Another then and now thread

[diamonddogs]

I was up at the yard playing with my share mare this lunchtime. Her owner had turned her out in a rug because of the weather and the fact she's lame at the moment.

Anyways, it's getting close to time to go back to work, so I offered to put her rug back on before she was turned out again.

Bearing in mind it's over 20 years since I last had anything to do with horses, you can imagine the tangle I got into, trying to put this bloody rug back on. The fact that it had a neck attached to it didn't help!

During the fiasco I was telling the owner, a girl in her mid teens, how we used to go on back in the old days. She was aghast when I told her how we used to pile straw on a wet horse, secured with sacks and baler twine, to dry them out.

I wonder what she'd have thought if I told her about rubber riding macs!

Anybody else got some then and nows?

 

[Nailed]

lmao i have a pic to show you
This is Ted two days ago.. just before i put rug on lol

I also use iodine/sugar poltices.

Lou x

 

[carys220]

do people not thatch their horses anymore???

 

[skewbaldpony]

Of course we do!
I even contemplated a Kaolin Poultice the other day. Nearly gave some young slip of a girl a heart attack!

 

[louisem]

I got chucked off the lorry going to a show with my 'thelwell' pony cos my mum had made a rug from a tarten blanket with yellow satin binding!!! VERY traditional YO said it was an insult to the pony!

I wonder want she would have said to the Katie Price collection.

 

[Tinker_Belle]

I still give my horse bran mashes after a hard day.

Also know how to do Kaolin poultices & make a wisp out of straw. And yes, I still thatch ponio if she's had a hard workout

Her loaner is also the same! Poor pony is stuck in a timewarp!!!

My first pony had a blanket lined NZ rug. No fancy fibre filling etc, just plain old canvas with a blanket lining

 

[dozzie]

I have actually contemplated digging out the string vest sweatsheet this year.

Bran poultice anyone?

 

[skewbaldpony]

Now come on, bran poultices were always a bit of a b*gger even in the good old days.
I liked canvas NZ rugs though.
And rope halters.
And jute rugs. Oh I love jute rugs ....

 

[destiny11]

Remember my first horse had a jute stable rug, put blankets underneath depending how cold it was all held together with a roller

You had to get the knack of folding all the blankets back over the top of the rug nice and neatly.

 

[diamonddogs]

The stable-stained jute night rug!

Over reach boots that you had to stretch over hooves and nearly always punched yourself in the mouth!

Coloured string girths with matching reins!

 

[carys220]

.....

you've just shattered my world. I still have a tub of Kaolin, a string vest style sweatsheet, a jute rug and a canvas NZ. Not that I use them

they just clog up the barn!

 

[skewbaldpony]

See! You needed skill back then! And you could take a blanket off or put it on according to the temperature. Fond memories of chatting away to horses on cold nights as I whizzed round putting extra blankies on, and defrosting water buckets!

 

[Nailed]

oh i love my pull on rubber overreach boots. there what ted wera (pain to get off when he does his tendon!)

I have kaolin and i adore jute rugs.s.

My intention this year is to find a 'proper' NZ rug with spider fastenings!

Lou x

 

[destiny11]

Lol

Definitely was a skill to it. Used to have big bits of sponge too that we put under the rollers. No exercise boots, always used gamgee and bandages. Remember when the Coolmasta rug came out, couldn't wait to get one, especially as Milton used to model them

 

[help1]

OOh we have done this before......Jute rugs your could thatch underneath and fold the fronts up securing with a sircingle. The pride in a neatly secured Whitney blanket beautifully banked deep straw bed!

Jumping lessons with no reins or saddles jumping grids singing nursery rhymes. Living in fear of steel haired and voiced pony club instructors.

Got to say though new rugs are a revalation my poor ponies used to sort of shuffle in from the field at night in thier New Zealands where the rugs had slipped! And the new coolers are a vast improvement on those old mens vest type sweat rugs which seemed to grow to alarming proportions.

You can all join our clique below

 

[carys220]

OOhh I'm joining the clique but....why are dandy brushes in there? Have I missed something?

 

[diamonddogs]

I wanna join! How do I?

 

[help1]

Not sure exactly - grew out of another remincance thread Skewbald is our founder member so she may know why! You are welcome to join. Last week got some very stange loooks when I suggested using amoricaine (sp) on sore horses legs and chucking him out in the field - was told it was discontined years ago!

 

[help1]

diamond dogs just put it in your signature

 

[hellybelly6]

Oh the good ole days!

I remember when blue NZ rugs first came out - very fashionable and very sophisticated.

I also remember not having feed balancers or supplements.

 

[diamonddogs]

Oooh ta! Thought you had to join a group or summat!

 

[help1]

No although you may find we are quite a small group! Love your sig - My OH made me a CD and randomly (not sure how randomly really) mixed that quote in it!

 

[louisem]

I remember polishing leather rollers and breastplates and bandaging legs with cold water and vinegar -soaked gamgee after competitions!!!
What the h*ll happened to gamgee?Does it still exist?

We also used to have an oat crusher in the feed room!

And I still havent found a flemish translation for 'roughing off'

And I even remember having clean the under side of my saddle at pony club cos no-one had numnahs!(isn't 'numnah' a fab word?

 

[help1]

Agree numnah is a fab word (wonder where it comes from) and a fab invention used to be a nightmare trying to clean the underneath of saddles. Haven't seen gamgee for years. sj_mummy think you need to join our clique!

 

[skewbaldpony]

[ QUOTE ]
OOhh I'm joining the clique but....why are dandy brushes in there? Have I missed something?

[/ QUOTE ]

No, no. We just didn't have anything else in our grooming kit! A dandy brush and one of those folding hoofpicks. That was it.
Just one of the touching, quirky old traditions of this delightful clique!
Welcome!

 

[Weezy]

You had a choice of Cottage Craft or....Cottage Craft in blue or......red LOL!

I miss rugging up with blankets and back folding them, the horses DID look very smart!

Spending hours washing CC string girths with a hard brush and fairy liquid on the yard ground.

Orange bit guards.

Using lolly pop sticks, wrapped in vet wrap, as splints to put over gamgee and under bandages for exercising.

When shavings first came out we had NO idea what to do with them

I vividly remember the first time I saw mix LOL! And it wasn't that long ago (11 years!! Remember I am from Spain though!)

EVERY yard had benzo benzoate (sp) on hand for sweet itch.

 

[YorksG]

Who remembers scraping the underside of the saddle with a teaspoon to remove the grease, before you got going with the glycerine saddle soap in a bar?

 

[Persephone]

Ok you want to see thick straw bed with banks. I'm going to take a piccy of Star's stable tomorrow! You never know she might have a blanket in place too!

If stuff still works, what's the point in changing?

NB Anyone know where I can get a chaff cutter!

Jo x

 

[DipseyDeb]

[ QUOTE ]
Oh the good ole days!

I remember when blue NZ rugs first came out - very fashionable and very sophisticated.

[/ QUOTE ]

Oh god, I had one of those, I was the coolest kid on the block!!
and the thick straw bed...no such things as rubber matting then!!

 

[Persephone]

Do you remember how bad those Shires Typhoon rugs were when they first came out! Poor pony shuffling in because my fab new rug had slipped back and crumpled up. She was soaked all down her chest!

Jo x