Would you let your daughter take up horse riding?
Discussion
My little sister started horse riding aged 5 if I remember correctly, she has fallen off, been kicked and been knocked down and run over by them however she has never been seriously injured due to correct safety equipment being worn
She is now 20 owns 3 horses all paid for herself and has made some great friends through it
She is now 20 owns 3 horses all paid for herself and has made some great friends through it
My wife and I have two horses and have always ridden. We have just started a family and although we have a little boy, the whole horse thing has been discussed.
The financial costs are considerable - livery, vets, feed, insurance, equipment, travel etc
People on full livery yards can often be somewhat up their own arses, you may or may not want to mix with the hunting types who largely utilise these yards.
DIY yards are full of gossip loving mental council types.
Riding a 500+kg animal is always going to be risky. But in my view the fun of a good gallop far outweighs the risks.
Time - Here's the big issue, horses are stupidly demanding on your time. Riding totally dominates your/your family's life, even just having a pony on part loan will still have a huge impact on your life. Despite being a rider myself, I have still come to really resent this.
Having considered all of the above, my wife and I are agreed that we will not actively encourage our children to get into horses. We have put our two out to part loan and hope that this will enable a better horse/family life balance.
The financial costs are considerable - livery, vets, feed, insurance, equipment, travel etc
People on full livery yards can often be somewhat up their own arses, you may or may not want to mix with the hunting types who largely utilise these yards.
DIY yards are full of gossip loving mental council types.
Riding a 500+kg animal is always going to be risky. But in my view the fun of a good gallop far outweighs the risks.
Time - Here's the big issue, horses are stupidly demanding on your time. Riding totally dominates your/your family's life, even just having a pony on part loan will still have a huge impact on your life. Despite being a rider myself, I have still come to really resent this.
Having considered all of the above, my wife and I are agreed that we will not actively encourage our children to get into horses. We have put our two out to part loan and hope that this will enable a better horse/family life balance.
I am not a fan of anything that has its genitals at my eye level more or less, I am really allergic to them, I dotn mind them, they seem pretty intelligent creatures.
My three have never been interested, my brother in law and his wife and kids have one each and their life revolves around it, their eldest when she was about five got booted by one, luckily it just grazed the side of her head, another inch or two the right and she would have been either dead or severely hoof damaged.
My in laws used to have horses and one booted my mother in law and mashed her hands so that was the end of that, I think they just kind of did it as they thought they should, never seemed properly horsey, our cleaner has two, they cost her £90 a week and that is on the cheap, doing most of the work herself.
I think horse people live and breathe it, its in their blood, like cars are for us, but if you can avoid it, I would, but it doesn't sound like you will be able to, the indoctrination has begun, before you know it you wil have a 1972 Bedford Lorry on the drive and will spend all your weekends in fields full of overprivliged kids !
My cousin is the only normal person I know that is Horsey and not over the top, she had one for 25 years that died and now has another, used to see her cruising down the side of the road on her horse, sat there, smoking a fag
and used to beat all the Carolines and Camillas at the gymkhanas as she wasnt a lump like most of them, a cheap horse, hand me down tack and a borrowed trailer versus brand new horsebox with living accommodation and all the stuff
My three have never been interested, my brother in law and his wife and kids have one each and their life revolves around it, their eldest when she was about five got booted by one, luckily it just grazed the side of her head, another inch or two the right and she would have been either dead or severely hoof damaged.
My in laws used to have horses and one booted my mother in law and mashed her hands so that was the end of that, I think they just kind of did it as they thought they should, never seemed properly horsey, our cleaner has two, they cost her £90 a week and that is on the cheap, doing most of the work herself.
I think horse people live and breathe it, its in their blood, like cars are for us, but if you can avoid it, I would, but it doesn't sound like you will be able to, the indoctrination has begun, before you know it you wil have a 1972 Bedford Lorry on the drive and will spend all your weekends in fields full of overprivliged kids !
