Back in the olden days....

When we used to jump off the top of hay stacks. Keep horses out 24/7 in huge meadows with the cows. Boil Barley in the kitchen and stink the place out. Cycle to the yard and back with my saddle over the handlebars. Hack everywhere. No traffic on a sunday...................
 
Yes ! Horse kept with cows ! My riding school was also the local small dairy for the village, about ten cows kept and we had to extract "our" pony for the lesson from amongst the cows.
Happy days !
 
I've only returned to horses in the last few years after twenty years off, and was amazed to find that people now put shoes on ponies, and rugs on horses that aten't clipped!

My poor mare is very hard done by: she is not clipped and only has one turnout rug which she wears if it is minus, goes out every single day, and when she comes in she has a straw bed, eats hay, nuts and, in winter, sugarbeet. I flatly refuse to pay ten quid a bag for chopped up straw and treacle! She seems happy enough! Pretty confident she'd bite me if I approached her with a string girth though! Sadly my velvet hunt cap (with flexible peak) had to be retired as it went mouldy due to being taken off and used as a container for blackberries... (note to younger generation: this is a type of fruit, not a smartphone)!
 
I think I might qualify to join - I started riding in (gulp) 1959. Way before my pony had the luxury of a jute rug I remember thatching him by cutting open a hessian sack (and I haven't seen one of those for a while) and tying it on/ round him and the straw with baler twine. I think this was either mentioned in the Pony Club manual (blue book) or the Pony Club Guide to Keeping a Pony at Grass (yellow book). These were my bibles. Hessian sack were also useful for bran poultices.
 
Ollie's Mum said:
Ah but there's olden and there's really olden! Jods in my day were brown cavalry twill with puffed out thighs and suede kneepatches. Cream jods - especially in stretch material were a way off at that point! :D
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Here we go again, my first jods were rigid beige cord then I graduated to cavalry twill with the knee patches.
On my landing bannister rests a rigid tree, straight cut, half panel saddle.

The only nosebands were cavesson, drop or for hard pullers kinetons and all bits and stirrup irons were nickel.
 
If you were wanting to use a gadget to school a horse, you could look no further than the Abbot-Davies Balancing Rein Kit. Available with either plain or rubber reins. There seemed to be an ad in H&H each week, expensive piece of kit too.

Does anyone else remember those schooling numnah things? Think Masta made them but I'm not sure and it's driving me nuts trying to remember what they were called!
 
I bought a jute rug from eBay only about 4 years ago. I was gutted when the boy outgrew it.

We thatch sometimes and use straw to wipe them down if they're very wet/sweaty.
 
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The abbot-davis, lol. Came in its own pe kit style bag. And no-ones horse got ruined by it either. After you'd spent a few hours trying to figure out what went where you put it back in its bag & never managed to untangle it again.
I remember the numnahs, sure they had d-rings on to attach something to but can't remember the name or what they were meant to do.
 
littlelegs said:
The abbot-davis, lol. Came in its own pe kit style bag. And no-ones horse got ruined by it either. After you'd spent a few hours trying to figure out what went where you put it back in its bag & never managed to untangle it again.
I remember the numnahs, sure they had d-rings on to attach something to but can't remember the name or what they were meant to do.
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Think they attached to the bit with something. Was it called something like a SchoolMasta?

Was a weird idea, but so were front leg straps, neither really caught on!:confused:
 
Well, I think we have alot of ideal members for the Old Farts Trot On Club.

We also have a few younger applicants who wish to join. I think we should welcome the younger applicants for the following reasons;

1. They will be able to get on and off their horses unaided, so us proper old
members can make them do gates and heave us back onto our horses
should we have a un-voluntary dismount. We can also make them get off
and help us with our stirrups and girths. As an older member I cannot
reach the girth on my dressage saddle.

