Am I imagining it but years ago we didnt have...

[Cortez]

I bought my very first riding jacket from Jakatex, I felt SO posh when I wore it, and I'd saved for 9 months to buy it too. My dear parents (totally non-horsey) bought me a pair of military surplus dispatch motrocycle riders elephant ear jodhpurs for christmas when I was 12; I was the laughing stock of Pony Club, but they lasted for years and were the toughest things ever made (I think they were actually WWII surplus).

 

[Tnavas]

I'm in my 60's

Our saddles were leather and many had Serge or Linen linings, you brushed the Serge and scrubbed the Linen then used Plimsol whitener on it. Some saddles has leather linings.

We didn't use numnahs or saddle blankets - only the wealthy had a sheepskin numnah. The saddles didn't have extremey deep seats so you sat around your pony not a mile above it!

The saddler declared that the kindest thing against your horses skin was well conditioned leather - without a numnah the air flows through the channel and keeps your horses back warm - the saddles fitted better as they weren't having to try and accommodate the gusseted panels. When you bought a saddle the saddler came out and measured your horse and then made your saddle to fit.

A velvet hat could be bought in many shapes and sizes and it was easy to get one to actually fit your head and stay on with no elastic.

Browbands came with coloured plastic sharks teeth or velvet if you had an extra bob or two. You could get string girths in every colour of the rainbow and plaited string reins to match too.

Pony's rarely got hard feed and if they got laminitis they were hauled up to the stable and boxed, fed bran mash and hay and frog marched until they recovered - horses did not get laminitis!

We fed straights and yes I remember bone meal or limestone flour for dealing with the high imbalance of phosphorous to calcium.

We did have sweet itch but it was confined to just a few areas of the country - grass staggers to Scotland, all horses arriving from Ireland were guaranteed to develop strangles within days of coming off the ferry.

Our horses stayed sound - they were fed less and worked more and were therefore much fitter.

We had two nosebands - Cavesson and drop - horses wore either a loose ring snaffle or an eggbutt. Standing martingales were common - breast plates were not!

Then came the Flash or Hanovarian noseband and the bit in fashion was a German Loose ring hollowmouth.

Then the horseworld went crazy! Lavenham made a synthetic stable rug quilted on the outside and brushed on the inside - navy with a red trim. I bought one for Zebedee circa '73.

Ah the good old days! I still don't own a saddle blanket or numnah - my horse is fed straights and to keep her slim grazed on billiard table grass.

 

[Tnavas]

Can anyone remember what that stiff paste you used to get for coughs was called? It came in a flat round tin. My pony could get a nugget of that out of the middle of an apple, nom the apple down and spit out a perfectly formed nugget of cough stuff...

Look what I found hidden away on my hard drive:



The smell of that mac will stay with me for the rest of my life!

I had the jacket and jodphurs - the first I'd ever owned they lasted well but the cut was dreadful!

 

[BigYellowHorse]

I have a wonderful book in my book case from the very early 1900's - doubt its much over 100 pages and covers every ailment with full in depth treatment for each and covers cows, dogs, horses and pheasants.

I have used a couple of the methods and found them to be very successful


Wish I was born earlier sometimes, I get the impression that there was less nastiness, although stricter but people had fun and enjoyed their ponies more... but then again is it just looking back and remembering the good stuff and forgetting the bad? Bit like when I think back to summers when I was a kid and it was constant sunshine, harvest teas and swimming in nanny's pool..

 

[saalsk]

I remember the stable rug from Lavenham - blue quilt, with the widest belly strap I had ever seen. In my memory it went from just behind the elbows, to just in front of the back legs, but I suspect in reality it was about 12-16". I remember sitting next to the washing machine with my fingers crossed that the cycle would end, and I could sneak it back to the stable to dry, before my Mum realised I was using the machine...

My stirrups were nickel, as was the snaffle. I still have the snaffle from my first pony - the joint, where the loops meet, is paper thin from wear. Luckily, I rarely had to put any pressure on it, as being 10-12 years old in the early 80's, I just galloped everywhere !

 

[Faithkat]

Harvest mites, Sarcoids, Grass sickness, Lice? And now garlic is bad so is hoof oil and so many more things or was I just so ignorant in my youth?

Owning a horse this time round has caused me to be a nervous wreck, and that's before being in the saddle

What we didn't have was dentists, 'back people', anything but a jute stable rug and canvas New Zealand, mixes and balancers or any of the plethora of feed additives and training aides that seem to be must haves now......I have never owned a body protector and my first hat was kept on by a length of elastic. The next one had a chin strap that actually went over my chin.

