At school and at home owning a horse was all I kept on about, having only been on one once was a good enough reason for me to believe I knew more than enough to look after one myself, (I was very young).

Near where I lived there was a lady (she was about 30) who had horses of her own, she kept them in stables about 5 mins away from my house. Now being kids, like we all have been at one point, this lady was obviously older than us so we used to call her Granny, even now some 25 years later if I see her I still call her Granny.

Now one day Granny was asked if she could do anything with a friends pony, he had bought it for his daughter but it was so naughty that she could not handle it, Granny said she would have Bracken, the pony’s name for a month.

It was a good job that Granny was such a little person, because as soon as the pony arrived she started to ride him out, all 12 hands of him. He bucked, he reared and then he bucked some more but no matter how hard he tried or how hard we wished she never fell off.

Now one day she was leading Brackon and Bilbo, another pony, round the block trying to get them used to traffic and asked if I would like to go. Off we went, Granny leading Bracken and me leading Bilbo. We went down the road along some lanes and through a building estate with no problems, then just as we were on our homeward stretch a tractor came behind us.

Bilbo completely freaked out and started to rear up, me, well I started to scream, Granny told me not to panic and get to her, panic, who me? I managed to get close enough for her to grab the lead rope, but what happened next frightened the life out of me for a good 5 mins.

Granny told me to grab Brackens neck and then she bent down, grabbed my leg and threw me on, it all happened so fast. She threw the lead rope over his neck then hit him right on his flank. My god! For a small pony he could run.

Having only walked at a very slow pace this was all new to me, I had no saddle and no reins so I just grabbed a handful of the horses mane, Granny was behind me shouting, “lean forward, lean forward,” I thought that was what I was doing, but when she told the story in later years apparently I was sat bolt upright like a board.

Bracken ran up the hill and around the corner straight back to the horse yard, it must have only taken minutes but to me it felt like forever. He arrived at his stable door and just stopped dead, me, well I carried on for a few more seconds, straight over his head, and that was where Granny found me a few minutes later, still on the floor.

She tried to explain to me that what she did was the safest way out of a very tricky situation but me being me was having none of it, and I ran home in tears. I did not speak to her for weeks. But none of this stopped me bragging to all my friends the next day, about how I had galloped on Bracken with no saddle and no reins, how cool am I? Yep, not long now and I would be owning a horse.

Owning a horse? How hard can this be? Even at a very young age I knew that one day I would own my own horse and learn about how to keep horses. But I had a lot of experiences before this was to happen.

When I was growing up I was lucky enough to live right out in the countryside, there were no buses or shops but the views and the tranquility of the area were amazing. We had fields to run around in, woods to explore and farmers to annoy. Oh yes, as kids we had so much fun.

My main passion even at this young age was a love of horses. I loved to watch them running around in the fields bucking, rearing and chasing each other. I was probably around the age of 10 when I first sat on a horse, we were on holiday and I pleaded with my mother and father over and over again until in the end they agreed to let me have a go. They did not know what they were getting themselves in for and we set out to find a riding school.

Because I had never been riding or even sat on a horse before I could not go out on a hack with the rest of the group, I had to go out on a lead rein on my own. But the riding stables were short on staff which left nobody available to take me. The disappointed look that I displayed on my face when I realized that I was so close to losing what I had been waiting for must have been good (practice makes perfect for sad face pulling) that my dad said he and mother would take me, “how hard can it be,” he said. My dad knew nothing about horses but that did not matter to me, I was going out for my first ride.

The lady went to a stable and led out this big brown and slightly overweight horse called Bella, we all went out to the yard where I was told to mount up, I thought this was going to be so cool, I sort of climbed, fell, climbed some more until eventually there I was sat on this horse, how chuffed was I? My dad was given the lead rope and we were told where to go for our walk, off we went and boy was I excited.

The countryside was beautiful, to the right of us was moorlands that went on for miles, how I loved that place and still go back there every year even now. Any way, lets get back to my horse ride through fields, over streams and along country lanes. That was my image of my first ride in my head anyway. Though there were some elements of the ride that didn’t quite go according to plan.

My First Horse Riding Experience

We went up and through one of the horse gates and just as my mother closed it, Bella pulled down her head hard to start eating the grass, me, well I shot straight down her neck, I was screaming at my dad like it was his fault, he pulled up on the lead rope which startled Bella and made her jump forward straight onto my dads foot with her rather large horse shoe, he yelled which made my mother and I laugh, Bella just looked at him and then stuck her head down and carried on eating the grass.

We carried on for about another 5 mins with my dad limping and nearly having his arm pulled out of his arm joint by the lead rope, and every ten seconds or so for that five minutes he said, “thats it, we are going back,” he had tried but mother and I laughed all the time, and looking back now that probably did not help. But from that point I knew that one day I would be owning a horse.

How to avoid legal hassles as a result of owning horses

I keep trying to look it up for what it means for horses and how important it is for horses training, but cannot seem to get a clear answer. So I ask, What does cadence mean in horse terms? And how important is it in horses training? Thanks.