Has the discipline of horse management gone out the window in modern times???

dressedkez said:
Dear Perkins - if only when you were active, we could have let you have all those labour saving devices we have now? Instead you had to struggle with the old Jute Rugs, NZ rugs that were a bit of old canvas, and weighed a ton when they got wet.....clipper that you had to wind up by hand as you were using them (with your teeth) and don't forget all those lovely hours you spent grinding chaff and rolling oats by hand.......
Of course in your spare time you were brushing the underside of all those lovely linen lined saddles - using that wonderful glycerin saddle soap, that you would spit on to get a lather - and of course concocting some wonderful remedies for all equine ills, using Epsom Salts and Stockholm tar.
Those really were the days........
Oh don't forget those woolen day rugs you had to beat the hairs out on a weekly basis, and all that plaiting of straw for wisps to STRAP (see PC manual 4th edition 1968 - P22)
Blimey - how would we cope with all that now? Sadly Perkins and his ilk (though my fantasy groom was Dick - remember him from Flambards??) did quite wisely join a Trade Union, and refused to accept a shilling a week and as many eating apples as he could carry home from the Orchard - and we had to start doing it all ourselves - I don't think we do a bad job, mostly, considering - and complete feeds, nice new fabrics for rugs, better field management etc. etc. mean that we get the Perkin's gloss, often via buying in an alternative.
Though, if I added up all the extras I spend on my darlings - and if Perkins could nail on shoes too - then it might be cheaper in the long run to have him back.......
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Brilliant :)
 
Nowt wrong with buns! I bought a mag called Cupcakes. When I came to read it my husband had crossed it out and written BUNS.

I'm going away now as I have nothing constructive to add apart from to say I still do most things the way I was taught (not through PC but I suspect my mentor was old PC). At no time have I been able to live up to that regime though and my horses have appeared to be happy and healthy (with t/o every day).
 
Silvermiyazawa said:
Nowt wrong with buns! I bought a mag called Cupcakes. When I came to read it my husband had crossed it out and written BUNS.

I'm going away now as I have nothing constructive to add apart from to say I still do most things the way I was taught (not through PC but I suspect my mentor was old PC). At no time have I been able to live up to that regime though and my horses have appeared to be happy and healthy (with t/o every day).
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Me too (re mentor) and many of the old ways, were good ways, but like everything else we move on - you only have to watch Downton Abbey to recognise that - and no, I am not about to embark on a how clean is your house discussion - and do you still use lemon juice / vinegar and newspaper to clean your windows, and iron the Daily Torygraph for the other half to read, once you have had a quick peek prior to him seeing it in the mornings.......??!!
 
dressedkez said:
Me too (re mentor) and many of the old ways, were good ways, but like everything else we move on - you only have to watch Downton Abbey to recognise that - and no, I am not about to embark on a how clean is your house discussion - and do you still use lemon juice / vinegar and newspaper to clean your windows, and iron the Daily Torygraph for the other half to read, once you have had a quick peek prior to him seeing it in the mornings.......??!!
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God no. I remember thinking that mixes were only for VERY posh horse owners. Main Ring Red and Blue were all that was on offer I think. Very glad we don't have to boil linseed etc. However it was quite handy being able to go to the sawmill for a mahoosive bag of shavings for free. And rugs have changed beyond belief, although I still occasionally refer to T/O rugs as New Zealand rugs and feel VERY old when I get baffled looks (I'm not THAT old!!). Our old rubber reins were orange. (Sorry, I said I was going away!).
 
Yes Dressedkez I still use Vinegar and newspaper to clean the windows - it works really well and is a fraction of the price of the shop bought stuff :D

Wasn't Jills dad an archiologist working away somewhere? - or maybe I'm getting muddled with one of the other characters. She may have been a war widow for all we know - many of these books were written not long after the WWII. Kids with ponies generally went to bording school and the ponies were turned out - on Heaven forbid GRASS! all term while they were away and didn't get laminitis. They were obsessed with not falling on the road and breaking their ponies knees. :)

Feeding wasn't a problem as we fed the fresh basics - or not at all- which was the general case. When Pony Cubes arrived on the scene it was the beginning of the end. Last week a pony club instructor declared it was stupid teaching the kids to recognise the basic feeds.:eek:

Paddock management was every bit as good as it is today - nothing changed there! :D

Worming was awful - you needed to give the horses a week off to allow their poor tums to settle after the stuff had ripped through them. :(

We didn't have numnahs and saddle blankets to wash because we rarely ever used them. :)

Our saddles seemed much easier to fit than they do now - but then they didn't have excessively deep seats so didn't need gussets in the panels - still find the close contact saddles the most easy to fit. :)

I loved the jute rugs at night, with striped blankets and the wool rugs by day or a linen sheet in summer. :D

Our tack was simple and to the poster that said we don't see fistulars any more - I only ever saw one growing up but many since - especially on those that are over rugged. :)

Riders looked elegant in their tweed or black/navy jackets :D
Now many look like hookers heading off to work with bling and colours hanging off every edge - as you can see I loath the current trend of overlarge ornate browbands and jackets where every edge has a colour trim and the shirt and tie is a mess of spots or stripes. :eek:

We rode the the farrier and spend cold mornings around the big roaring forge. When done he'd slap a rich thick glorious smelling hoof oil on their feet.