From a veterinary perspective we didn't have scintigraphy or MRI or even easy to access x-rays and ultrasound scanners or endoscopy, so lameness was dealt with by turning away for a good long time, and we never knew about kissing spines or ulcers - the things that everyone seems to suggest immediately for every ridden problem encountered these days.

I think things are generally better these days, but I suspect that having horses was a more limited back then and the people that had them probably had generations of experience behind them and more acres to keep them - hence it being easier to turn away for a good long time without any financial implications. I certainly think that a lot of mild lameness would probably go away after a year turned away without expensive scans and diagnoses.

Yep, I'm old too and agree with all of the above. Horses and ponies were fed straights too and I can't help but wonder if all the weird things that are fed these days have an effect that produces or contributes to all the sweetitch, sarcoids and miscellaneous other "common" problems. Since when was the rubbish left after the sugar is extracted from sugar beet, horse food? Copra meal - since when did horses naturally eat coconut??????
I don't ever remembe laminitis either but following a talk by my vets the other week, 90% of laminitis is caused by an under-lying problem and not necessarily the rich-grass-fat-pony syndrome so just what or why are there all these underlying problems.

I hesitate to say it but horses were treated like horses, i.e. animals that are designed by nature to live outside and cope with the conditions. It's a continuing mystery to me why people feel they have to rug native ponies!!!!!

 

[Tnavas]

Faithkat - sugarbeet has been fed to horses for decades - I remember feeding it in the 60's - then it was always molassed - we used it in place of chaff which for a time was extremely hard to get hold of unless you had a chaff cutter.

I too agree that horses and ponies suffer a great deal more these days because people over feed and underwork their horses. The feed companies brainwash them into thinking that they must feed these wonderful composite feeds.

Most recently a feed has been released here in NZ that has fibre in a pelleted form - all finely ground up! Wrote to them and reminded them what fibre in a horses diet was actually supposed to do! They have never got back to me!

We didn't have underlying problems and in the years I was in one riding centre we rarely had a horse go lame and these horses all competed or hunted regularly - all were stables all got sugarbeet and grains and were shod.

 

[Crugeran Celt]

Gosh Jute rugs take me back!

I still have my first ponies jute rug and surcingle, unfortunately I don't have that fab pony. If the winters were really cold I used welsh wool blankets under the jute. Those blankets are worth a fortune now and mine are covered in horse hair and are well worn. Winter turn out rugs were very heavy and had to be retreated regularly to keep them waterproof. I had never heard of grass sickness and my biggest fear was colic or laminitis. Good old days.

 

[Doncella]

Gosh!!! I never thought to see that old Jacatex advert again.

By gawd, look at the prices too!!

Their stuff was fantastic. Went on and on and never wore out. I had a pair of their "riding trousers" and they lasted me all through PC and onto adult riding, until they were so small they ended up just under my knees and I started wearing them with long boots!!

No wonder the company went bust I believe? Their stuff was simply too good.

Seeing the ad made me feel very old though..............

Mine was bought for me when it was £.s.d!!
Also the only fly repellent was Extra Tail and the only shampoo was Canter.

 

[JillA]

I remember you could only get sugar beet (shreds) through a farmer who supplied the beet factories with the beet - they got the pulp and you had to find one who would sell you a bag or three. Anyone in the Midlands remember Griffiths and Simpson? They used to make their own mixes long before the big feed companies got in on the act, I'm talking 60's and there weren't any molasses in their mix - just cereals (including flaked maize) and probably something like grass nuts.

 

[Champion1969]

Bloody hell "Flaked Mase" yep that takes me back.

 

[Tnavas]

Does anyone remember Molassine Meal - basically peat that was soaked in molasses - not sure why we fed it but we gave all our horses this every feed.

Sugarbeet I remember came direct from the SMB - Sugar Marketing Board - in big brown paper sacks.

 

[madmav]

I had a pony with sweet itch in the 70s. He was hogged and covered in benzol benzoate which used to strip my nails of the varnish that I loved to wear. Toxic stuff. Cured it, though.
And there were laminitic ponies on yard, that would be walked endlessly around by young helpers.
Just love the Jacatex ad. What a memory. Oh to buy some boots for a fiver.
Rugs are better now, though, you've got to admit that.

 

[Janee]

I love this thread.

