We caught up with several NRHA members to ask if they remember the first horse they every owned.
Shane Walters
My first horse was a little POA pony. Its name was Whitey. It was the best thing that ever happened to me…or the worst. However, you want to look at it. He was great, but he got me addicted to horses and there was no looking back after that. So that was the end.
Matt Palmer
My first horse ever was Fancy Pants. He was a pony that I showed at the Devon Horse Show when I was two. He was my uncle John’s horse. He was actually a blind pony. He was pretty special. He would go anywhere I took him, any trail, anything. He could even go over logs and things. He just had the sense. He was incredible. He was really neat because my uncle had him when he was younger, and I think Fancy Pants lived until he was like 31 or something like that.
Jessicah Keller
So, my first horse was actually my mom’s when she was a kid. We went and bought him back for me when I was little. His name was Bull Ben Moore, and he was a quarter horse. I showed him in halter and in the walk trot. And my mom actually made him an AQHA champion when he was like 18 years old after we had bought him back, so that was my first show horse
Casey Hinton
I do. It cost a hundred dollars, and I was nine years old. We named him Johnny. I took him in 4-H to the county fair when I was ten, and he was maybe three. He was unregistered. He was gentle enough. Later on, my dad pulled a buggy with him, so he was broke to drive. He did parades with him and stuff like that. That was my first one and I won my first trophy with that one. I think it was probably in showmanship. He was a little green in the riding thing, I mean, he did it, but he was only three and I was only ten.
McKinnon Larcombe
He was a little Shetland pony. We had him in Italy when my parents lived in Italy. His name was Machista. He was a little, white Shetland pony, not the nicest of ponies. He
was quite ornery; I do remember getting bucked off a few times, but yes, a little, fat, white Shetland pony who was naughty!
Bud Lyon
The first horse that I remember was a paint pony that we called Red Fox. I know that I fell off of him at some point and smacked my forehead on the ground and I had a giant goose egg, like a horn growing right out of the middle of my forehead. When it drained, you know, when the hematoma went down, all the blood pooled in my eye
sockets and I had two big, ole black raccoon eyes.
Bobby Avila, Jr.
I had a pony named Starlight as my first horse. She liked to go home to the barn. So, I guess, I got into riding because I could keep her from going back to the barn. When we got her away from the house, with my sister, she would always just run back to the barn, but with me, I could control her and keep her away from the barn. I could feel her start to want to go there and turn her before she went back home.