I just YEARNED for a pony.
A palamino , 15 hands high preferably, or a chestnut, second choice.
Never mind that I lived in a small terrace house with a tiny back garden and six siblings.
I would turn the draughty outside toilet into a stable, and save all my Saturday 6d’s so that, like Jill in the ‘Jill’s Gymkhana’ books by Ruby Ferguson, I would be ready when a friendly farmer offered me a spare horse to look after. And of course my mother would let me keep it because she knew I would get up at the crack of dawn every day to muck it out. ( A good horsewoman always puts the horses needs before her own.)
I really fancied a pair of jodhpurs too.
I bought a tin of saddle polish, (2/6d), ready for the day, from a startled ‘Field & Country’ shopkeeper, and tied a pillow over my headboard as a saddle, using yards and yards of string to fashion a bridle, snaffle, stirrups, girth and reins so that I could practice my rising trot, and mounting and dismounting technique. This lasted one long, magic, imagination-fuelled summer. Where was the next pony-club gymkhana ...because I was ready for my rosettes!
I still have ALL the Jill books, but alas, never even sat on a pony.
Ahh, happy days!