Do you remember when........

[jsr]

I remember taking 2 american exchange students who were staying at my parents for a hack! These were the days riding schools let you just 'rent' horses and go for unescorted hacks, I was 14 and worked at the riding school at the weekends so they entrusted me with the 2 older lads!!

My ever lasting memory of this day was me frantically trying to catch them on my trusted Clydesdale as they rode western style (hatless, stirrups on the floor, reins handing, one handed) through my quiet little village screaming 'YEAHAAA' at the top of their lungs going flat out gallop in the middle of the road!!!!! They then proceded to mount the church steps, and gallop around the church yard jumping the grave stones!!!

Needless to say my name was mud for quiet a few years and my parents never allowed me to spend time with strange exchange students again!!

Must add... I used to ride with a friend who was in her late 60's (sadly passed away now...and so very very missed) and she was a bugger for 'finding' random jumps on our hacks! Found out later she would drive around the routes and make the jumps for us to discover. She is my hero, I can only hope I'm doing her proud when I'm her age and still 'finding' excitement with my horse.

 

[leflynn]

Jumping with no reins no stirrups, jumping bareback in headcollars.

Riding bareback holding two others to take them the 3 mile hack up to their field, wouldn't take tack as you'd only have to carry it back.

Hacking to the chipshop to get fish & chips, then hacking back to the yard with them at a fast trot as the smell made you starving.

Pitching the muckheap back in winter as it was the best way to get your toes less like ice (I used ot eat my pot noodle up there too )

Playing fake jousting with broom handles but actually really trying to knock each other off our ponies

We used to terrorise a couple who were clearly having an affair in one of lanes we hacked in We used to canter past knowing they'd be there and there would be arms and legs ago go followed by 2 cars rapidly driving off We thought it was hilarious

 

[skychick]

aged 8 i decided to take my pony swimming off herne bay beach , i was swimming happily alongside her when she decided to head off for france!! i swam back to shore and phoned the coastgaurd they didnt believe me , i had to drag some random bloke into the phonebox to tell them i wasnt having a prank and there was a small grey pony at least half a mile out!!
inshore lifeboat attended and swam her back to shore for me , i thought i,d not tell my mum lol , the following week there was a double paged spread in local paper and i got my bottom smacked

that is hilarious!!!

 

[sally2008]

Hacking down to the M25 construction works, playing mounted hide and seek amongst the diggers and tipper trucks and racing between the bridges (before the tarmac was laid!) Lordy, that ages me!!!!!

 

[ponyperson37]

I remember riding a retired pit pony. The only way we could get it to jump a rail on the side of two oil cans was to blow up a crisp packet and burst it just as it approached the 'jump'. Very good for the balance, probably not so good for the pony!

 

[GlamourPuss86]

Good thing I'm on my own in the office at work as I'm having a great giggle at these!

Just thought of another one... mom as a kid used to compete against the likes of Geoff Luckett and co... My nan (all 5ft nothing of her) had one day had enough of Geoff tear arsing around and beating up his pony (I believe it was called Peanuts if memory serves), she dragged him off said pony, a snotty child as she calls him as he always had a runny nose, and dumped the pony back with his mother with a flea in her ear about her son!

Peter moms old horse had to be carried across the motor way as a foal to get him from the woman who had bred him back to moms yard, several mile journey, or nip across the motorway... be went across the motor way with the aid of a bucket and several large men!

 

[Tammytoo]

I wonder why horses feel they have to swim out to sea?

I remember 6d. for the phone not 2p, hacking 6 miles to a meet hunting for 2-3 hours and then hacking miles home before it got dark. Galloping down grass verges and putting up "jumps" on bridleways was compulsory. Elastic on your thin riding hat, sticks were bits of twigs broken out of hedges with the leaves left on the end to flick away flies. Galloping across stubble fields and jumping straw bales, joddies were cavalry twill from the Army and Navy stores and a mail order company called Jacatex sold boots, joddies, tweed and black jackets and riding hats. (Moss Bros was the only alternative and very expensive).

Gosh I'm old!

 

[maggiehorse]

does anyone remember the donkey derby at butlins in the 70,s? i was about 11 there were no saddles and those donkeys could really go if you knew where to kick , we had to wear hideous stripey shirts and ancient hats 2 sizes too big , there was proper betting on a tote system , my mum won loads on me (no smacked bottom that day lol) i won the championship and a free weeks holiday at butlins , so my mum took my sister instead of me!!

