My first horse was a shetland pony mare called Patsy, who had just had a foal weaned off her the first time I rode her at Pony Club (at the age of 3). The foal was in a yard at the top of a hill, and the Pony Club activities were at the bottom of the hill.
Patsy decided that she really wanted to return to her foal, and did so with me tagging along. Very fast. My father was on his thoroughbred mare, and he couldn't catch us! Until Patsy got to the yards at the top of the hill and stopped. The distance would have been about 1/2 mile.
I had been riding other horses belonging to various family members prior to this stage, however my favourite memory (would have been about 2 years old or so) was my father lassooing the top of a tall skinny eucalyptus sapling, and bending it down to ground level, where he tethered it. He then made a wooden seat in the shape of a saddle, and mounted the seat onto the end of the sapling. I would be placed on this seat, and my father would let the rope out and pull it back in... a bit like a swing. I would be so high that I could see the top of Dad's head, and it was like flying! Good memories......
