The first time I brought Tursi home to meet the 'rents was during a Thanksgiving, and since my parents own horses, I got to take him horseback riding for the first time :)  The mare I was riding was really uppity that day, so I got to run her around the pasture a bit, which was a blast; it had been awhile since I had gone all out on a horse.  It was a good thing the horse Tursi was riding was really laid back, else it might have tried to keep up (and considering Tursi had never ridden before, that would have sucked!).