Day 1 - When and Why You Started Riding

First time I had ever sat on a horse bareback. Don't ask me who the horse was, I have no idea!

The why - I was a horse mad kid. My mother remembers when I was just a baby how sometimes when I cried she couldn't console me and the only thing that calmed me down was plonking me in front of the TV when the horse racing was on. I used to tie rope to the handlebars of my bike to use as reins and rode around the backyard (often loosing control and falling off!). There were horses for a while in the paddock at the end of my street that Dad used to take us to visit. I lived for those moments when I could touch their noses and feed them long green grass over the fence. I had thousands of pictures of horses cut out of magazines that I kept like they were gold pieces. My horse posters were my pride and joy.

I'm sure you are all familiar with this story - it is probably much like your own!

The when - I was 9 years old when my mum finally forked out for riding lessons. I remember the night before my first lesson I was so excited - Mum was busy using the sewing machine to sew some old track pants into riding pants for me. Along with the daggy trackies, I had a bike helmet, black shoes with laces and a fluro pink and green rash shirt to wear while riding. I was jealous of the girls with dirty cream jodphurs, boots and proper white (ugly!) riding helmets.

I had lessons every second Saturday for maybe a year or two I think. There was a long time (to baby me) where I didn't have lessons at all before I finally got a pony.

But that is a story to be told another day. :)