When I was a very young girl!! I remember hacking to the blacksmith, the pony being shod cost £5 for a full set for the 13.1 hh and I think £5.50 for the 14hh, then hacking home at least 4 miles each way so that took half a day. Before we got a pony riding lessons £0.70 and £0.05 to hire a hat, we had a lesson once a fortnight and my parents wouldn't buy me a hat until I proved I was keen, which involved riding all winter whatever the weather and there was no indoor school.

Rugs? Native pony didn't need rugs, out whatever the weather unless he got cold when wet and we brought him in to dry off and get warm, now pony has a selection of rugs and hours spent checking forcast to decide rugging stratergy.

 

[Jericho]

I remember jute rugs, canvas NZ, £20 DIY cost and £30 for a full set of shoes, string girths and reins to match, and the new skull cap with chin cup, the holey sweat sheets. We did use to feed a pony nut complete feed and later a mix, sometimes with sugar beet and often a branmash.

Would be interesting to start a thread of things that haven't changed or developed much. You still can't beat the proper all in one over reach boot, the lynge cavesson hasnt changed although i ever usednit as found it cumbersome. nor do I believe we have created the perfect feed bowl or hay feeder yet!

 

[poops]

What a lovely trip down memory lane. I learnt to ride on a pony called Johnny! Suppose even an innocent name like that wouldn't be right now.

I remember going to the sewing shop to buy elastic to make a chin strap for my hat. Someone gave me a pair of those really old fashioned jodphurs, so hideous I can't describe them!

Any no it wasn't always sunny in the old days. I remember constantly being soaked to the skin.

 

[d_morrow]

Quilted Husky jackets in olive green, navy and brown. A woman at my yard still wears one!

And at riding schools - having to walk your horse/pony after lessons until properly cooled down. I now see sweaty horses just being chucked out in the field regardless of the weather. Agree with the person who said knowledge doesn't get handed down in the same way. Many new horse owners from non-horsey backgrounds haven't even been through the riding school route. One person recently asked me why I was treating my horse's foot. When I said she had a touch of thrush they were flabbergasted and asked if it was the same thing that women get...

 

[diamonddogs]

...Also the only fly repellent was Extra Tail and the only shampoo was Canter.

I remember Bloom shampoo! I knew of Extra Tail, but never used fly repellant.

I had the string girth and matching reins (bright blue) as well! My best friend had red, and one day she turned up with a bright red numnah - we treated it with some suspicion, and none of us could remember the word "numnah".

The saddle that came with my first pony had serge panels, and it was a ****** to keep clean and dry! What a relief to get a new saddle with leather panels, but the horror of new tan tack - it used to take months, if not years, of oiling and soaping to get it flexible and get that lovely rich havana colour. My friend and I constantly argued as to whether Hydrophane or Flexalan was the best for darkening tack!

I really miss straps and buckles on joddy boots. You must still be able to buy them, as a friend on the yard has a pair, but she can't remember where she got them from.

What was in your first ever grooming kit? I used to buy brushes out of my pocket money, so I tended to get what I needed, so I ended up with just a hoof pick, a dandy brush, body brush and curry comb and two sponges - one for the face and one for the dock. These days I can hardly do up my grooming bag for brushes, but only use... you've guessed it, hoof pick, dandy brush, body brush and curry comb and two sponges. But I bought a microfibre mop last summer and swear by it for that final polish.

 

[Ditchjumper2]

I got a Jacatex black jacket one year for Christmas. It had a red lining and I was so so excited to get it. I also still have it upstairs .

I remember going to the riding school as 7 o/c so I could help to bring the horses up bare bare in headcollars. Having a crafty canter too. Helped with the lead reins so could ride a pony bareback to the field.Was there all day with chips for lunch.

The hunters only ever had the ends of their tails washed if very muddy, everything else had to be cleaned by grooming.......you would never bath a horse. All hunters had their heels permanently greased with vaseilne to prevent mud fever. Anything slighty warm had to be walked and walked until it was cool and dry. Ears were dried with a special towel. Mud was removed with handfuls of straw. The hunters would hunt Sat do 3 hours work in the riding school on Sunday, have Monday off, 3 hours work Tuesday, hunt Weds, Hack Thursday and 3/4 hours trotting round roads on a Friday before hunting on a Saturday. They were really fit.

They all hunted in a snaffle, if it was strong it was a twisted snaffle and a drop...that was it. They all wore standing martingales.

 

[keeperscottage]

Tnavas - I'm nearly as old as you (I'm 58)! Back in 1970, a set of shoes cost thirty shillings (£1.50). I fed bran, chaff, oats and pony nuts which were delivered in hessian sacks. When I started riding in 1963, I wore Bedford cord johds, my hat had elastic under the chin, rugs were jute stable rugs and green canvass New Zealand turnouts. I had numerous matching sets of coloured string girths with matching velvet browbands, cotton saddle cloths and string reins. We put up with horses misbehaving without analysing their behaviour, we fell off, and got back on!!

