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Thank you. I love horses. I was just crazy to get a horse as a kid. I would ask for one every time a gift-receiving occasion came up. Alas, no. I finally gave up and said, "well, just give me the tack and I'll imagine the rest." Dad still said no. He was afraid that an inch would soon become a mile.

I'm afraid I can't contribute much, if anything of my own experiences here. But I sure will enjoy reading y'all's experiences.

I wanted a horse as a kid too. When I was about 8 or 9 my dad took me to an auction and bought 2. I don't know where he learned to ride. I had never seen him on a horse before but we rode them home with some other people. It was all day. I had my first trail lesson. (Never gulp down a bunch of water when you are hot) Anyway, he stalled them at a feed store that had "miles of land" As an adult, it was probably more like 20 acres or so. Who knows. I might have even been on someones else's property! I would walk there to ride my horse. I had the darnest time with the saddle. I would get it on and park her by the fence and climb on. We would be off and the saddle would slide under her belly. I finally chunked it. I had trouble with the bridle too, so I just rode her with the halter and reins. We would fly. A short time later we moved, my parents broke up and the horses were sold. A couple of years ago I decided to give it another try. I'm hoping, somewhere is this grown, cautious, let's think about this first, body, the wild child still lives:')

Welcome to the thread! I always asked for a horse as a kid too, (What self respecting horse crazy kid didn't?) and to make up for it I worked and rode at two different barns. The first was a dressage barn, the second was a hunter/jumper barn, and I stayed with the hunter/jumper barn till I went off to college. My parents told me that I could get my own horse when I turned 18, (of my own accord of course) and on my 18th birthday I signed a lease on my first horse, Jimmy. (He's the bay you see on the Who's Who page) He was a cranky fellow, but we had a history together and got along just fine. I had to give up the lease for a couple of months while I was getting settled at school, and that's when they sold him. Now I'm out of school, but I still have to settle with taking lessons, but beggers can't be chosers! :-)