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## xEquestrianx (Aug 30, 2009)

The first time I rode, I was 2, and I just did that around for a while, being lead around. Then when I was 5, I started taking lessons...on retired barrel horses...lol. And we did some bareback and all that stuff, but it really helped me. I didn't learn on pushbuttons. So I've ridden Western for almost 12 years now, (I'm 14 this month) and English only about 3 years.


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## themacpack (Jul 16, 2009)

Honestly, I don't remember "learning" - I just grew up on horses to the point that it has always been so much a part of my life that there is no memory of life before riding or the actual process of learning.


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## Mrs B (Sep 9, 2009)

RadHenry09 said:


> Mrs B I love your signature , it is so true!


LoL I noticed we had the same one too, and I believe it 100%!


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## Tennessee (Dec 7, 2008)

When I was six my granddaddy slapped me on the back on his 6 year old Mustang, wacked the Mustang's butt hard, and there was my first lesson, and perhaps that and the many "lessons" after that is the reason I am terrified to get on a Mustang. lol.


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## equus717 (Aug 20, 2009)

i rode off and on while growing up but my mom would not let me have a horse of my own because she had friends that had been killed on them. One friend that she had her father worked a lot and he shipped over a appaloosa back home to his daughter and before she tried him out in the field she took him into the woods to ride. He spooked and ran her under some branches and knocked her off. She ended up hitting her head on some rocks and she ended up dying because she froze to death. When she went out riding she didn't bother to tell anyone where she was going riding. 
I have always loved horses and didn't own one until I was 21. She was a grade quarter horse mare on her way to the slaughter house. I rescued her and trained her myself. My husbands first horse was our stallion. He is very gentle and kind. My boys ride my 3 year old paint filly. They love to ride especially my 2 year old.


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## RubaiyateBandit (Jan 25, 2009)

When I was little, my grandfather had a few draft horses left over from the days when the farm had been run on real horse power. They were gentle enough that my grandpa would take me out with him when he went to feed them, and I'd drag myself up onto their backs and plop my little butt on them while they wandered about eating and whatever else they did in the pasture, with me squealing and yanking on their manes. When they'd had enough of me, they'd lay down and I'd just tumble off their backs, then they'd get up again and trot away. haha
My dad had two horses before I was born, too -- a dirty white mare he'd gotten by giving someone a pool table, and a frisky sorrel gelding that was tied to the bumper of a truck that he bought. Neither of them were truly saddle broke, but they knew how to carry a rider and could sort of do a little reining. So I rode them around, too, and got my first hesitant learnings of handling reins.
My uncle, too, had a small collection of horses, and most of his were actually saddle broke. He had one mare in particular, Sunshine (everyone called her 'Sunny', and I called her 'Sun-Sun' as a little kid), who was a pretty little buckskin. He taught me how to really ride almost as soon as I could get in the saddle on my own, then let me show her and ride her on parades and on trails. I continued riding her until I was about 13, when she had a little bay colt, and then my parents bought me a little pony stallion that I rode. Meanwhile, my uncle started teaching me how to imprint and halter break a foal -- Sunny's little bay. I helped in all his training, and when I turned 15, he gave me the 2-year-old colt (2-Pak) as a birthday/Christmas present; as soon as 2-Pak had a few hours on him, I started riding him myself.
Now I'm 19, and still learning all sorts of things. My latest project: learning to run barrels. ^_^


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## equus717 (Aug 20, 2009)

Cool how do you like running barrels. I was going to run my paint filly on barrels but I really have to work to get her to run so I am going to make her a western pleasure horse instead.


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## RubaiyateBandit (Jan 25, 2009)

equus717 said:


> Cool how do you like running barrels. I was going to run my paint filly on barrels but I really have to work to get her to run so I am going to make her a western pleasure horse instead.


Who, me?
I'm enjoying myself... I more or less got into it because I got my hands on a pair of mares who'd be trained to run barrels, and I wanted to show them. But I hate Western Pleasure (it's too slow! XD) and I already have two halter horses, so I stuck with what they knew.


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## dee (Jul 30, 2009)

When we first got married, we didn't have much $$. He told me he would buy me a diamond ring for our fifth annivesary. When we saw Snoopy at the auction, I told him I'd rather have a horse and he bought him for me. (He bought one for himself from a friend so we could ride together.) To my shock and surprise - he bought me a diamond ring for that Christmas - so I got both the horse and the ring in the fifth year of our marriage! (we have now been married 30+ years!)


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