The blog of Mary Poppins

[Mary Poppins]

I have been inspired by reading some of your fantastic blogs so I thought that I would start one of my own.

I started riding aged 4 when my parents decided to take us all as a family. I remember riding a black shetland pony and being led around the roads by 2 teenage girls with my brother and sister. They used to leave us sitting on our ponies outside a petrol station while they went in and talked to the boys. We did this for about a year until my dad fell off and decided that we wouldn't go anymore.

When I was 9 we moved house and I found it difficult to settle. I made some friends with some girls who went to the local riding school and I begged my parents to let me go. Money was tight at the time, but because I was so unhappy at a school they agreed to let me have one riding lesson a fortnight. In my first lesson I rode a skewbold gelding called Dominic. From that moment I was hooked. I quickly started to help out at the yard and before long I was spending every weekend and every school holiday helping out. My favourite horse was a 13.1 New Forest called Amos. He was ridden in a pellum but I never understood why because he was the most sensible horse on the yard. I rode him in my first ever show and came first.

When I was 13 they offered me a formal job. I got paid £4.50 to work from 7am to 2pm and got a free ride. It was slave labour really because 3 of us (all aged under 16) used to run the entire yard getting 20 ponies ready for lessons, mucking out and cleaning tack. It was really hard work but I loved every second of it.

However, the downside of this yard was that the standard of teaching was very low. I was never taught to ride well and got into some terrible habits. I used to lean forward when I asked for halt and had a terrible position. When I was 14 or 15 I went on a riding holiday to Norfolk where a horse bolted with me on a stubble field when we were heading towards home. I vividly remember heading straight for a main road of lorries and buses and making the decision to bail out. I jumped off at full gallop and thankfully I wasn't hurt, but my confidence riding in open spaces was well and truely shattered. I lcontinued to ride in the arena at my riding school but I couldn't ride in the field and I refused to go hacking. I remember feeling a complete failure and very sad that I couldn't do the things that I used to enjoy doing.

 

[Mary Poppins]

When I was 16 I began to realise that we were not being treated very well at the RS and that £4.50 for a whole days work was not really that good a deal. My parents agreed that they wanted me to get value for money from my riding lessons so they agreed to let me try out some different schools. I found an excellent place about 30 minutes drive away which was a totally different league. I started having lessons there with a fantastic instructor called Justine. She made me go right back to basics with half hour private lessons and for the first time I actually started to learn how to ride. Progress was slow because I could only go every fortnight but I rode some great ponies and still remember them all. Dolphin was a 14.2hh palamino speedy little pony, Zac was a 15hh arab and Solo was a 13.2hh skewbold cob. We used to do evening showjumping competitions where Solo used to run out at all the jumps and I fell off alot! I even hacked afew times but never got over my confidence issues completely. I rode here for about 2 years until I reached the age of 18 and went to univeristy.

I then had a complete break from horses until I was about 23. I started working, paid off my debts and had some spare money. I booked a weeks holiday at the Equestrian Centre in Wales (now closed down) which was supposed to be my come back to riding. On the second day I had an accident where a horse bucked me off and I hurt my pelvis. I couldn't walk properly for 6 weeks and my confidence was knocked back further.

When I was about 25 I got the itch to try again and found a lovely little yard local to me. I had weekly lessons there for about a year and did enjoy it, but found that the yard was full of kids. They were lovely, friendly kids but I felt abit odd being the only adult. After a while I started to part loan one of the riding school horses called Ben. He was a big Irish Draft aged 17 and was lovely. I was still too nervous to hack and only jumped very small cross poles, but I really enjoyed fussing over him and used to go and muck him out every day. I knew that I wanted more then just riding so I started to look around for a share horse. I loaned one of the instructors horses for a while but became frustrated that this horse was being ridden by several other people and in my opinion too hard. Then along came Maverick....

 

[Mary Poppins]

I found Maverick through a wanted ad on the BHS website. He was a chesnut section D with flaxen mane and tail. He was lazy to ride in the school and nervous out on hacks. I loved taking care of him and pretended that he was 'mine' on my days with him. I still couldn't hack but with the encouragement of a RI on the yard I started to take him out after about 6 months. On my 3rd solo hack he turned and spun with me. I fell off and was devestated. About that time I found New Rider and posted a thread about my lack of confidence with him. His owner and her friends read it and posted some really nasty comments on here about how 'nasty' I was being about him. Bizzarely I never actually discussed the thread or comments made by his owner, with his owner, but for me that was the beginning of the end and I knew that I couldn't continue to share him with such a sour relationship with his owner.

One day I was sat in the yard office and started crying about my inability to hack. The yard owner introduced me to Dotty who turned out to be my horse of a lifetime. She was a 16.2hh shire mare who had the kindest eyes I have ever seen. From the moment I saw her I knew that she was the horse for me. She was working in the riding school and was in very poor condition. She had severe sweet itch, was overworked and underfed and her feet were in a terrible condition. From the moment I sat on here, all my hacking fears dissapeared. I took her on loan and for the next 4 years she was my whole life. She had a heart condition and could only hack out in walk with brief periods of trots. We used to hack out everywhere and she was the safest horse I have ever met. I spent hours and hours just grooming her and being with her. Her condition improved 1000% and within a few months she had put on weight, her coat was shining and she was noticeably happy. She used to wait for me by the gate every evening and I loved taking care of her. I made some fantastic like minded friends at the yard and was so happy.

Four years later I got married and returned from my honeymoon pregnant. I gave up riding but right up until I was 8 months pregnant I was still mucking her out and seeing her everyday. However, I developed pre-ecampsia in the later part of my pregnancy and had to be admitted to hospital. My son was born 3 weeks early and spent 10 days in intensive care. We came very close to losing him and he became my number one priorty. When we returned home I couldn't drive for 6 weeks and I was so traumatised from the birth, I didn't want to leave my son. I didn't see Dotty for about 3 months and even then it was only once a week for very short periods. Around that time I felt that she needed to be retired as she had been ill and increasingly frail. I couldn't take care of her anymore so decided to end the loan and let the YO resume all her care. This didn't go down well at all and to cut a very long story short, I was no longer welcome at the yard if I wasn't willing to pay for her. I did sneak down there as often as I could but my life was made very difficult. She was put to sleep on my birthday 2 years ago. I wasn't told in advance and didn't have the chance to say goodbye to her. A good friend phoned me as soon as she found out but it was too late. After all I did for her, I will never forgive the YO for not giving me the chance to say goodbye.