2. They will be safety and first aid trained so they can carry oxygen and
plasters for us and electrolytes, leg ice and a magnetic rug for our
horses. Lets face it we are going out for a whole half hour, we need
plenty of assistance.

3. They probably won't mind putting an oldie on a lead rein if anyone's
horse has a fit of jogging or even worse, shies at a wheelie bin.


I am very concerned about the number of string girths that will be making an appearance and I must make the following elf n safety statement;

ANY OLD FART THAT GOES SPLAT BECAUSE THEIR TACK IS NAFF -SERVES YOU RIGHT.

Please can all ladies ensure they are carrying spare tenna lady supplies, we will need them when the string girths bust and we cannot control the level of hysterical laughing.

The venue for the whole half hour Old Farts Trot On Club ride has yet to be decided due to Government ensuring no one can purchase diesel, and as all Old Farts Trot On members are totally law abiding and would not dream of putting red in their trucks, the date will have to remain undecided for sometime.
 
I duly promise to help the older members, open gates from my pony, even if I jump it myself first without checking how safe it is, to take aforementioned members horses for a good gallop when required & if my first aid doesn't work to ring my mate with my 10p & an ambulance, in that order. Us younger members won't need transport to the venue, anywhere in the uk is only hacking distance for us.
 
littlelegs said:
I duly promise to help the older members, open gates from my pony, even if I jump it myself first without checking how safe it is, to take aforementioned members horses for a good gallop when required & if my first aid doesn't work to ring my mate with my 10p & an ambulance, in that order. Us younger members won't need transport to the venue, anywhere in the uk is only hacking distance for us.
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Membership accepted !
 
I'll pass a 5 stage vetting I promise, don't listen adorable Alice, please don't revoke my membership. I'm very mature, I think mozlar is maybe just menopausel ( sniggers, runs off to tell friends old people leak)
 
My mother knitted me a yellow jumper from some waterproof yarn called Mariner or something like that. It weighed a ton. And it wasn't waterproof - just oily. I loved it though and wore it for ever. I had a trial to ride for a lady who had 3 girls to ride for her. She couldn't have kids so took on 3 lucky ones and bought the ponies and took us to shows etc - can you imagine that now. I didn't have a hat so borrowed one for the occasion 4 sizes too big, elastic strap. The pony took off with me along a bridle path, hat bashing away on my back held only by the elastic which was steadily choking me. She took me on though - jumble sale bat wing jods and all and I had 4 years with her. Mind you it was 6 days a week - doctors note if you didn't go- we were terrified of her!
 
I could'n't afford a nice red worsted waistcoat for hunting, so I knitted one. eeks I must have looked a right prat, and I also had sort of "combinations" by Wolsey to keep me warm, thank goodness I never ended up in A&E.
 
bought a tb straight off the track three years ago , we pootle around the lanes , sometimes manage two 20 mtr circles in school and generally mooch around aimlessly as befitting our combined ages , there is one thing though i strained an unmentionable bit hacking the other day when danny spooked at a turkey in middle of road so grown up son decided he,d take him for a hack , poor horse has never been mounted from the ground ( i usually climb on water trough then heave myself on with a lot of huffing and puffing ) son duly sprang up on him and trotted smarly from yard , horses face was a picture , so were yard onlookers as son had on shorts, jod boots, hat , no socks and a very rude t shirt displaying half naked buxom woman


so ....... he says... can he go on old farts ride???
 
