Horse Lovers Unite! Lets share our Love for Horses

ooo this is such a fun swap! I am currently 19 and I have been riding for 9 years. Growing up none of my family were horsey so of course owning my own was off the table! I started sharing a horse at 15, and I had a few shares on different days so I was at the yard almost every day. (a share is when you ride someone elses horse and do its jobs on certain days, so you have the freedom of owning in terms of riding and care without having to commit to it every day) For my 19TH birthday I got a large sum of money from my grandmas will, that was meant to go on driving lessons. I had already saved up a lot from my job. One of the girls at the yard was joking about how I had enough to buy my own horse, so without my parents knowing I did! I now own a 14.2 bay irish cob called Lulu and my parents found out the day she came home, as when I got home from the yard I was like oh yeah btw I have my own horse now XD I have owned her 6 months now!

My first horse "Red" was a dream come true. We bonded almost immediately and I could actually tell that he loved me as much as I loved him. On bad days I would sneak away to the barn, in the middle of the night, and would sit in his stall with his head in my lap and just spill my heart out to my sweet friend. One prominent memory was when he saved me from a terrible fall. We were loping bareback through this open field. He was great about giving me that slow rocking chair lope that was super easy to sit bareback and boy what an awesome feeling that was...riding through a beautiful field with my best friend. One day we were loping and he stepped in a gopher hole and stumbled. Of course being bareback I knew instantly that I had no chance of staying on. When he tripped he fell forward and his head went down and I instantly slid forward and up his neck. It was like slow motion and I was about to land in front of him and probably be trampled. I slid clear up his neck and was actually right behind his ears!! Instead of falling he started raising his head slowly...shimmied me back down to his back then slowly came to a stop with me safely sitting on him! I was in shock, shaking from what had just happened and quickly realized that he had just saved me. I couldn't believe that a moment ago I was literally sitting behind his ears with my legs wrapped around to not fall and a few seconds later I was safe and sound on his back. I still can't believe how it all happened. It had to be hard for him to hold his head and neck straight and wiggle me down...I am not a tiny woman so I know the easy thing for him would have been to just dump me...but he didn't. It may sound weird to some but I really think that he cared for me enough to save me that day. Unfortunately I only had him for about 5 years, he contracted Heaves and crossed that rainbow bridge and broke my heart. Every horse that I have owned since paled in comparison to that sweet bright red gelding. I miss him dearly.

First of all i wanna say i like horses... BUT i am terrified of them. Why??? Turn back the time to 1978, i was just a wee girl and i used to spend a LOT of time visiting my grandparents in the north of Italy. Just behind our house we hd woods and in the woods there were stables, they were Famous at the time, they were the home of a world known race horse called Ribot. I used to watch the horses train, and they all looked so so beautiful, so elegant. I begged and begged for my parents to take me horse riding, and finally i got my wish.... Day 1- i spent it in the stables shovelling poo (not what i was expecting) Day 2- the horse ate my dress.... Day 3- tried finally to mount a horse ... I was too short and fell off it just under its hoofs ... Trauma ensues as i was sure the horse would have killed me... Never again I keep my horses interactions just at watching....