For the Olds, What things do you remember from way back

I remember being really proud of my first riding hat, velvet, with cork as its reinforement and a whacking great brass cone thing inside the hat that would have completely done for me had I fallen off on my head.

Collecting ponies in the field, get their heldcollars on a few, them vaulting on one and leading them all back to the yard. Going to the Pony Club hunt meet on a riding school pony that had never seen anything outside the yard..... Fun times.

Oh and they had a smiddy on the yard and we would all gather round to get heated up.
 
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Brilliant names!
We had one called Humphrey...he was so cheeky...he would just get out of the yard and his head would go down to the grass and it took the instructor and a helper to get him back up!!
The ones that were considered the regular riders and who helped out were allowed to take the horses for a gallop over a field every now and again - totally uncontrolled but wonderful!!!
I also remember there was the list put up with your name on and who you were to ride in your lesson...we used to stand there waiting to see expectantly...then ask for our favourites anyway!! Mine was Blackie and she was a hairy dale - black and she was a madam but I adored her!! Pandora was a slightly mad arab and everyone was frightened if there name was down to rider her!
 
Jute rugs / canvas NZ
Cavelletti
Hats (velvet) with elastic chin straps
Ponies only wore snaffles / cavesson nosebands - anything in a martingale was eyed with suspicion
Cheering for Ryan's Son / Anglezarke at HOYS (when it was at Wembley and on the TV)
...... and Spangles !!
 
scotlass said:
Jute rugs / canvas NZ
Cavelletti
Hats (velvet) with elastic chin straps
Ponies only wore snaffles / cavesson nosebands - anything in a martingale was eyed with suspicion
Cheering for Ryan's Son / Anglezarke at HOYS (when it was at Wembley and on the TV)
...... and Spangles !!
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Spangles (big grin) now thats a whole different topic lol
 
brilliant ponies that were supper fit
farrier 5.00 a set of shoes
new zealand rugs jute rugs still got 2
string girths
masive bags of sugar beat
straight feeds
hacking to shows
rolls of gamagee
coloured reins
yellow gloves
brushes that didnt fall apart
half a dozzen different bits now theres hundreds
 
Daisydo said:
Oh and ps, did not mind my bum being seen in jods :D
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Yes, glad I am not the only one.

Boots that were hard to get on and damn near impossible to get off. Tweed hacking jackets that stank when they got wet but most of all those damned NZ, so heavy and took forever to dry!

Hanging on to your pony for dear life if you fell off because you'd get a royal b*llocking if you let go, kids are taught to let go now, it's safer really. Really taught properly, eg no stirrups until you could ride without them. I remember being made to mount and dismount 20 times because I threw my leg over the front instead of dismounting properly and God help you if you banged down onto the horse's back.Being taught that a crop was just an extension of your leg/arm not something to beat the cr*p out of a pony if it refused, we weren't allowed crops until we could ride. But most of all being told to ask myself "what did I do wrong/badly" when I came off, not allowed to put the blame on the pony and you always got back on after a fall, no matter what. Too much health and safety now! *walks off shaking head and muttering*
FDC
 
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Buying horse stuff in Coopers Toys! Plus the rest as before lol :D Oh and mucking out properly not throwing half your clean bedding away, 6 to 8 stables a day, the pigs and goats all for a free ride not to forget sweeping 2 big yards (I was 8).

Riding in headcollars and leadropes too, jumping stiles to get through fields :)
 
saddle soap doesn't smell the same it used to smell lovely ( i thought) used to help out a local riding stables to help pay for lessons before i got my pony and they were mixed lessons ( about 6 -10 in a class) children and adults at the same level do they still do that these days
 
Stable money £1.50 a week (and that was after decimalisation!) and jods that didn't stretch and hurt your knees! All new tack was London tan and we stained it with hoof oil to make it dark. I remember when black tack was introduced - you were really with it if you had a black bridle. Quilted jackets in green or navy and putting a sponge under the roller on your jute rug. Ah yes, the jute which seemed to go mouldy very quickly!

Who remembers metal water buckets? Hay nets caused a sensation when they were invented too! The only bedding available was straw and the farrier oiled your ponies hooves and trimmed his chestnuts too.

Goldtop riding hats with the broad velvet band, you were ultra modern if you had one of those! The elastic soon went slack so we put knots in it to tighten it up, but the daredevils would put their elastic behind the peak!
 
The most important thing you learnt in riding lessons was "it's never the ponies fault"

My poor horse has a string girth and an old style sweat rug - still!
 
KristmasKatt said:
The most important thing you learnt in riding lessons was "it's never the ponies fault"

My poor horse has a string girth and an old style sweat rug - still!
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I could never untwizzle the string girths, I was glad when webbing was invented, it was a lot simpler.

And of course, you were a proper rider only after you'd fallen off 6 times!
 
lhotse said:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iR6z8GUywyc&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0upwJC-XKBI&feature=related

Try to watch these without becoming emotional about a childhood spent with horses!!
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thanks for these - lovely - It's the music that sets you off more than anything !!

And how thoughtful of the 'white' horse to turn up at the bedroom window like an alarm clock, all spangly clean, not a stable stain in sight and fully tacked up - Clever Pony !!

.........now trotting off to stable to have a word with my 'White' beastie !!!!
 
Daisydo said:
Oh and ps, did not mind my bum being seen in jods :D
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^^^ this!

Oh I remember the string girths. What about the yellow string gloves too!

I remember with glee getting "4 way stretch jodhpurs"... (beige of course). I thought they were the best thing on earth.

First hat had a fixed peak and elastic chinstrap and was bought second hand.