However, I remember back in 1970 paying 5/0d (25p) for a bale of straw......but I only pay £1.50 today for huge bales of lovely barley straw and £2.50 for hay, so better value nowadays!

I also remember back in 1973, my mum gave me money to buy a Stubben Parzival saddle. I travelled on the London Underground into London and went to Gibbons(???) in New Bond Street to buy my new saddle, asked for a medium fit and that was it! No professional saddle fitter! My Stubben cost me £199 brand new! I thought I was the bees' knees with my new saddle!

I really think there are more problem horses today because there are more "numpty" riders - I have a livery yard and it's full of them! Everyone seems to have a problem horse whereas in my youth you were only too pleased to have a horse and you just got on and sorted it out! I know, I had one!!

I could write reams, but I'll shut up! The 60s/70s really were so much fun!!

 

[Tnavas]

keeperscottage - The shop was Giddens - I remember it well for I spent many lunch hours browsing and inhaling the leather smell! I worked in London in the early 70's. You must have been the first of the numnah users! None of our school ponies wore them - so much easier to tack up and no uncomfortable neddy underneath!

Ditchjumper2 - my first grooming kit came in my Xmas stocking - no I'd stopped believing by then but 'Mummy Santa' just loved wrapping and stuffing stockings. The Dandy Brush bristles were made from split hazel twig and the Body Brush was genuine pig bristles. Beautiful brushes.

I also remember never washing the horses - we groomed them clean - 45 minutes every day, they shone like polished wood. The hunters got baby oil rubbed on their bellies depending on which area they were to hunt in Bicester clay was evil stuff and I always clipped the horses the day before so the mud had nothing to attach itself to.

My mare was spoilt she got Kossolian V5M and also Super Solvitax in her feed. The others got just salt.

I loved the beautiful Witney blankets with their black and red stripes, held in place by an anti cast roller.

 

[d_morrow]

Oh no - don't stop kc! Tell us more. Love this thread!

 

[diamonddogs]

I could write reams, but I'll shut up! The 60s/70s really were so much fun!!

Don't you dare! You're a tiny bit older than me, so we'd have bought/used the same stuff I think!

 

[keeperscottage]

Tnavas - thank you......it was Giddens in New Bond Street! I still have (and use!) the Balding girth I bought with the Parzival! The horse I bought the Parzival for was the best horse ever and I owned the old girl for 22 years! I paid £165 for her in 1972 and thought I was ripped off!

I also remember shopping at Moss Bros and Swaine Addney(?) Briggs. I wish we could go back to those simple, carefree days! Loved reading Pony, Light Horse and Riding mags - recently bought a job lot of 1960s/70s mags on eBay - fab! Also have some early copies of Horse and Hound and my treasured April 1998 copies of H&H with the most fantastic photo of my daughter's TB, now 22, winning in the point-to-point at Fakenham!

 

[Tnavas]

Tnavas - thank you......it was Giddens in New Bond Street! I still have (and use!) the Balding girth I bought with the Parzival! The horse I bought the Parzival for was the best horse ever and I owned the old girl for 22 years! I paid £165 for her in 1972 and thought I was ripped off!

I also remember shopping at Moss Bros and Swaine Addney(?) Briggs. I wish we could go back to those simple, carefree days! Loved reading Pony, Light Horse and Riding mags - recently bought a job lot of 1960s/70s mags on eBay - fab! Also have some early copies of Horse and Hound and my treasured April 1998 copies of H&H with the most fantastic photo of my daughter's TB, now 22, winning in the point-to-point at Fakenham!

Balding girth - doubt if anyone else would know that name these days. I spent a lot of money in Moss Bros - they had a great saddlery department and I was working in Saville Row at the time, just around the corner. Bought my first pure wool day rug from Swaine Aidney Brigg - their shop was really quaint. I was so proud of that rug and then a few years later my brat of a mare shredded it.

I recently bought a Turf and Travel (Rex Bunney) Fulmer Dressage saddle - for sentimental reasons - the place where I trained was run by his wife. Doesn't fit anyone I have at the moment but the leather is still in amazing condition and the saddle would probably be in its 30's.

 

[siennamum]

I still have an original Lavenham rug with a broad belly strap. Useless thin thing it is.

