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Post by tintin on Feb 21, 2011 14:19:50 GMT 1
I am prompted by my recent reading of "Jackie won a Pony" to ask, in a slight paraphrase of the traditional US immigration officer question:-
"Do you have, or have you ever had, an imaginary horse?"
As confession is supposedly good for the sole I will confess first. I had an imaginary horse called Honey who was very much a slightly larger version of Misty, Jackie's pony, but dun in colour. He had a splendid horse box and used to travel to country shows.
I have tried to write a story about him, but got a bit stuck, as he is quite a sensible prosaic horse and never falls into bogs or gets stolen by gypsies. He's not even particularly bothered if he gets placed in his class just enjoying the trip out and the attention...
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Post by Deleted on Feb 21, 2011 15:12:28 GMT 1
My imaginary horses were always other peoples horses that I wished I owned.
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Post by haffyfan on Feb 21, 2011 17:51:18 GMT 1
lol yes in a word...I'm sure theres a very embarrasing conversation about them somewhere including riding bikes with brakes on whilst doing rising trot and falling off atempting steering with string for reins and prancing about on foot of course!
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Post by Claire on Feb 21, 2011 21:03:51 GMT 1
I think the question is who DIDN'T have an imaginary horse or two when they were kiddiwinks. I had loads, in fact my friend and I went further and ran an imaginary riding school and we used to have 'on foot gymkhanas' for all the horse mad neighbourhood kids who didnt have access to ponies. My favourite imaginary horsy past-time was 'cross country' while out on a country walk with parents, when my brother and I would leap over logs and bushes on our 'horses'. Great fun! In fact it must be admitted I still jump the occaisional log when out walking. A fact that gives my friends much cause for hilarity....
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Post by kunuma on Feb 21, 2011 23:17:53 GMT 1
;D But can you run as fast as Secretariat!!
Erm, was I supposed to have grown out of my imaginary horse? I've still got him!
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Post by Claire on Feb 21, 2011 23:22:58 GMT 1
;D But can you run as fast as Secretariat!! Errr...I think Muffin the Mule could give me a run for my money!!!
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Post by Buster on Feb 21, 2011 23:29:10 GMT 1
Aw this brings back memories! Me and my best friend used to play horses all the time, but we wern't very inventive, we had the two horses from the Sheltie series (which I was insanely obsessed with in my younger years). One was obviously Sheltie, think the other one was Minnow? Anyway we just used to make showjumping courses in the garden with bamboo canes and plant pots etc. I think this was mainly my influence as she wasn't (still isn't) horsey in anyway. Although i've got her up on Buster before. I also had a see-saw thing which we'd play horses on too. Ahhh simpler times, much easier (and cheaper) than the real things!
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Post by jinglerebel on Feb 22, 2011 1:31:15 GMT 1
Oh gosh yes, played horses every lunch time at school. I remember 'shoeing' friends' feet. At one friend's house whose sister had a horse we used to 'ride' her western saddle which was on a stand, the other 'pony' was an old pram which had a fractious temper, liable to rear and shoot out from under you when the action got too heavy on our adventures lol . ;D Good times. My childhood dog was an excellent and enthusiastic showjumper, she wore a 'saddle' of two old leather collars joined together into which we would strap a 'rider': a small soft bunny toy; a bendy rubber kangaroo; the Barbie whose leg was broken off and held on at the hips with a rubber band (the only Barbie who could ride ). She knew the walk, trot and canter voice commands and also lunged. My current dog is a good little jumper of logs on our walks and I tell her she's a cross-country pony. LOL at those caption photos Claire .
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Post by trixiepony on Feb 22, 2011 4:46:03 GMT 1
LOL you got me I think I'm gellty of all Imaginary horsey behavior mentioned on here.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 22, 2011 7:31:01 GMT 1
I spent hours on my rocking horse which I so wished was real
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Post by Claire on Feb 22, 2011 12:47:17 GMT 1
OOh I always wanted a rocking horse, but never had one Hehe laughing at the dog who jumped and lunged. Some of my cats I have had to take out on leads for various reasons, tried to get them to lunge but with no success! Also tried to get the cats to showjump when I was a kid but again not a huge success as they always seemed to find some way to get round or under the jumps! Didn't someone on another thread say they had a rabbit that show jumped?
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Post by kunuma on Feb 22, 2011 21:41:15 GMT 1
One of my very fave books, Prince Among Ponies, has that lovely bit at the beginning where the brother and sister describe their imaginary horses. Not got the book to quote it, but didn't Patrick have a black stallion called Demon and Sara a chestnut mare called Firefly?