Jod boots with strap and buckle.
 
ebonyallen said:
Just thought when rubber reins came in you could only get them in an orange ish colour,lack of tack shops, my parents used to take me to Crystal Palace to a little place the name escapes me, but they used to place a black and white advert in the newpaper, we lived in Kent so big day out to get a pair of rubber boots or a hat, seem to remember that Moss Bros did a very small selection of riding wear but nothing else.
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Wow you mean Jacatex at Crystal Palace. I remember they had a 3 fold catalogue full of really exciting things (so it seemed to me). All their range was called "Pat". The "Pat" Hat etc... That's where I got my new-fangled 4 way stretch jodhpurs from... I really wanted their riding trousers (anyone remember them?) but had to make do with the jods....
 
I remember when the only colour you could get things in was red or blue....I opted for blue and spent 10 years scraping every penny of my pocket money to buy bits and bobs.....then purple came out and there was a girl on the yard that had parents who were loaded and bought her anything she wanted and she got everything in purple....everyone on the yard wanted to poke her merry little eyes out :)
 
our farmer still has a chaff cutter!!!!!!!!!!!
i remember making haynets out of baler twine,
never using a mounting block,
trailer with a canvas roof which had a rip in which one pony used to stick his head out of:D
no dentists or back people or physio's or horse whisperers!
 
Wow! this reminds of when I was about 12 and used to help out on a hunting yard! the horses were all fed "Jim's Magic Mix" which was rolled oats, peas, maize and sugar beet!!! We had old blankets which we put under the horses jute rugs when it was really cold. All folded into a neat triangle and held on with a stable roller. We hacked out in snaffles and hunted in snaffles or a Pelham for the big Irish Draught horse (although we didn't know then he was an ID, he was just a "hunter!")

We had the odd breastplate kicking about, but no martingales. I think we found a drop noseband that I borrowed for my pony once.

One saddle fitted pretty much all the horses (and I swear it did!!) and the horses were tied up in stalls all day, then put into their stables at night! And I was 12 and I could ride all of the horses on the yard. When nowadays I struggle to ride my own!!!!:D
 
cptrayes said:
Black Beauty on the telly taking off for a big hedge wearing a snaffle and landing wearing a pelham :)
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My goodness, yes!

I have the DVD's to that programme, and I watched it not too long ago....1 minute there was the snaffle, then the pelham....and look, the saddle disappeared for a minute then! Then it was back again...all in the space of a few seconds, and by all accounts, he hadn't even moved!

Jute rugs
Thatching
String girths
Linseed boiling in the big cooker
Padded blue and green jackets
Then wax jackets came in....then it was puffa ones.....
Cycling 8 miles to the riding stables ad back again....leaving at 5am everytime...whatever the weather, I would push me bike through the snow to get there!
Collecting 6-8 ponies at a time from the field, tie 'em together and ride bareback to the stables in just a head collar and lead-rein made out of baler twine!
Going to the chippy on-mass at lunchtime, and having chips and beans, and drowning them in salt and vinegar...
Leading the afternoon lessons...round and round and round...just for the pleasure of riding bare-back to the field again...

Those were the days....!
 
Mucking out my first stable took an hour...straw...with my best mate!
We would turn up at the riding stable with our grooming kits (the old box types) and all ready to go...by the time we had groomed and tacked up our horses we were a mess!! We were taught how to look after the ponies - if we were to ride them we should know how to look after them first - we would be inspected too!
Own a Pony Days were fantastic! Our parents used to love dropping us down there for the day and getting rid of us!!

Just imagine if you could have a yard like this again...now...! how simple it would all be!
Have we just complicated somethings needlessly?!
 
saying you were off to buy a girth/headcollar/lead rope/reins/etc and not be questioned on which type/brand you were going to buy, they were pretty much just one type/brand or if you were lucky you could get a choice of 2!
new zealand rugs
jute rugs
thatching
not being worried by traffic (so much more traffic now)
flaked maize
bran
sugar beet (needed soaking for 24hrs)
oats
nuts (now known as cubes!)
main ring (now just mix)

back then if someone fed their horses main ring they were regarded as 'well off' as it was about £4 a bag! ;)

being able to ride for hours and not worry if the horse/pony was fit because more often than not they were very fit because they were ridden every day and taken out on 'proper rides' rather than worked in a school! (i know horses worked in a school are fit it's just how it was thought of back then)
 
i remember a new livery arrived at the yard and she had a hoof pick with the little brush part on it, and we all stood around and 'oohed' and 'ahhed'!

she then produced a rubber currycomb and we had a fit of jealousy as we only had plastic ones!
 
PitPony said:
fantastic...I remember my first lesson over a cavaletti...it was like I was at Hickstead!!!

My favourite clip at the moment...cant stop laughing at it...French and Saunders Ponies clip on youtube...sums it all up!!!

...sugar cubes!
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Yep , that was me!!!!!!!!!! lol
Training for my bhsai at urchinwood manor on a yts training scheme, they made us ride skiiny tb's only just backed lunging each other for hours with no stirrups or reins. my balance has always been amazing since those days though! Health and safety would have a field day.... we had the time of our lives!
 
''frying pan saddles', these must have been new in the 20's and when everyone sat alot futher back. I rode for a small dealer and had my 'own' saddle which fitted every pony.
Before string girths there was a pair of web girths which you could shorten by stiching.
Old cobbled stables with stalls, the horses where chained up with a noggin on the end.
The end one had a swinging bale for the draught horses so they could lie down and not get cast.
Second hand shoes, £5 a set. You were really posh if you had new ones.
 
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