I have been riding horses since the age of 6. Used to hack out twice a week and taught myself the basics. No body taught me how to ride properly until i was 12 though-I went to a riding school for a few months. Then i bought two horses.
I dont take part in showing or anything like that as its not fun, its kinda boring and too competetive and nasty over here-in my opinion. I love really fast flatwork, nothing can beat it. Its so fun and exhillarating.
I havent been riding for a while though as i no longer have no own horses but share one which i very rarely ride! -_- .

I've been riding for almost 13 years now. I started out riding western on an ancient Arab gelding. I got my Clover baby as a yearling in '97. Trained her myself, did a pretty good job for my first, I like to think. lol (I still don't know how we didn't end up ruining each other! lol) Anways, I started barrel racing with her in '99. I've been taking lessons for Dressage and Hunter/Jumper for 3 years now. I show a few times a year. Nothing all too extravagant.

A couple pics...
my Clover baby (GB Red Clover) and me- [link]
she goes western. [link]
and now English... [link]
my lesson horse, Bullet- [link]

--
~Silatda~

"Somewhere behind the rider you've become, and the hours of frustration, practice, numerous falls, and the trainers who have pushed you, is the little girl who fell in love with the first horse she saw and never looked back; until now."

I live on a farm house and own quite a few horses. My personal horse is this pure white andalusian stallion we bought for 30 grand.. hes just amazing.

Other than that my family owns racing thoroughbreds but most of them are stabled in either New York (Saratoga) or multiple trainer's barns in Europe. We only have two Canadian bred racers that race in Canada, although they have won stakes in US, but they're based at Woodbine in Toronto.

But I really do love horses. But sadly the horse I learned to ride on.. this gray (almost white) Gelding we had named Lady. I know ur thinking why is a Gelding named Lady.. but they let my older sister name him when she was a kid.. and she thought it was a filly so oh well.

--
"The artist belongs to his work, not the work to the artist."
-Novalis

After moving back to the US from Thailand/Holland/Ecuador, I lived on my grandfather's old quarter horse ranch until I was about 4. Then I moved to where I live now and started taking lessons in 2000. I had to stop after about a year because of the cost, but I started riding again earlier this year. I started out learning dressage on an 18-year-old trakehner cross named Cougar (who broke my toe). After a few lessons, I switched to a 20+ year old Oldenburg cross named Rye. Then my trainer left and I switched to hunter/jumper on various horses (a young quarter horse named Murphy, an energetic thoroughbred named Lacy, and a lazy Arabian named Mojave). Last week I finally found the horse that is best for me...he's a 15-year-old gray thoroughbred named Sgt. Pepper. I want to show eventually, but it might take a while because I can only ride once a week.

Cool, 6 was also when I started riding I do some showing, but not in rated shows, I agree that thsoe are too competitive. I have fun at some of the schooling shows that I do though

--
"Everything always works out in musicals. In the real world,
nothing ever works out and the only people who burst into
song are the hopelessly deranged" Drowsy Chaperone
love lit?*writersdA
^{Have some deviantHEART}

nice I also do a couple shows, and again not too much though

Your Clover looks a bit like one of the horses I ride

--
"Everything always works out in musicals. In the real world,
nothing ever works out and the only people who burst into
song are the hopelessly deranged" Drowsy Chaperone
love lit?*writersdA
^{Have some deviantHEART}

Saratoga? Heh. I'm a new yorker. Cool

That's really cool

A gelding named Lady...I'll have to remember that

--
"Everything always works out in musicals. In the real world,
nothing ever works out and the only people who burst into
song are the hopelessly deranged" Drowsy Chaperone
love lit?*writersdA
^{Have some deviantHEART}

alot of switching aroudn it seems, but that you've stuck with it, is good

I ride twice a week..wish I could more..expensive though

cool beans

--
"Everything always works out in musicals. In the real world,
nothing ever works out and the only people who burst into
song are the hopelessly deranged" Drowsy Chaperone
love lit?*writersdA
^{Have some deviantHEART}

Yesterday I rode Sgt. Pepper for the second time. He was trained as a jumper, so he sees a jump and speeds up. To get him to calm down, my instructor took down the jump (a small x, heh) and told me to trot him through. He ended up jumping anyways (even though there was nothing there) then he bucked and began to gallop pretty strongly (I was able to stay on throughout all of this). Other than that, he's a good horse.

I might actually be able to ride twice a week now. My instructor said I could come out on Sundays and ride if I wanted to (without paying anything extra).

I had a similar experience on a horse at my school, he's still green, and we were training him over some crossrails and he was kind of like.."I don't wanna do this" at first, then he started getting cocky and speeding up, and he had a bucking fit and just racing around

Have fun with the extra riding

--
"Everything always works out in musicals. In the real world,
nothing ever works out and the only people who burst into
song are the hopelessly deranged" Drowsy Chaperone
love lit?*writersdA
^{Have some deviantHEART}