It's a horse thing

Beginning

~Above is me when i started taking riding lessons on the school pony My Lord~

I got the idea to do something like this from a book on horse rescues that i was reading and i thought, hey why not share my story. I don't particularly care if no one reads it. 

The first time i sat on a horse was in a park in Italy, Villa Borghese i think it was. They had a big carriage which was lead by 5 horses and 4 others were tied to the sides which you could ride. I always got a paint pony named Olivia. When we moved to Moscow i went to parks where they would just lead you on a horse or a camel, i remember a cute bay horse who was blind in one eye, i was amazed he was still able to be ridden. The rides only lasted 10 minutes max but it was worth it. At times my parents let me ride all the horses that were there (around 4). I also went to a couple of big shows where you could ride as well as watch the people competing, i didn't know what dressage or showjumping was at the time, i was there for the horses. The best bits that i remember is 2 out of 4 horses spooking and bolting in the dressage ring, i thought it was the funniest thing in the world. The last big show that i went to before i started getting lessons was in Italy, i got to ride a clydie. 

I don't know how but eventually i started getting lessons at a dodgy place near where we lived in Rome, i always rode a bay pony called My Lord (everyone called him My) or a little grey pony who was so lazy my legs were always sore after a ride on him. The lessons were fun but they only taught me how to ride, i didn't know how to tack up a horse or the different breeds or colors they could have, it was just get on and ride. So i was really amazed at the difference between lessons when i came to Australia. But before that happened, sweet old My freaked at something and threw me off the day that my grandma came to watch me ride all the way from Calabria (a good 5 hour drive to Rome). Needless to say i didn't get back on, it was my first ever fall from a horse i trusted my life with. MY parents, of course, were super worried as i have (ironically) horseshoe kidneys which, when i was little, was told a fall could rupture. I didn't get back on a horse in 4 years after that.