 

[Sealine]

Anybody else remember bare-back wrestling. Headcollar and rope, hopefully we wore hats but I can't really remember! Half a dozen ponies and kids trying to push each other off. Winner was the last one still on a pony.

 

[EAST KENT]

I used to ride out in a hacking jacket and headscarf

You`re in good company ..so does The Queen,now.

 

[fidleyspromise]

lol @ these

"cantering up verges..taking our ponies out for the whole day with a back pack with sandwiches, headcollars"

What does it say about me that I still do these at 26.
Off for an 8 mile hack tomorrow to do inhand, ridden and WH before hacking home. Would do the same on Sunday but got a party

I remember at RS going for hacks in the woods bareback, or instructor taking us out and then suddenly veering off the track on her speedy, little 13hh pony as we all frantically tried to follow.

If a pony refused to jump, two people running up behind it with a pole / chase it with a lunge whip.
If you used your hands too much = your reins got taken off. Didn't keep your heels down= stirrups taken off saddle. Didn't tighten girth = girth removed from saddle, etc.

H&S would have had a field day with us.

 

[TicTac]

We used to go out on pony picnics, two up with saddle bags full of goodies, canter along grass verges with out a care in the world as there was not so much traffic, jump the hay and straw bales that seemed to lay around for ages before being picked up. Ride bareback around the fields ( horses not human lol ) Hack to the forge to have the ponies shod, hack miles to shows, compete and hack home again having bedded down the horses in the garage the night before. Boil barley in my mothers best saucpan, stinking the house out and not doing the saucepan much good either and having thighs like tree trunks from cycling approx 10 miles every day back and from the stables plus all the riding.....................happy days

 

[hippo-horse]

I remember doing so many of these "dangerous activities" and more! I drove by where some of my exploits took place last week and was well and truely mocked for sharing my memories of taking the pony to the shop,unfastening 1 rein and going to the counter with the other end for a pot noodle.I once took the same pony (12.2hh) into a bus shelter to get out of a hailstorm,and stayed on him,laid on his neck for 10 minutes untill it passed.We also made jumping more fun by taking turns lying on straw bales being the jump or jumping our friends , as well as tack optional jumping and games of jousting and pony wrestling.Sometimes I still ride to the chip shop,its surprising how often it is on the way back to the yard

 

[diet2ride]

I used to have to walk every evening after school about 3miles to feed the ponies with my cousin we must of been about 10. No way would I let my son do that.

I was once had to take three young girls out on a hack, but all the other horses had been worked so they dragged the very old fat cob off the starvation paddock tied twine to him as grass reins and sent me on my way. All three girls fell off... I was stuck in a field with them all crying for a cuddle trying to locate the ponies.

Use to hide out in the hay barn, and once we pushed all the loose hay of the edge ( honest it was loose ) and then had great fun rolling into it, we got into so much trouble for that.

My parents were so use to me not being about much they literally forgot about me, many a time I would be sitting down the yard waiting to be picked up.

 

[bumblelion]

I remember riding a horse bare back, leading two ( one off each side) in headcollar and leadrope through a busy leisure centre and cantering all 3 whenever we hit grass! Also taking them bareback onto the man made lake beach lol n riding them whilst they were swimming! I look back and wonder how I didn't die!!!

 

[Hairy Old Cob]

I too remember the 2P for the phone but not 2d, I did silly things with the ponies remember riding in the back of the Land Rover and hanging out of the back one foot on the rear chassis member hand hold hopping from land to land on the ridge and furrow whilst feeding beast, riding on the linkage of tractors and on the draw bar of the following trailer, jumping on and off moving Tractors. The Best lesson I learnt was at 14 taking the end of my right Index finger in some gears and mashing it down to the first joint PROPER LESSON IN HEALTH & SAFETY makes our Compliance Manager! Squirm when tell him a GOOD lesson Learnt We have too think ourselves lucky No Risk Accessments No Metod Statements No Bull **** JUST HEAVEN FORBID COMMON SENSE.

