My Horse Riding Story | This Esme

[Music] my writing story actually starts before I was born as I was fortunate enough to grow up on a farm with three donkeys Bruno Toby and Willow play honestly can't imagine life without them however both of my parents are barely touched a horse let alone ridden one before they adopted the donkeys so I actually spent years asking my parents for lessons before I was finally allowed as soon as I could walk I would try and help my parents look after the donkeys the first time I ever actually sat on a wall to set a friend's birthday party as my parents always told me I was too young or too small to learn to ride at the age of five I started having riding lessons are local staples down the road and a Saturday morning I started of just being led around the woods however after a year I started to have lessons in the son school and was gradually taken off the lead rein and eventually learned how to canter and jump this gray hair is called Joey he was definitely one of my favorites when I was seven I had my first load pony could Bradley in return for keeping one our field I got to ride him for free however in the summer his owners used to ride him a lot so I started loaning Lola she was a little Welsh section a pony and on her and managed to do my first couple of shows these photos were taken when I just turned 8 we mainly did a lot of showing together however as she was quite young she was a little bit spooky at the end of the summer we unfortunately had to stop loaning her as she went lame with laminitis and at the end of 2009 Bradley's owners ended up moving yards and selling him so I was pony loose enter Mickey a 10 year old 13 hand pomelo gelding after one month of loaning him my parents decided to buy him and I still had this little guide today you might not have been worth much but to me he was the perfect first pony he was never spooky in traffic and always loves going on hacks or trail rides after a year of owning Mickey I started to have lessons with my instructor that I still have today and in 2011 we did our first ever pony club camp together we had loads of fun and learnt so much which is also great for my parents being non equestrians as they got to learn loads of things along the way [Music] [Music] unfortunately in the winter we could only really ride on the road as the fields were too muddy however I did manage to continue having lessons with my riding instructor in her son's school so we were still able to canter and jump the next summer Mickey and I did our first-ever show together and surprisingly came home with the trophy and a couple of rosettes in the summer of 2012 we did our second junior camp together and had an amazing week as well we might have fallen off a couple of times Mickey might not have been built for sure jumping however he always tried his hardest especially when we did our first cross-country together however at my second camp I found Mickey's passion for mountain games was never spooky with any of the equipment and he might have not been the fastest however slow and steady wins the race in the winter we started training off to school with our pony clubs Manta games team as well as doing lots of packing together and continuing to have lessons every Saturday with my instructor in the summer of 2013 I started doing a lot more show jumping at home with Mickey as we made some jumps out of old tires and locks and it definitely became one of my favorite disciplines Mickey might have been the easiest with bucking a lot however he is definitely the funniest horse I've ever met and has a great personality in 2013 we did our third and final camp together unfortunately I started to outgrow him and became a little bit too big for him so at the end of the summer my parents and my instructor told me that I had to start to look for a new horse this actually really upset me as I loved Mickey so much and I couldn't imagine life without him high over sixty centimeters was his max and I knew I had to get something bigger I had the choice of selling Mickey and getting a horse that was well trained however I loved Mickey so much I couldn't part with him luckily I was able to keep him however our budget for a new horse was a lot smaller so while we were on our hunt for a new horse I continue to practice mounted games with Mickey and even competed for our Pony Club it took us over half a year to find a new horse as they were either out of our price range or had some sort of health condition so in the end we bought Casper a 15 hand seven-year-old gray connemara gelding it was actually born in Ireland and moved to England a year before we got him as he was young he was quite green as he had barely really been ridden that much and had only previously hunted in Ireland so he had never competed and never been to any shows before ever here are some clips of when Casper first met Mickey however I think he was a little bit more interested to see what the donkeys were as he'd never seen donkeys before our first ride had to be on the road as the fields were too muddy and Caspar wouldn't even walk past our stationery parked car so that was eventful Mickey and Caspar quickly became best friends and the fields then was so horrible and muddy I could barely ride him and it was even worse because at the beginning of 2014 the UK had major flooding in my first lesson with my instructor Caspar bucked me off twice then she'd gone and he bucked her off once and then we had to lunge him for the rest of the lesson looking back at these clips I'd forgotten how skinny Casper's and how little muscle he had and it makes me upset to think that he was even skinnier when he first came over from Ireland however we put him on a top line conditioning mix and started doing lots of pole work to help build up his muscles my instructor taught me how to lunge Caspar and we had to do this every single time before I rode him because he used to be so strong for me and I'd literally would just fall off him all the time Caspar was very unbalanced as he had very little muscle so on canter right he used to always be disunited [Music] here you can see Casper managed to get the right can't elite however he could only get this when we went over a jump and also what is my position in this I was literally trying to hang on for dear life after a month of t of owning Casper we took him to