Wow this has brought back memories of more simple days! I found an old vulcanite Pelham in a box the other day, don't remember using it, or where it come from, but it looks like an antique! Also I miss my string sweat sheet and just walking into a feed store and only having a few choices.
 
maggiehorse said:
bought a tb straight off the track three years ago , we pootle around the lanes , sometimes manage two 20 mtr circles in school and generally mooch around aimlessly as befitting our combined ages , there is one thing though i strained an unmentionable bit hacking the other day when danny spooked at a turkey in middle of road so grown up son decided he,d take him for a hack , poor horse has never been mounted from the ground ( i usually climb on water trough then heave myself on with a lot of huffing and puffing ) son duly sprang up on him and trotted smarly from yard , horses face was a picture , so were yard onlookers as son had on shorts, jod boots, hat , no socks and a very rude t shirt displaying half naked buxom woman


so ....... he says... can he go on old farts ride???
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Absolutely he can, tell him to leave the top off and roll the shorts even shorter. The lady members of The Old Farts Trot On Club will come over all hot and bothered, but no worries they are equipped with lots of tenna ladies.
 
Hehe, I giggled so much. It did make me feel old though. I started riding when I was 9, the riding school I went to had the classic pony types - small and vicious, small and sleepy, medium and can jump with 'encouragement', medium and cobby, large and sleepy, large and scary. Most of them were hogged every summer only they left a handle on the small ponies so kids could hang on - a tuft half way up. Half the saddles were 10-20 years old and leather, flat, rock hard, no knee rolls and little bumps where the stirrup bars were (though smooth and flat on the bottom and reflocked underneath when necessary - the horses back is important, your @rse will recover :)). Nose-bands were cavesson or occasionally drop, bits were straight and vulcanite, single jointed and nickel and either snaffles or pelhams - one pony out of 40 odd did have a french link though. Stirrups had no tread and wrapped leathers for length. Rugs were only for clipped horses in the winter and weighed a ton, we washed them with brooms and hosepipes. Feed was 'nuts', sugar beet or straight barley (and only for the horses, ponies don't get hard feed). Everything got turned out whenever it wasn't being ridden.

I went on bareback hacks, jumped with no reins, jumped bareback, jumped with no stirrups, learned side saddle, went on beach rides and had an amazing amount of fun and learnt a heck of a lot. The horses and ponies were sound, healthy and solid. I miss that place.

I am only 24. :P
 
This is brill, so funny I keep getting flashbacks. Talking of feeling old, I just realised I qualify for (veteran) in our local x country I am 43!!!!!!!:eek:
 
All you daft old beggars, have you forgotten those red and blue webbing overgirths? I'm bringing one, no fear of my saddle leaving the horse when my string girth goes snap :D

Going to put exercise bandages on my horsey, ones with the tape, obviously. Might put a pair of porters underneath, think that's what they were called anyway and my lovely flappy Westropps! :p
 
Will the horses we hack out on be proper colours like in the olden days?

I don't want to insult anyone by calling their cob a skewbald instead of 'dun and white' or saying piebald instead of overo or tobiano.

I can show myself up anyway without these extra worries.
 
I will be wearing the same as beausmate, except I will be using a browband I made myself with velvet ribbon from a market, & a nasty foam filled numnah covered in really cheap squashed furry fluffy stuff. And I will sew on my exercise bandages.
 
connieconvert said:
Will the horses we hack out on be proper colours like in the olden days?

I don't want to insult anyone by calling their cob a skewbald instead of 'dun and white' or saying piebald instead of overo or tobiano.

I can show myself up anyway without these extra worries.
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Don't you worry, all entertainment will come from me and my bay gelding who will not go anywhere near anything that resembles a cow.

All strange coloured horses will be at the rear. My poor horse (Selle Francias, never seen a cow until he came to Uk) has never got over having to stand by a Hereford Bull in the grand parade at a County Show. He lives in prime beef country and still faints if a cow dares to look at him. He is 19 so I have given up kidding myself he will get over it.

He and I willl have to be lead by 2 younger members of the club, one each side, hope the leaders don't have a funny coloured horse............
 
Oh dear Adorable Alice but *sucks air in between teeth* - Selle Francais :eek: is this a new fangled breed? What will the Vanners say?
We can't have any KPWNs or Pre horses, whatever they are.
You can't look at a Selle Francais, slap your thigh and say "he looks like something I used to hunt before the war" - what ho"
 
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