HOWEVER DID WE EVER GET TO BE SO OLD

 

[Piglet]

Hacking to shows and Pony Club several miles away staying all day a d then hacking home again - fluffy bunny brigade give us a break none of us had any transport in the 70s hacking a couple of hours to the
meet then hunting all day and hoping hounds would turn torwards home.

Saving pocket money to buy pony magazine or plastic browband in PC colours, for occasional special events 6 of us would hire a lady with a large lorry to take us to events, the ramp would come down and half a dozen kids would clamber out of the luton. Health and Safety? They didn't exist!!!

 

[Foxhunter49]

Reminiscing over a bottle of wine last night, we were talking about the horsey 'good old days'.
Do you remember when.......
you would go out riding all day, dawk 'til dusk with 60p for a bag of chip and a
10p piece for an emergency phone call..... Not panic that you had forgot a mobile phone...... Jump over anything including park benches without doing a risk assessment first....... Put carrie rbags in your riding boots because you coudln'tget them off at night The list goes on!

Ahhhhh the carefree good old days ...........What were yours?

Your nowt but a baby! I remember when it was 3d for a phone call, and 6d for a packet of chips!

 

[Hairy Old Cob]

Just came back to me I remember travelling from Welford Northamptonshire to the East Of England Showground Expo Steam on a Lo Loader trailer with Traction Engine sat on the Engines Sheet.

Happy DAYS

 

[Pearlsasinger]

I remember 4d for a phone call in the red phonebox, pressing button A or button B if you were connected or needed to get your money back (can't remember which was which).
I also used to hack in hacking jacket and headscarf but it was under my hat to keep my ears warm in cold weather. In the rain I wore my Jakatex rubber riding mac.
I used to hack 8 miles to the forge, then often Dad would drive sister over to meet me and she would ride back, or the other way round. The horse always went faster on the way back, so we would both prefer the ride home.
When horse got too old and stiff, farrier came and cold-shod him, except that I also remember waiting for hours for him because he knew that there was always another day in the school holidays, so would go to another customer whose need apparently was greater, of course he had no way of letting me know before mobile phones.
We used to canter on every grass verge we saw, those same verges are far too overgrown now, with litter lurking in the brambles. We used to ride up a disused railway banking side, bent double under the trees to sneak through the bottom of the park, just so that we could have a canter along the old railway line and not have to turn round.
And as for jumps on bridleways, I'm sorry to say that we used to put them up across the footpaths in our local woods.

ETA, then there was the time I rode to the doctor's, tied the reins to a wooden fence and left the horse outside while I went in to see Doc - I haven't a clue what was wrong but I do know that if I'd gone round by bus it would have taken about 3 hours longer.

 

[orionstar]

I remember using oil drums and drain pipes for jumps, and when the forestry commission first decided to use barriers across the tracks in the woods it was a purpose built cross country course that I wouldnt dream of jumping now! I also remember my first cubbing experience, hacking to the meet then getting lost and separated miles from anywhere, finding the nearest road and flagging down a car to ask for directions! I wouldnt do that now - not that anyone would actually stop for you. I still canter along road verges but not the ones I used to as there seem to be more cars on the roads these days!

 

[debsey1]

Reading all of the above stories, I know of a young girl & her sisters (9 in all) ride around the countryside and to our local village bareback. They use/ride their ponies as transport. Many a time I see them riding to the local shop, tie up, buy what they have to buy, get back on and off they go again!

 

[JessPickle]

I am 21 and still do a lot of these things on my 17.1hh bareback jumping, riding in a headcollar, jumping anything I can find

When I was younger I was awful, cantering across golf course greens and shouting the names of ponies from another yard so we wouldn't get in trouble!

 

[Tnavas]

I wonder why horses feel they have to swim out to sea?

I remember 6d. for the phone not 2p, hacking 6 miles to a meet hunting for 2-3 hours and then hacking miles home before it got dark. Galloping down grass verges and putting up "jumps" on bridleways was compulsory. Elastic on your thin riding hat, sticks were bits of twigs broken out of hedges with the leaves left on the end to flick away flies. Galloping across stubble fields and jumping straw bales, joddies were cavalry twill from the Army and Navy stores and a mail order company called Jacatex sold boots, joddies, tweed and black jackets and riding hats. (Moss Bros was the only alternative and very expensive).

Gosh I'm old!