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Post by trixiepony on Feb 23, 2011 5:58:34 GMT 1
My poor cat and Guiniea Pig's all had saddles put on them and got groomed, and I had a I think it was a bit off old mattress that I you-ed to ride I had a hobby horse that I tyed on the front so I had a head and rains and I think I had a tail on it too, I remember how upset I was when the springs suddenly gave out so it just flopped under me. Arr the memories come flooding back.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 23, 2011 7:50:15 GMT 1
I remember that thread I think there were jumping hamsters as well? And like Trixiepony my guines pigs were showjumpers ;D
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Post by Deleted on Feb 23, 2011 7:52:32 GMT 1
One of my very fave books, Prince Among Ponies, has that lovely bit at the beginning where the brother and sister describe their imaginary horses. Not got the book to quote it, but didn't Patrick have a black stallion called Demon and Sara a chestnut mare called Firefly? I've just looked and you remembered correctly Kunuma they were called Firefly and Demon
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Post by trixiepony on Feb 23, 2011 11:10:00 GMT 1
And showjumping dogs there good but the pekingese was pretty parenthetic.
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Post by Buster on Feb 23, 2011 15:22:43 GMT 1
Mine was the jumping hamster!! poor thing. Oh my gosh search on youtube for showjumping rabbits, its an actual sport in Germany, and those things can jump!
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Post by kunuma on Feb 23, 2011 20:04:26 GMT 1
They sure can, they are jumping over jumps as high as my three foot tall dog has to jump!! The ones I watched all looked pretty happy about it too, probably a much better life than being stuffed in a tiny hutch as a pet and forgotten about.
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Post by trixiepony on Feb 25, 2011 3:07:56 GMT 1
Te he my bunny I had to do solled cross country jumps with my bunny he just went strait throw them if they would fall.
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vera
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Post by vera on Apr 4, 2011 7:00:11 GMT 1
I had a fallen gum tree in my backyard, with a branch at the correct angle for a horse's neck. He was called Grey Ghost. I made a saddle out of an old rug, stirrups out of skipping rope and reins plaited from wool. I spent hours riding him. Also when my father was in hospital another patient gave me a book called "The International Horseman's dictionary" which was one of my most treasured possessions. it had diagrams of different dressage movements and I used to make myself a dressage arena on the beach and walk trot and canter the patterns. when I was in matric (age 17?) my friend and I went to her parents' shack on Bruny Island for a study week, and on one of its lovely beaches I did my dressage patterns. i did not know her parents had come to visit and were dying laughing watching me.... I also had a collection of little plastic horses, about 2 centimetres high, which I painted, named, made a stable for, jumps, saddles, bridles, paddocks. They were a delight to me. I also did dressage courses when I was obedience training my dogs and I had a cat which joined in happily. Only one of the many ever joined in and she was extra special.
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Post by Claire on Apr 4, 2011 12:18:09 GMT 1
Lovely stories Vera. That must have been a very special cat as you say! None of mine would have countenanced dressage. They wouldnt even do showjumping. The useless things used to knock all the jumps over or go under them!
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Post by trixiepony on Nov 23, 2012 10:41:25 GMT 1
Yes most cat's ar't very obliging, there lovely but just not that good at show jumping.
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Post by cally on Mar 2, 2013 5:22:33 GMT 1
I had many imaginary horses, and I used to 'ride' them to and from the tram stop on the way to school everyday. I used to make horses from just about anything- I must have made my 1st when I was 4 years old in the lounge room using a potato masher as one of my stirrups! My best friend had an antique dapple grey rocking horse (the gliding type) and we rode and groomed her. I pretended to have a horse for years that I would look after as soon as I got home from school- can't remember what I made it out of. I also climbed trees and used suitably saddle shaped branches as horses. My dream horse changed, but was either black with a white blaze and socks, or a palomino with the same markings. Still is, I guess, though black is not a good colour in our wretched hot climate and greasy heel is such a pain in the ar*se to manage. At the dressage stables I came across many 'dream horses'- Flynn and Coco, black gelding and mare with white markings, and Rossi, my beloved whack job who I still get teary eyed about. All these 3 were sired by Rotspon who is my favourite for temperament. There was also Max, a Weltmeyer chestnut gelding who was really spirited and difficult to handle for some people, but I loved him for his character- cheeky and a show off. Unfortunately he was a confirmed rearer and was retired to a farm after he reared up and fell backwards on top of Ed, one of the boss' riders. I asked the boss if I could have him as a companion horse but no luck. Then there was Bart, an RDA pony a I fell in love with the moment I saw him. He had been abused by his show riding previous owners and was scared of people. He made some progress at the RDA- I used to take him out in hand and in classes to acclimatise him but he never took to the work. The day after I quit the dressage job, I was at the RDA and they offered him to me for the bargain price of $1000. Unfortunately I just couldn't come up with the money and I still worry about him. I'm going to contact the RDA and ask them to pass my number onto whoever bought him and offer to buy him if he ever comes up for sale.
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