The time I almost got my first pony...

I've had a lovely morning at the stables today, spending time with my pony. Thinking of how lucky I am to own a horse has reminded me of this tale from when I was young.

I was a horse-girl through and through, long before I ever had my own pony to adore.

This story still comes up fairly regularly with my parents, so I wonder if this can get to the past owner of a 14.2 chestnut that was for sale around 20 years ago in the North East of England, advertised online, who played a pivotal part in ruining my childhood horse dreams...

To preface this: I'm not from a 'horsey' family. I was a very smart child, but there was perhaps a couple of gaps in my 7yo logic.

I'd been having weekly riding lessons for a few months by the time this story takes place. I had learnt to trot, but not yet canter or jump. I was a complete novice.

I decided, however, that I clearly knew enough to comfortably own my own horse.

We'd not long since got a family computer, and I would spend hours 'harmlessly' (or so my parents thought!) searching online ads for horses for sale.

I wasn't an idiot. I knew the budget wasn't huge (read: parents didn't know I was looking!), and it wasn't logical to get a horse from somewhere down south as I knew I wouldn't be able to get it here. I was a big kid, hitting puberty very young, so knew I would need something between 14-15hh.

I filtered by height, location, and price.

There was a lovely 14.2 chestnut, I believe mare?, advertised in Cleveland. Nice pictures in the ad, good description, local, and advertised for a very reasonable () £3,000 - sounded ideal! So, I pinged the seller an email. Lots of emails back and forth, and she asked for the address of where it would be delivered (very kindly agreeing to deliver the pony as I obviously had no transport!).

My plan (again, 7yo logic!!) was to get the horse delivered to my house and it could live in the back garden. We would then, as a family, make arrangements from that point. I think I'd told her to 'ask for Mandy' (my mum) when she dropped the horse off.

I don't know at what point they realised they were talking to a clueless child, but this was the point that my plan crumbled.

Now, I'm not 100% sure on the exact points in this next bit, but this is my understanding.

I believe they used the address to search the yellow pages, and found the house phone number. Somehow, they got in touch with my parents and explained "I think you have a child, and I think they're trying to buy my horse!".

My parents ended up with copies of all of the emails I'd sent, and they made the decision that, actually, we were not in the market for a horse (foolish if you ask me, there's always space for a pony in the back garden of a semi in the middle of a housing estate!!).

Anyway, long story short, I didn't get my new childhood best friend. Mam was fuming, dad was quietly impressed at my tech skills, given that at this point he wasn't entirely sure how to even turn the computer on! I had to stop my riding lessons - I think they felt I was too much of a liability!

All's well that ends well. A few years later, I started riding lessons again, and dad finally agreed to let me get my first pony. When (actually) in the market for a horse, I noticed all the ads said things like 'no time wasters', and I was positively convinced this was because word had spread about that one 7yo kid who tried to buy a pony without her parents knowing...

The rest, as they say, is history, and I'm now a 26 year old fully fledged crazy horse girl. It may have taken slightly longer than 7yo me had hoped, but I finally got there in the end!