horse crazy

[quietann]

This is mostly for my own reference, but...

I was one of those girls who was crazy about horses. I started collecting Breyer models when I was 5, and at one point had close to 200 of them. I started going to horse shows when I was about 8, with no adult supervision (My mom would drop me off, and then come find me later, or give me a watch and have a time and place to meet.)

I went on a lot of trail rides as a kid, but didn't start riding regularly until I was 10. That summer, we were in Canada, and my parents discovered that riding lessons there were really inexpensive, so they sprung for twice-weekly private lessons. But when we went back to California, mom declared riding too expensive once again.

I got to go to six weeks of "horse camp" (a three days per week day camp) at a local stable the next summer. I loved it and wanted more, but the money issue was a problem.

I should explain that my family was financially comfortable but not extremely so. And I begged for my own horse more often than I even begged for lessons, and my mom was worried that if she gave in on the lessons, I'd somehow end up talking her and my dad into buying a horse for me. "We're not rich!" I heard over and over again. She saw what sort of people were "horsey" and they weren't middle class biologist's daughters.

When I was 11 1/2 I was diagnosed with diabetes. My physician knew I liked horses, and encouraged my parents to get me lessons again as a form of physical activity. (Like many of us, I was unathletic, uncoordinated and hated all team sports. I was also small for my age.) My mom relented but said it was temporary. When she decided after a few months that lessons really were too expensive, my physician read her the riot act. He wanted me to have something I could live for each week; I was depressed and moody and really a "pill" but taking a lesson always made me smile.

I should now explain that there was definitely enough money for once or twice weekly riding ($15 for a group lesson and $20 for a cross-country lesson/trail ride.) My parents were Depression babies, though, and didn't want to spend money on "luxuries." They disagreed about whether riding lessons were a luxury. The compromise they reached was that I could have the lessons and the trail rides, but not my own horse, and not any of the horsey things that required a lot of money, like showing or foxhunting. It helped that my grandmother (who had been quite the horsewoman when she was young) chipped in some money towards my lessons.

So I rode for most of my teenage years. I was never a great rider, but being around horses was and is very good for me.

Why did I stop? Boys. Summer after my junior year in high school, I had my first serioud boyfriend. Mom eventually gave me a choice: I could use the car to see him (since he did not have a car and lived about 12 miles away) or I could use the car to go riding. I think she hoped I would pick riding, but I picked boys instead. Hormones over pleasure, I guess. And now that I am riding again, I could shoot myself for ever quitting in the first place...

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

i wonder how many people are like you in this? i wonder whether there is an opportunity to open a horse barn for "just plain folks who happen to like horses" instead of "feelthy rich upper-crust parents who simply *must* have riding lessons for their kids and are willing to walk around in icky mud in faux-rustic clothes to see that it happens"? i wonder whether such a thing would remain profitable for more than a microsecond?

i wonder when horse-owning became the luxury that it is today?

(i wonder a lot, y'know?)

--desert_born, posting from work

[goddessfarmer.livejournal.com]

Horse owning became a luxury when they became a non-necessity. They were replaced by the automobile, and, in this country anyway, are considered non-essentials, and therefore a luxury.

Economically, even basic feeding and health care (without the fancy frills) is still pretty expensive. To keep my horse at home, just to have it to ride when I want to, not counting my clothes or his, costs me almost $300/month in food, shoes and bedding. That does NOT count the building, it's maintenence, it's taxes, my daily labor, special supplements, medications, fencing, lessons, tack, helmet, boots, etc.

A really motovated equestrian student can make do with very little if they are willing to bust their butt to be a working student. That's how I paid for a lot of lessons in High School and I gave up EVERY ENTIRE weekend in 9th and 10th grade to do it.

[quietann.livejournal.com]

I could not be a working student because I had no transportation except what my parents (usually mom) were willing to provide, until I was 16 1/2. I was lucky to get rides twice a week and usually had to beg for the second one. For a while I carpooled with another girl for my weekly lesson, but then she lost interest in horses. Once I had my license, I had to arrange to borrow the car.

The first place I rode was 6 or 7 extremely hilly miles away, but theoretically accessible by bus, but also *very* snooty and expensive (which is why I stopped riding there). That was the closest stable to where I lived. After that, I followed my instructor through three different loactions as land got munched up by development; the second was 10 miles away, the third was 14, and the fourth was 15. I really admired the working student who helped my instructor, but she was in her 20s and had a VW Van.

[goddessfarmer.livejournal.com]

I agree that for someone dependent on non-willing parents, the horse thing is nearly impossible. I was kind of assumed to want to ride (so I did) because my mother was a 'horse crazy kid' finally able to pursue it. Oh, don't get me wrong here, I did enjoy it, and still do, but my mother was all into the winning and prestige thing, and I'm really happier just riding. It was a really good example of a parent living viacriously through the child. As I got older, it backfired on her a bit - I started using the pony as transportation to friends' houses, and as an excuse to be 'gone riding' for long stretches of time. If I hadn't had that, either she or I would not have lived to my 15th birthday.

[lyonesse.livejournal.com]

well, a lot of it is wrapped up in land value. horses take up a lot of land.

i had the good fortune to grow up in a not-yet-entirely-suburban neighborhood. when we moved there, the next-door people had a couple horses and bred collie dogs. when i got to be old enough (i was a horse-crazy kid too) and it just so happened that our pool caved in, the neighbors bulldozed a little hill on their property and we landfilled the old pool, and voila, instant paddock.

there were issues. nobody in my family knew anything about horses (except me, from summer camp and books -- i never had lessons). the neighbors on the other side HATED horses. but given that i didn't have to pay board, the upkeep of a horse was within the financial reach of an ambitious teenage girl (i mostly gave riding lessons -- ask candle_light about that sometime -- and sold composted manure to local gardeners.

then i gave it up for twenty years, and if you want that story you'll probably need to buy me a couple of very stiff drinks. but, well, i came back. and it's *good* to be back.