Some FormSpring Questions and Answers on riding horses:
English or Western?
English. I haven’t ridden western since I was about five years old. I love to jump, although I haven’t been able to do that with Tara due to her age. However, I do like a horse with some western training. When I buy a horse this summer, I’ll probably be looking for a Quarter Horse. Thoroughbreds are athletic, but they run a bit hot for me.
How long have you had horses and did you ever compete? If in what? by KendallJust
I’ve had horses all my life. I was riding from before I can remember.
When I was young, everyone in my family rode. My first pony was 12.2 hand a Shetland hand-me-down from my two sisters. He was a total brat by the time I got him. (Ponies get wise — and thus disobedient — with age.) Simon would run away with me, cross the stream in the pasture, stick his head in the grass, and refuse to get back to work. He dumped me off him more times than I can remember; it was pretty much a daily occurrence. When he was naughty, I used to get off him, stand in front of his nose, and lecture him sternly. (My mom has some great pictures of me doing that!)
As a kid, I competed in Pony Club events; I got up a C3 level. I also did hunter shows throughout my childhood, albeit just on the local level.
I most enjoyed trail riding and foxhunting with my mother. (In foxhunting, the fox is just chased, almost never killed in the US. We don’t have the population to support killing foxes, as they do in the UK.) Fox hunting is a strange combination of hidebound tradition (e.g. in dress and manners) and wild riding (e.g. galloping through rocky hilly trails and jumping 3′ coops). I did that all four years in high school, with my trusty horse Paint. He was a 16.2 hand pinto. With his western coloring, he stood out on the hunt field!
Right now, I’m just doing trail riding for pleasure, because I just don’t have time for anything more. If I was to do anything serious again, I’d like to foxhunt again… or rather, coyotehunt, as they do here in Colorado.
I wish that I had my mother to ride with, though!