I remember Jackatex - I saved up for months to buy my jodhs and black jacket - they loooked terrible - bad cut an baggy jodhs but I was so proud to have them.

I remember jump stands with 6" nails in them to hold the rails up, jumping anything that was above the ground, galloping along grass verges jumping ditches with not a care in the world along the A40.
I'd grab pony out of the field at daylight ride 13 or so miles to a friends place, then ride for hours in Black Park and then ride home agaain, I'd race the bus back as it had to wait at some of the stops so as not to be early back at the depot. Then pony would go baclk out in the paddock with a brush over and a hug and a polo - no feed! It was fun. We hacked to the farrier who had a road side forge with wooden floor and a big furnace - great for the cold trips. He'd shoe the horse and always hoof oil it before we left.

We'd ride to shows or pony club rallies, with a lunch and a brush in our school satchel. Go to shows in poring rain an laugh all day and live! Had no idea what a hair net was and I had very long hair then - it would just fly out behind me.

I remember my friend would phone her mum, asking the operator to reverse the charges, her mum would refuse but know that we were ready to come home and would come and fetch us.

 

[Double_choc_lab]

I too remember sixpence for the phone. I think the farrier used to charge 10/6 for a set of shoes - I still remember his phone number 40 years on ( ask me to remember a PIN number - no chance).

I used to love rounding up local farmers cows who grazed on the common whislt riding my appy backback with no hat and wearing jeans. Thought I was a real cow girl - then used to show off jumping the benches on the common as said farmer's son was bit of a local SJ who even went to Hickstead a couple of times - to a young teenage girl that was something special!

Cycling with saddle on the handlebars and being asked out by the local cattle transporter (defo well under 16 at the time). God help anyone who did same to my young daughter.

 

[Double_choc_lab]

Just thought of another one - we l used to wear the original husky quilted jackets (mine was green). All the chavvy boys seem to be wearing them now.

 

[MiJodsR2BlinkinTite]

We used to ride up and down a place where it used to be an old quarry and had lots of very steep banks and dips in it which made the Hickstead bank look a p!ddling little slope. I walk along there with the dogs now, and even tho' its worn down over the years I still can't believe we used to hurl ourselves off the heights from our ponies and still lived to tell the tale, our parents certainly never had a clue what we were getting up to.

We used to have to hack through a quarry too; it used to have an overhead gantry which carried rocks and stuff, and occasionally if you were going underneath (which you had to!!) the whole thing would shudder and grit and water would come down on you. Then there was a big grinding machine next to it where all the rocks would go into, and be ground up, and water would be pumped in to keep it all cool - and then there was always a big yellow monster machine with blimmin great tyres on it growling away, plus other lorries. We just used to hack through there and all our ponies were just fine with it - Elf and Safety would have had a corporate seizure with the whole set up but we just got on and coped with it.

Also I can remember going up to Badminton Horse Trials on a pony club coach; and we actually saw the Queen just walking along the same as everyone else and we were so close to her we could have touched her. Fantastic days. What's happened to the world nowadays?

 

[alwaysbroke]

The local gymkhana that you had hacked to, games ring, musical hats, 20 odd ponies bombing up the field towards the grouped wooden bending poles hats in hands to put onto top the pole. Cant remember what the game was called but horse and rider galloped to the top of the ring and pulled a second person onto the back of the pony behind the saddle and galloped back to the starting line. The practice fence was 2 large barrels and a couple of flimsy poles. The higher and higher Chase Me Charlie no height limit just jump time and time again until pony refused. Then hack back alone a busy A road.....

 

[Smitty]

... hacking to the forge (full set 5 shillings - am I the oldest here??), Jackatex, riding miles and miles to shows/PC, always taking a packed lunch when you went for a hack as you would be away all day, cheating like hell in the drum jumping and always getting a 2nd and oh, a few years later the heaven of a matching nylon girth and rein set (in red).

Can't pretend to match the coastguard episode with pony swimming to France tho ...

 

[Clannad48]

When a body protector was your hacking jacket

Fond memories of the following:

1. The old Button A and B phone box
2. riding from dawn til dusk in the holidays
3/ buying a horse at the sales, going to collect it and being told it came as part of a job lot - six in all - tying them in a string with bailer twine to walk them 5 miles home - on my own!!


Aah the good old days