Yearning for the days of owning a horse and spending every spare minute at the stables? Forced to swap the yard for the office? Here are 14 signs you’ve gone too long without riding…
1. Seeing a police horse on the way to work is the highlight of your day — you pass extra slowly and breathe in the smell.
2. You dream about riding every night — usually with a bizarre twist like flying enormous hedges on your long-retired 12hh first pony.
3. You begin to miss-step the end of escalators — you’re out of practice at seeing a stride.
4. Friends who have horses are always at the top of your list of people to catch up with.
5. Your upper body strength has completely diminished. Nowadays, carrying files across the office is hard work — how did you ever manage all those water buckets?
6. Your fingers now remain soft and callous-free, meaning you save a fortune on moisturiser.
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7. Family and friends are stuck for ideas of what to buy you for Christmas, and now saddle soap and a new stock pin are out of the question, you cannot help them.
8. You irrationally panic that when you do finally get back on a horse, you will have lost the ability to do rising trot or ask for canter.
9. Early mornings start to become a bit of a struggle — 6am now seems like the middle of night, despite all the years you happily got up at 4am for shows.
10. You can no longer justify excessive horsey shopping, no matter how tempting that pair of yard boots may be.
11. Actually having the chance to sit on a horse is the highlight of your month… until the next morning when your aching thighs render you completely unable to move.
12. You boast tanned legs for the first time in your life, having actually exposed your pins to sunshine, rather than just the inside of jodhpurs.
13. You make plans to attend every equestrian event you possibly can. If you can’t spend your hard-earned cash on a horse, the least you can do is buy a ticket for every day at Olympia.
14. For the first time ever, it crosses your mind that you may need to join a gym.
If you are current without a horse and have other suggestions to add to this list, let us know below…
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