See, i told ya..

[Sunshine]

Left this post because of the good stories

[Arty]

Aw come on. That's clearly photoshopped ;)

[Bwana]

So riding made you lose your clothes???

[Thumper]

I have three closets full of clothes I'm gonna fit into when I lose weight. ('Course I've had some of 'em for 20 years ... but who the hell throws away good Levis and camo?) ;)

[HideHunter]

I pretty much hate horses. I made some of my first spending money by breaking ponies. As soon as I saved up enough money I got rid of the ponies and bought a motorcycle. Got a nephew who is as close to a cowboy as they have today. Still rides a horse pretty much everyday. He says, "A horse don't want to kill you all at once. He just wants to hurt you a little bit everyday." I'm all for butchering them.

[Big Muddy]

Sooooo, """the horse passed away"""....from a broke back or what??? ;)



(Sorry, Sunny, I just couldn't help myself.) ;)

[BarryBobPosthole]

There have been a few significant horses in my life. My grandpa Bruton gave my Dad a horse when he was a youngster. His name was Pete and he was just a regular old Ouachita mountain horse I guess. When my cousins and I were kids, we'd have to go catch Pete so we could ride him. He wore a bell so you could locate him down in the bottoms. He's hide in a thicket and stand absolutely still when he knew you were coming so he wouldn't tinkle the bell. Finally the horse flies would get to him and he'd have to swat them and then he was busted. We'd ride Pete all day long until he got tired of us and then he'd throw one or two of us and it'll be all over except for the mercurochrome. I loved that old horse. He lived to a ripe old age of 34 before he died and my cousin who found him claims to this day that he died standing up.

The only horses I was ever around a lot were our neighbors horses when we lived in a rent house when I was about the seventh grade. Our neighbors had a twenty acre farm and ran two horses on it, Lady and Spot, who really wasn't spotted but I guess you'd call her a paint. The neighbor kid was about three years older than me and he taught me all kinds of stuff that got me in trouble. His Dad was in the guard and he'd bring home bandoliers of 30.06 blanks. We discovered that a black cat firecracker would fit perfectly in the end of one of those if you pried the little red cap out of the end. Made vicious shrapnel and a boom like a stick of dynamite. Anyway, we rode those horses almost always bareback and we rode them all of two summers. Its a skill to learn to ride a horse at full gallop with no blanket, no nuthin' but bare feet digging in but after you fall off a few times you learn it pretty good. And you learn how to jump up on their back like a wild indian too. that was the most horse riding I ever did in my life, but it is a great memory. There was another horse, old Blue, that one of my cousins and I used to sneak out in the neighbor's barn and ride when I was in the second grade. But that wasn't riding, that was mainly sitting and being led around. I got bucked off of old Blue more than once too though.

BKB

[Thumper]

Ha! Barry, my "horse stories" are very similar to yours. From my grand parents place in the mountains of N. Carolina, to my uncle's horses here at home. The Carolina horse belonged to a neighbor across the river (Tuckasegee) and I'd sneak that ol' girl out'ta their barn when they weren't home. Similar deal as yours, once she got tired of me riding her around, she'd always head for the nearest tree and lean/rub against it to knock me off. It usually worked too! I'd have to lift my leg up to keep her from smashing it and with no blanket/saddle she'd usually knock me off pretty easily and head back to the barn!

My uncle always had a couple of horses and I spent most of my weekends, as a kid, out at his place. I remember once when I was riding his old horse, he walked up on a rattle snake and reared up like the lead-in to the Lone Ranger show on Saturdays. I busted my ass pretty good and landed right in front of that ol' rattle snake. The horse hauled ass off into the woods. I walked the 2 frigging miles back to my uncle's place all the while wondering how I was gonna tell him I lost his horse, and when I got home that ol' horse was standing right there in the front yard nibbling at my aunts flowers.

In later years, I'd rent horses from time to time for trail rides and such, but never was a real big fan. I used to ride those ol' horses all up and down the beach in Mexico quite often, but it's sure been a while. Can't say I really miss it ... but I do have some good childhood memories.