My cousin is the only normal person I know that is Horsey and not over the top, she had one for 25 years that died and now has another, used to see her cruising down the side of the road on her horse, sat there, smoking a fag
and used to beat all the Carolines and Camillas at the gymkhanas as she wasnt a lump like most of them, a cheap horse, hand me down tack and a borrowed trailer versus brand new horsebox with living accommodation and all the stuffCrikey you lot are right grumpy bunch, I don't do horses my wife does & plenty of our friends do too.
Nothing wrong with introducing them at a young age, helps build small people into decent folks on the whole. Learn some responsibility, keeps them busy & will teach them some life skills. Far better than sitting in front a PC gaming like most kids do these days.
The risk factor grows when they start doing adventurous stuff like jumping. Though good friends of ours lost 3 family members eventing & racing, which is an exception & thankfully not the norm.
Nothing wrong with introducing them at a young age, helps build small people into decent folks on the whole. Learn some responsibility, keeps them busy & will teach them some life skills. Far better than sitting in front a PC gaming like most kids do these days.
The risk factor grows when they start doing adventurous stuff like jumping. Though good friends of ours lost 3 family members eventing & racing, which is an exception & thankfully not the norm.
If your in laws are paying and your not expected to invest any of your time then I don't see a problem. Maybe her age is a concern regards to safety but she wont seem so fragile forever. God help it when she starts brining boys home!
I'd love my boy to have an off-road motorbike as I always wanted one when I was a kid. Now I'm older I realise what a pain in the ass it can be to find somewhere to use it.
I'd love my boy to have an off-road motorbike as I always wanted one when I was a kid. Now I'm older I realise what a pain in the ass it can be to find somewhere to use it.
When I work in A&E x-ray there's at least one person a day who's injured their neck falling off a horse, at the weekend it's 3 or 4 a day. So far only one of them has ended up paralysed, but because she voluntarily removed the blocks before the results of her CT scan came through saying she had a C5-6 fracture-disclocation, and then instantly began to feel numbness in her arms and legs.
Dislocated shoulders and snapped wrists are more common that serious neck injuries. I'd never get on a horse myself though.
Dislocated shoulders and snapped wrists are more common that serious neck injuries. I'd never get on a horse myself though.
Edited by zeDuffMan on Wednesday 18th March 19:29
Some scary stats being mentioned, but are we not forgetting the daughter in question in the OP's post is 2 years old? She's not going to be hitting the eventing course in her air jacket and exposing herself to the risk of rotational falls just yet. Let's try and keep a bit of perspective.
My wife rode horses from aged 5, she fell off a horse as a teenager, the injury that fall caused has come back to haunt her.
A couple of, relatively, minor non horse related accidents means that in, now, in her mid 50s she will be in a wheelchair before she is 60.
To be fair she did, probable, fall off because she was taking risks - riding a 'wild' horse, thoroughbred nutter etc.
One of our friends is a 60+ female, must weigh at least 7 stone wet and rides horses nearly twice a tall as her and she is fit as a fiddle!
A couple of, relatively, minor non horse related accidents means that in, now, in her mid 50s she will be in a wheelchair before she is 60.
To be fair she did, probable, fall off because she was taking risks - riding a 'wild' horse, thoroughbred nutter etc.
One of our friends is a 60+ female, must weigh at least 7 stone wet and rides horses nearly twice a tall as her and she is fit as a fiddle!
Exactly. See picture above. To respond to some of the comments.
I live in a village. Loads of horsey twits around here.
Generally fat Lardy women who need cart horses to get around the place.
Village fields filled with knackered 4 x 4s and horse boxes whilst arabella trots around.
Don't get me wrong I'm all for using them. I agree with hunting for example. ( go debate that )
My sister has a farm and horses Etc for ambling round on.
But I've known folk into dressage and all that nonsense. My word .........
Anyway the question was: do you want Young kids on a horse ? My answer as dad of two little girls is no.
Ballet yes. indeed I went to see the Moscow ballet last week.
Very good it was too.
Nothing stank of horse s. Hit.
I live in a village. Loads of horsey twits around here.
Generally fat Lardy women who need cart horses to get around the place.