Lots of things were better undoubtedly, horses lived simpler lives, but if a horse was naughty it was generally assumed to be behavioural rather than because the horse might have a physical problem. It's far better now that we assume a horse is in pain if it plays up.

We did have back people back in the 70's - it was a complete dark art but regularly used in top yards. We used to use Ronnie Longford. We also had EPSM, we had a mare with it in the mid 70's, she was later diagnosed also with arthritic lumps on her spine - which sounds awfully like kissing spines.

We bought ponies from the sales and so saw all the horrors, sweetitch was perfectly commonplace, very undesirable as there were fewer ways to treat it.

no-one rode coloured horses and horses with hairy heels were considered common. Cobs had to be shaved to within an inch of their lives.

People absolutely bred from anything with a uterus, there was a commonly held belief that mares had the advantage that if they went lame they would still have a job as a brood mare.

 

[MiJodsR2BlinkinTite]

Gosh am lovin' this thread........ takes me back, i.e. "Balding" girths, NZ rugs, Jute rugs, nylon girths etc etc.

Something (if my memory serves me right) we didn't have years ago, was people riding horses way above their ability; or at least it didn't seem so....... back then, if you had a warmblood, TB/Arab or whatever, you had the ability to ride it. Now, there seems to be a proliferation of "problem" horses, mainly because people are buying TB's because they think they'll look good on them, rather than because they can actually handle/ride them safely.

Most TB's then were kept either in hunting yards, by showjumpers/eventers or racing stables, where there were people that knew what they were doing. The horses were never allowed to get out of hand, thus there weren't so many "problem horses". There didn't seem to be numpty people with little or no experience, over-horseing themselves as so frequently happens nowadays, then its all the horse's fault and they just sell it and get yet another "problem horse" to follow suit!!!

Most kids that rode either did so at riding stables, or if you were lucky enough to have your own you'd probably have a native that would live out and thus get rid of its high spirits that way. You certainly wouldn't be expected to "go on to horses" until such time as you were old enough to ride in long boots!!!

 

[Tnavas]

An equine physio said to me recently that if people strapped their horses like they used to she would be out of a job! It's true - we massaged many of the horses aches and pains away with the body brush.

Horses were fed less and far more appropriate foods so didn't misbehave as much

siennamum - EPSM is a genetic problem so not a sign of the times

The vet Stuart Hastie used to work on the horses backs too (76 - 77) - I sent my lovely TB mare to him following a rotational XC fall - if I'd known then what I know now I would have taken her to him weekly until sorted.

The Lavenham was thin but then we didn't rug our horses to such a degree then. It's only problem was that you couldn't put a blanket under it in winter.

Only horses in hard work were given a full clip - and we always left on legs and a saddle patch. Ponies got a bib and lived out with no rug, some of the school horses got a low trace clip and a NZ rug to wear turned out.

The majority of riders only had one saddle a GP - only the very hard core professionals had a dressage or jumping saddle. They were certainly easier to fit without all the extra gussetted panels.

You could buy your bridle in pieces rather than a whole bridle just because you needed the noseband and it was ALL brown! A vivid shade of orange that the moment you oiled and soaped it would turn a beautiful mellow colour that stayed that way. Not like the black we have now that fades to a greenish colour over the years.

Black leather was considered inferior leather as the black dye could hide the blemishes whereas the brown dye couldn't.

The choice of leather cleaning was limited to Ko-Cho-line, Neatsfoot Oil, Flexelan or Hydrophane, Belvoir Glycerine or the dreaded tin of Saddle Soap - that left everything very gluggy!

Mucking out shavings was done with hands - it all washes off and I'm still alive! and a garden rake or if you were lucky a potato fork that weighed a ton - I chose hands and a bucket and rake. I love my plastic long handled shavings fork with a basket - makes mucking out so easy - friend still uses her hands - with no gloves!

 

[Gloi]

I'm just remembering the flat, shiny, half-panelled pony saddle mine and most of the other ponies seemed to wear. Mine came with my pony and I was glad when I eventually persuaded my dad to buy me a new saddle.

At the riding school I went to, chop was made by hand on an ancient machine with a big blade and a handle that needed someone to turn it. The kids that helped at the stables had to make chop for the feeds, in twos, one to turn the handle and one to feed the hay in. Not anyone's favourite job as it was hard work. H&S would not have approved though fortunately nobody last their fingers (That I know of!)

 

[The Fuzzy Furry]

I still have a good qual balding girth that was still in use up till around 18 months ago but now dont have a pony that size for it - given to me on my 10th birthday by Keith Luxford Does anyone remember him from old showing days & his saddlery shop in Esher?