Back in the olden days....

To be fair..at 30 you would/ should remember quite a bit of the old stuff, it's only the last decade or so the horsey world has become so commercialised.
Pony club still do those bits ofmfelt don't they, the youngest daughter certainly had them sweety..
 
Yes I got my b test felt and see lots of pc kids with their felt on. And you didn't hunt without putting tails up. I had my pony at a hunt yard. This meant I had to have at least 3 Tuesday's off school per season to do gates. ( age 13 on my own!) hunters were turned away in a field down the roads and fittened with proper walking out on the roads. Horse and pony magazine every fortnight! I had a stinky John partridge wax jacket too, and show jackets handed down from a customer of my father's.
 
I'm a bit worried about some of the gymkhana stuff with my arthritic knees but I reckon I'll be up against people much the same, maimed with untreated riding injuries since it would have been a sign of weakness to admit to a broken bone or three.

I remember my riding teacher's disgust at our lack of suppleness - she reckoned that when she was a teenager she could snatch up a hankie from the ground at canter from her 15.2hh. We were all threatened with having our saddles removed for lessons unless we bucked our ideas up :(
 
I'm only 31 & remember loads of this stuff. A lot of 60's & 70's stuff was still around on yards when I started mid eighties, & certainly a lot of secondhand books I had covered stuff that was older practice, & many older owners still did similar things to what they had in the past. A lot of old ponys even in the early 90's still had tack from the 70's.
 
YorksG said:
If we are truely returning to old form, please can I be with the other small girls at the back, while the bigger and more sensible girls with their hair in nets, ride at the front? Then we can hold the ponies back a bit on any trots and canter to catch up :D We will still be turned out properly though. :)
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Brilliant !
Thanks for reminding me about the holding back and then cantering.

Love this thread.
 
debsg said:
I still have my mum's old Pony Club tie and badge which she used in the fifties and I used in the late sixties and seventies. I used to clean my tack with this awful yellow saddle soap that blocked the holes in your bridle. Thanked the Lord when glycerine soap arrived! )
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LOL the yellow saddle soap!! How could I forget. I think it was a Carr Day and Martin one and the lid was always a real sod to get off. It smelled really rank and was extra squidgy if it was hot. I always used to use one of my mother's baking skewers to clear the holes in my tack. Later on my mum practically remortgaged our house in order to buy us some Stubben glycerine saddle soap. We thought we were the bees knees using Stubben!

I have also just remembered building straw tunnels through the stacks in the barn. They were so dangerous but the most enormous fun. Particularly good with a right angled 'turn and drop' as you crawled through the tunnel. You could either build your own up near the top level or ask whoever was mechanically stacking the bales to 'build' a tunnel as they stacked the bales right through the middle. It all makes me fell slightly ill thinking about it now. And I would have a blue FIT if I thought any of my children got up to that sort of thing now. In fact I'm amazed I'm still alive!
 
I was only going to bring sixpence for the GPO telephone box - can I still come? I had a yellow hairy polo neck jumper (itched like hell) with woven balloon jods. I'd forgotten about the elastic hat band under the hairnet. I also used to wear a scarf under my hat a bit like the Queen I think!

For the younger ones to join us I think they have to translate the Jacatex ad into "new money" He he.
 
If you put the old yellow saddle soap in a saucepan and melted in down and then added some milk your tack would come up very shiny, ideal for hunting boots.
 
Derri Boots!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I forgot Derri Boots!! Anyone remember them?? The first 'wellie' with an insulated lining and laces in the cuff round the top! The boots that were supposed to keep your feet warm and toastie in the coldest of weather,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,but,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, they were nylon inside, which meant that ya feet sweated more thus becoming hypothermic!!!!! P.s, I do actually still have a string girth, a new one mind you! :D
 
PLEEEEEEEZE can I join? I have a chaff cutter! You are all welcome to come and use it. You'll have arms like weight -lifters. My horses arnt rugged and I bed them on deep barley straw beds and have triangular hay racks too.I have leather headcollars. I feed oats bran and sugarbeet as well as soft old pasture meadow hay made with our own small baler and 1969 tractor. I dont have a menage.
 
Horsesforever1 said:
PLEEEEEEEZE can I join? I have a chaff cutter! You are all welcome to come and use it. You'll have arms like weight -lifters. My horses arnt rugged and I bed them on deep barley straw beds and have triangular hay racks too.I have leather headcollars. I feed oats bran and sugarbeet as well as soft old pasture meadow hay made with our own small baler and 1969 tractor. I dont have a menage.
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A chaff cutter :eek:, you're definitely in!,
 
Horsesforever1 said:
PLEEEEEEEZE can I join? I have a chaff cutter! You are all welcome to come and use it. You'll have arms like weight -lifters. My horses arnt rugged and I bed them on deep barley straw beds and have triangular hay racks too.I have leather headcollars. I feed oats bran and sugarbeet as well as soft old pasture meadow hay made with our own small baler and 1969 tractor. I dont have a menage.
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You can be our CEO, a chaff cutter.........wow, I have to have a lie down.
 
Hurray, I'm a member! Line up to start the Q for virtual chaff cutting. No nned to go the gym; save a fortune in fees;arms like Amazons;rollup! roll up!
 
Horsesforever1 said:
Hurray, I'm a member! Line up to start the Q for virtual chaff cutting. No nned to go the gym; save a fortune in fees;arms like Amazons;rollup! roll up!
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I have an idea, I have a vanner mare broken to harness, we could tie her to a handle on the chaff cutter, put a pole from the roller up her neck and through her ears with a carrot on a piece of string that she can't quite reach, she would then walk in a small circle for ever and cut enough chaff for all of us.

We can all watch her whilst we drink a nice bottle of bulmers.
 
AdorableAlice said:
I have an idea, I have a vanner mare broken to harness, we could tie her to a handle on the chaff cutter, put a pole from the roller up her neck and through her ears with a carrot on a piece of string that she can't quite reach, she would then walk in a small circle for ever and cut enough chaff for all of us.

We can all watch her whilst we drink a nice bottle of bulmers.
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I'd rather have woodpecker
;)
 
Derri boots, not sure I remember the name but I do remember some navy ones with yellow tops when I was little that had the string.
I've got a v old thelwell book, containing strapping, drenches etc. Brought it home how much things have changed when I had to explain a lot of the terms in it to daughter. Same with the Jill books.
Does anyone remember the cam mail order catalogue?
 
Loving this thread

xxMozlarxx said:
Skewbalds and piebalds????? Common my dear common! :confused::eek:
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I remember being at pony club camp with my first pony, 13.2 skewbald gypsy cob (bought because that was the cheapest type of pony you could get) and she had her head over the stable door . Instructor walked past, looked over they door and said "oh it's coloured" in a dismissive way.

Can I bring my bay tb (not a white hair on him) he wears a drop and gets fed bran though I was very disappointed that it came in a paper bag not a hessian sack these days.
 
I have three of the Pat Smythe Jump for Joy series - and several of the Three Jays. (think there were only three of them). Haven't read them for ages, must look them out tomorrow. Loved the vid of the gymkhana - I was the poor sod who dropped the spud, or couldn't get back on. They had musical hats as the veterans race at the end and I hated it because Mrs Clarke who owned the ponies let this 15 stone male friend of hers ride 'my' 13.2. They always won but she came back lathered and I cried.:mad:
 
I remember the CAM catalogue. It had everything in it from hoof picks, to stables to jumps. Used to spend ages looking through it, picking out all the stuff I'd get if I had a pony. Then Derby House (I think) bought them out and it was never the same. :(
 
They were bought out. Might have been by Olney actually. Must have been some time ago now. Catalogues just aren't the same anymore. Soon I expect, they'll all be gone, replaced by a myriad more online tack shops. :(

Just not the same....... *sniff*
 
xxMozlarxx said:
I think we should vet all younger members first to check they won't laugh at our tena ladies or p*ss off before checking everyone else is ready...
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haha tena ladies you must be rich i cant afford them i started riding in 1968 remember hitching a lift to the stables as the buses didnt run on a sunday and i was only about 11 remember helping at the stables all day just so i could get a ride even if it was just for 20 mins they so were the best days remember 1976 i was 15 then it was so hot we rode along the beach it was great no worries at all my mum taking me to get kitted out at the harry hall shop the feed use to come in proper sacks which we cut up to make bran poultices boiling the linseed,no suppliments never had the problems we have with horses these days one saddle fitted all no back people no dentists use to take the horses to the blacksmiths forge he never came to us and horse and ponies lived forever yes the very good old days
 
Oh immsomnia, this thread has kept me awake, just laughing at the memories it brings back. Does anyone remember having one of those browbands with velvet triangles all over them, or for day to day stuff, plastic triangles? I utterly coveted my Caldene leaflet, and then my Saddlemaster one, I sat and just looked at them and longed for my mum to buy me some. However, I did have a yellow ribbed polo neck jumper, cream jodphurs, Harry Hall long rubber boots, yellow string gloves, a lovely riding hat with blue and red silk lining which you could pull away to see the cork lining. However, my pride and joy were my two riding jackets - a black one with bright red silk lining and a tweed one - made by my clever mum. Heated conversations with friends on who is the most horsey.

I remember hot days at gymkhanas, musical statues, apple bobbing, bending etc. Lunchtimes at the stables sitting in an old trailer, where we wrote our favourite horses names all over the walls and got told off from the riding school owner. Best of all though, riding the ponies to their grazing, which was a 20 minute hack away on busy main roads bareback and with a headcollar on. Happy days.
 
Triangles! yes me, my pony's were blue and white plastic triangles. I later bought a posh velvet triangle browand for going to the local shows with,, I think it was red.
In ye olden days telly had good progs,like White Horses in the school holidays
On White Horses ,let me ride away........................
 
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