his first ever outing a pony club showjumping clinic I remember I had to approach all the jumps and trots as if not he would get too excited encounter and would just bolt off with me as he found going to a new place the first time very very exciting when we first got him he was a very very nervous horse so I think all of the spooking he did he did because he was actually terrified rather than him being naughty as the months went on Casper continued to gain weight and muscle which was excellent and we definitely started to progress in 2014 we did our first ever camp together which was also my last junior camp as I was old enough to go to senior camp however as I hadn't had a Casper long we thought it would be more sensible to do one last year of junior camp and in that week I really got to know him and we had so much fun however my first year of owning Casper wasn't easy at all he used to box spook and bolt with me all the time and at the beginning of 2015 my parents had to sit me down and talk to me about getting a new horse and getting rid of Casper's they couldn't keep seeing me get her but selling Casper was the last thing I wanted to do instead I persevered and kept going I didn't want him to think I'd given up on him so instead of buying a new horse we put the money towards building an arena this meant I could ride him and not more often rather than just a few weeks in the summer when the ground was dry or every now and again when I could with my instructor keeping Casper was definitely one of the best decisions I've ever made in my life as I don't know where he would have ended up if I had given up on him as I loved him so much every bolt I would ride through it and every buck I would sense as I was never gonna let you go and over our second year together we managed to jump fences I never thought was possible we continued to progress more and more each day and I honestly can't thank you enough for making me the rider I am we did our first ever senior cap together and we might not have been perfect but we were a lot better than I ever thought we would be we started to go to a lot more outings together including cross-country training with the Pony Club and each time we improved more and more in the summer of 2015 we did our first ever competition together we might have just done the 60 century to show jumping class we might have gone clear but to me it was a massive achievement at the end of 2015 we did our first-ever Pony Club show jumping competition well there Casper bucked me off twice in warmup we managed to come home with second and third place in the seventy and eighty centimeters and that was definitely the proudest moment of my life as people could see their castles in the same horse that he was so many firsts for him [Music] my third year of owning Casper in 2016 was a great year we became a lot more confident with jumping larger courses and did a lot more cross-country practice as well which Casper really really enjoyed and we also got to compete a lot more together at the beginning of 2016 I started to regularly post videos up to YouTube even if they were just little video editors filmed on an iPhone the videos might have not been the best of quality but to me it was a great way of tracking our progress and looking back on memories at the end of 2016 I started doing more requested videos such as vlogs or tutorials and from then on my channel has started to grow 2016 I also started to work really hard on Casper's flat work and we finally managed to get kin to write a Casper is no longer disunited encounter as he has a lot more muscle now we're able to work him in a much nicer frame in 2016 we also did our first ever dressage test and scored over 60% however there's still things that we need to work on in 2016 we did our third camp together and had a great time especially on the cross-country course which has beloved I even got to represent my pony club a hick stood on Casper which is one of the UK's most well known show jumping circuits we might have placed but it was still an absolutely incredible experience for our fourth year together in 2017 we might not completed much as I've had my GCSE exams as well as living on a building site and moving into our new house opposite the horses in October so unfortunately we didn't have enough time to take up a whole day to go to a competition still managed to go to a clear round and jump our first ever three foot course as well as jumping PE a hundred fences at camp we are now jumping courses in meter high and I honestly can't believe that you're the same horse I brought home when I was only 12 years old and now I'm almost 17 I can't wait to see our progress over 2018 together if we decide to do a venting or show jumping hopefully we'll be able to compete more together this year however with a levels and horizon it might be a bit more difficult and not even a thousand rosettes will make me as proud as I am today of how far that we've come together so thank you Kasper for making me who I am today and thank you Mickey for giving me confidence when I most needed it seeing how far Mickey and I had come together really made me see the light at the end of the tie with Casper when I got Casper I started to do a lot more tacklers riding with Nick you know honestly trust Nicky with my life as he is the most chilled out foolproof pony ever although I don't ride it was often with his age and respiratory problem over he really enjoys doing a bit of tacklers riding or going on hacks or trail rides every now and again and as soon as I found out about bitless riding from YouTube with an bitless together ever since maybe one day I'll say the same for Casper but while we're still competing he'll be staying in his snapple to this day I've never sold a horse and I'm so grateful to have both of these boys in my life I don't know what the future will bring but I'm excited for it nonetheless so that's my riding story so far and thank you for joining the journey along the way and I can't wait to see where it takes us [Music]

Channel: This Esme

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Keywords: horse, horses, pony, ponies, ponys, equine, equines, equestrian, equestrians, barnvlog, barn, barntour

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Length: 11min 58sec (718 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 05 2018