Do you remember when ...?

[abina]

First Riding lessons were £1.10 per hour ! - Even I'm shocked ! as I am a RS owner and charge now £27 ph group lesson !

Jods were only cream - no other colour - Velvet riding caps with elastic which you cut straight off as It was so uncool first one cost my mum £20 which came from a gentlemans outfitters up in Old Town, Swindon, a Christies hat if I remember rightly-

Puffa was THE garment to have a must for all serious equestrians. Jute rugs, Thatching with straw to dry off and Canvas New Zealands if you were lucky / posh !

 

[stroppy]

I remember paying around £50 for a full set of shoes, this week my farrier went up to £70

I still do pay £50 a set, My farrier is a friend i've know for a very long time.

 

[Lexie81]

My first pony's livery was £11 a week for a stable and grazing, all hay and straw and all feed and wormers!! All i had to do was pay for his feet to be trimmed as he didnt wear shoes and i think that was £9!! Y/O used to feed, turn out and bring in for me too....so cheap I was i could find a deal like that nowadays!!

 

[DiamondSR]

I also find it sad that my kids will never experience geting up at dawn on a sunday, throwing some sandwiches and drink in a battered old rucksack and heading off on the ponies for a DAYS hacking. No mobiles, no parents just great fun. I'm talking 60's here.

Why won't they?? I used to do this with my friend and that was in the early 90's, see no reason to not keep doing it now! Although always talked about doing it more recently as a grown up but too hard to justify a whole day hacking when so much other stuff to get done :-(

 

[MagicMelon]

Only things I can remember are when hay bales used to be £1.50 (now £2.50/£3) and when entry fees used to be about £4 for a SJ round, £6 for dressage and £15 for an ODE - now I have to pay £6-£7 per SJ round, £10 for dressage and £25 for an ODE (unaffiliated - the cost of affiliated BE & BSJA is horrifying)!! I'm not even that old (27!).

I also remember those days when I used to go off on my own or with a friend hacking for hours, into the forestry on a summers day with a packed lunch. Loved it. I was only 9 or 10 back then but thought nothing of it! Nowadays I dont even hack anymore

 

[Heidi Horse]

I got my first pony 21 years ago. It was £6 a week stable rent (DIY), £1 for hay and 50p for straw. Our farrier used to charge £2 a shoe and we used to ride to his forge up the road The bane of my life was wrestling with canvas new zealand rugs!

Still have the same pony now but she costs a damn sight more to keep!

 

[marinitagsd]

I can remember back in 1979/80 my Mum bought me a 7yr old 14.1 fell cross for £350, he was a super pony! Shoes were £20 full set, DIY stable was £3.50. We had to get the hay and straw off the owner at £1 for straw and £2 for hay!!

 

[eggs]

Hell fire, how old are you ??? - That is a rhetorical question by the way .

Tee hee certainly old enough that being able to vault on bare back is just a dim and distant memory !

 

[superted1989]

Local riding schools didn't have a menage at all, although some had a grass 'ring'. Myself and peer group at the time, learnt out hacking, on the beginners rides (first few goes on lead rein!), it was 75p an hour. My first pony was a lovely 2 year old New Forest filly, non-horsey parents + 11 year old horse mad daughter madness. She was brilliant though, £12 a week full livery until I was capable of DIY (and got another horse) and it was £7 a week, £1 for hay and 50p straw (shavings free if you went to to wood place and bagged them up). We hacked to shows and hunt meets (often across the floating bridge at Cowes), I didn't know anybody with their own transport.
The summer before I was 15 (1982!!) I was desperate for a particular saddle, parents said I could have it if I didn't have anything else for Christmas and birthday (birthday in November). It was £225, I sold it with the pony it was bought for when I was 18, that pony passed away in 2001, saddle was then sold on and is still a regular on the Isle of Wight show circuit!! However, the year of the saddle is the only time in my life I have woken up to nothing on Christmas Day