Village fields filled with knackered 4 x 4s and horse boxes whilst arabella trots around.
Don't get me wrong I'm all for using them. I agree with hunting for example. ( go debate that )
My sister has a farm and horses Etc for ambling round on.
But I've known folk into dressage and all that nonsense. My word .........
Anyway the question was: do you want Young kids on a horse ? My answer as dad of two little girls is no.
Ballet yes. indeed I went to see the Moscow ballet last week.
Very good it was too.
Nothing stank of horse s. Hit.
OH rides. Currently recovering from an unplanned swan dive off a nag (this particular one having a bit of history to it). Back on in a few weeks. I've suggested something docile, not the usual boggle-eyed, insane arab...
The kids have started lessons at the weekend, which they both seem to enjoy, my son particularly. Not cheap but pretty much guarantees good behaviour for the rest of the day. Fortunately not doing anything dangerous yet.
Biggest worry is the OH spending far too much time on the horsey Facebook pages (of which there appear to be thousands). At some point she's going to buckle and buy something.
The kids have started lessons at the weekend, which they both seem to enjoy, my son particularly. Not cheap but pretty much guarantees good behaviour for the rest of the day. Fortunately not doing anything dangerous yet.
Biggest worry is the OH spending far too much time on the horsey Facebook pages (of which there appear to be thousands). At some point she's going to buckle and buy something.
miniman said:
austinsmirk said:
simple answer is no. horse riding and that "set" of people is a world I want nothing to do with.
Nail. Head. Set of t
ts IMHO. There are those who are 't
ts' and up their own arse. For these people the horse is their world, and they spend loads on money on it, but never really look after them properly. Usually found on big, posh livery yards; often just coming down at weekends to ride their horse which hasnt been worked all week, and then they wonder why they are a bit flightly. The second type are very down to earth, more often keep their horses in smaller yards or at home. The nags are worked more often and are not just a weekend toy. Maybe being worked for something - hunting, jumping or whatever.
Condi said:
Yes and no. There are 2 types of people who deal with/have horses.
There are those who are 'tts' and up their own arse. For these people the horse is their world, and they spend loads on money on it, but never really look after them properly. Usually found on big, posh livery yards; often just coming down at weekends to ride their horse which hasn't been worked all week, and then they wonder why they are a bit flightly.
The second type are very down to earth, more often keep their horses in smaller yards or at home. The nags are worked more often and are not just a weekend toy. Maybe being worked for something - hunting, jumping or whatever.
That's very true. There are those who are 't
ts' and up their own arse. For these people the horse is their world, and they spend loads on money on it, but never really look after them properly. Usually found on big, posh livery yards; often just coming down at weekends to ride their horse which hasn't been worked all week, and then they wonder why they are a bit flightly. The second type are very down to earth, more often keep their horses in smaller yards or at home. The nags are worked more often and are not just a weekend toy. Maybe being worked for something - hunting, jumping or whatever.
These days the Chelsea Tractor brigade seem to have moved in big time. I live a couple of hundred yards from a country yard and most of the kids and parents are normal, hard working folk and mostly do all the work themselves. Many in crappy old Landies with a Lab or a Jack Russell kipping along the seats.
Another yard not far away seems all 'press-button' riders who only seem to turn up for an hour on a Saturday. They never wave a 'Thank you' for slowing down, they don't seem to show any emotion at all TBH. It must be some fashion accessory these days. I saw 2 just like that this evening. Stuck-up twunts. All the gear, no idea.
Melanie Reid, the Times journalist, broke her neck horse riding 5 years ago and wrote about it extensively. She is now a quadriplegic and has written about this topic - she said she would still recomend horse riding as an activity for any young members of her family.
I also recall reading about a young guy who broke his neck playing rugby and it left him completely paralysed below the neck. He comes from a rugby playing family and many of his family members still play.
I also recall reading about a young guy who broke his neck playing rugby and it left him completely paralysed below the neck. He comes from a rugby playing family and many of his family members still play.
Gassing Station | All Creatures Great & Small | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff