Wednesday 5 October 2016

When I grew up I wanted to be... #Blogtober16

I am taking part in Blogtober16 and will be writing posts with various themes/prompts throughout October....


When I was really small I went through a phase of wanting to be a teacher. I think most children do at some point in their childhood. I know my girls have. I used to play schools a lot and my girls do the same now....

Being a teacher wasn't my dream career though. As a child I loved horses.....I still do now but I no longer ride them....I lived on a farm and we had horses and ponies of all sizes and from when I was about 9 years old I really wanted to do something with horses....

I went through phases of what I wanted to do.....When my dad was buying and selling racehorses I wanted to be a jockey....My dream was to ride in the grand national. There was a farm near ours and they actually trained racehorses. They had practice fences which my friend and I used to jump over....We never got in trouble as the jumps were on a public bridleway....


When I got a bit older my dad would compete at showjumping events and I went along too.....Showjumping was a lot of fun....Remembering the course and the pressure was not....I also went to a lot of cross country events where the size of the jumps were terrifying....I wanted to be a three day event rider....The only part which let me down was my dressage. I didn't have the patience.

As I got older my dreams changed....I wanted to be a groom looking after the horses and their stables.....I ended up getting a Saturday job at some stables near where we lived when I was 12 or 13. In exchange for mucking out horses I would get riding lessons....

When I was about 14 or 15 years old at school we had to think about what we wanted to do when we left school and had the chance to go on work experience.....The school organised for me to go to an amazing riding school where I spent two weeks learning how the business was ran, mucking out horses and having riding lessons....I worked so hard they ended up giving me free riding lessons for months after.....It was the best experience.

After leaving school jobs were scarce and I decided to go to college to get a child care qualification in hope of leaving college and getting a nannying job somewhere with horses.....

I got a part time job when I was 16 at some riding stables for a man who was a horse dealer....He had lots of money but no clue about horses....He would buy horses then expect his minions (me and some others) to do all the work with them....Some of the horses he bought were horrible. I had a few bad falls off them due to him saying they were fine to ride when they actually weren't. I ended up losing my confidence....I ended up meeting a boy, left college before I received the qualification and barely rode again.....

Not the nicest ending but I do have some amazing memories from my horsey days.....It has taught me never to give up on your dreams though....I did and I do regret it.


12 comments :

  1. I went to college to do a childcare course as well! I did a one year course and got my nanny and mother's help certificate then started on the NNEB so I could work in a nursery but I didn't finish the course and got a job in a factory!

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    1. I ended up working in a factory too....Black & Decker, making power tools :)

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  2. oh what a shame it had to end like that, it sounds like you had the perfect upbringing to work with horses. x

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    1. I know...
      It was such a perfect upbringing!
      Thank you!

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  3. That's a shame him doing that made you loose confidence, I used to love riding

    #blogtober16

    Tasha x

    http://itsatashathing.blogspot.co.uk/

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    1. He was a truly awful man and just didn't care...

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  4. Ahh what a shame it ended up that way, I love these kinds of posts, I wanted to be a librarian, I think I thought I would be able to read all day!

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    1. It was a shame but hey, ho.
      Ahh! Reading all day sounds fantastic.
      Thank you!

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  5. Your horsey childhood sounds amazing. What a shame that a bad experience ended your horse riding ambitions. I did a little bit of pony trekking when I lived abroad but I was really not a very confident rider.

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  6. Its a shame that your confidence was knocked like that. I used to ride when I was young, but I had never had a lesson, I just got on and off we'd go. I loved it! I rode an ex race horse once, that was so fast and magical. Then I decided I should go to a "proper" stables and not just my local one. They gave me a pony called Fury. He was horrible, kept rolling and turning his head to bite me. I haven't ridden since. #Blogtober16

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    1. I learned to ride like that....My dad would just put me on and let me go. The best way to ride....I still had lessons as I got older just to perfect my technique.
      Ex racehorses are amazing...We had quite a few and I loved them.
      Oh no. That's such a shame about why you stopped riding. x

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