We hacked to shows with an old satchel on our backs with a brush and lunch in it. Now half the truck space is taken up with this that and the other.

We rarely rode in an arena because only the very rich could afford them, our horses worked on grass and in shoes, were sound all the time - my big hack was the first horse I had that went lame and I had been working then for a couple of years. In fact I don't remember anything becoming lame except with an injury.

They were the good old days - there were people happy to help you olearn without charging for their knowledge.
 
I don't remember Jill ever having a father. :confused: I do remember when she first got Black Boy the only thing she had to ride in was her gym slip and I couldn't figure out why she just didn't wear jeans. :p
 
Ladyinred said:
Don't think Jill ever did anything THAT outrageously bad :eek::eek::eek::D
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Laughing and spitting coffee all over my keyboard .....


So another burning question from my child hood - when the Famous Five went on their jolly camping hols, were was the loo?

'cos being in the colonies and all that, Dad always had to dig a long drop, but they never did. Just asking :D
 
JennyNZ said:
Laughing and spitting coffee all over my keyboard .....


So another burning question from my child hood - when the Famous Five went on their jolly camping hols, were was the loo?

'cos being in the colonies and all that, Dad always had to dig a long drop, but they never did. Just asking :D
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Oh dear! One does not mention those sort of base things :rolleyes:
 
Tnavas said:
They were the good old days - there were people happy to help you olearn without charging for their knowledge.
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I have some very bad memories though, of "old timers" keen to share their knowledge with me. First of all they looked down on me because I had an Arab (they were hunting folk) and then they looked down on me because I replaced him with a palomino.

They came back from the last day of hunting at the end of March and no matter what the weather they chucked their fully clipped hunters out in the field and didn't bring them in again until preparing for the next season.

Schooling was for wusses who couldn't jump.
 
Silvermiyazawa said:
God no. I remember thinking that mixes were only for VERY posh horse owners. Main Ring Red and Blue were all that was on offer I think. Very glad we don't have to boil linseed etc. However it was quite handy being able to go to the sawmill for a mahoosive bag of shavings for free. And rugs have changed beyond belief, although I still occasionally refer to T/O rugs as New Zealand rugs and feel VERY old when I get baffled looks (I'm not THAT old!!). Our old rubber reins were orange. (Sorry, I said I was going away!).
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Wow! Main Ring!!! What a reminder of the past :D And yep, my step-dad used to get the free bags of shavings from the local saw mill for me, too! And I know my poor old mum does not miss chiseling off the dried on linseed gloop from her stove top anymore. And all rugged horses and ponies could be clearly identified by the pair of bald patches on either side of their chest! Ahhhh, those were the days :D

OP, your 'list' looks suspiciously similar to the one from my ancient (cira early 1970's) 'How to Keep Horses and Ponies' paperback!!! You don't happen to possess a copy too, do you?
 
Tnavas- Hilarious! :D
Jill's Mother was a war widow I think. Books were set in the late 40's. I love reading about all the 'old ways' and looking at pictures of old yards. I remember when I was in primary school we went on a school trip around Hopetoun house. We got a tour around some of the old 'undeveloped' part of the stables, with old brushes and stuff, just left from ages ago. It was fascinating.
Anyone got any old pictures of yards etc?
 
Silvermiyazawa said:
Wasn't Jill's mother a single parent and an author? I seem to remember they could afford buns for tea if she had sold a book.
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That's the railway children.

Possibly Jill as well, I never read them :eek:

And it was Noel in the Pullein-Thompson Noel and Henry books that had an archeaologist father. (Great books by the way and a couple have been republished quite recently - six ponies and one day event)

Personally I thought that the topic of the thread was entirely reasonable but that the OP's initial post didn't lend itself to a serious discussion. The trolling accusations were a bit harsh. But the Perkins stuff was hilarious.


Clarissa dear do you actually have a pony or just the collection of legs you mentioned? (p8 I think)
 
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dominobrown said:
Tnavas- Hilarious! :D
Jill's Mother was a war widow I think. Books were set in the late 40's. I love reading about all the 'old ways' and looking at pictures of old yards. I remember when I was in primary school we went on a school trip around Hopetoun house. We got a tour around some of the old 'undeveloped' part of the stables, with old brushes and stuff, just left from ages ago. It was fascinating.
Anyone got any old pictures of yards etc?
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I tried to start a thread about this ages ago, I love looking at old fashioned yards with the stalls and herringbone flooring but it got shunted to PG and no one replied :(
 
I can't remember what happened to kills father. Railway children the mum wasn't a widow, the dad was falsely accused of fraud or similar, then returns at the end.
 
If I remember rightly, Jill's father went to Africa for a few months, Jill's mother received a cable saying he had contracted a fever but they never heard from him again :eek:

Pretty traumatic you'd think, but you'd never know it as he doesn't get a mention after that!
 
Cloball said:
I tried to start a thread about this ages ago, I love looking at old fashioned yards with the stalls and herringbone flooring but it got shunted to PG and no one replied :(
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Arrghh dam. I love seeing the layout and the equipment they used. I am addicted to the videos on horse hero of the Badminton Yard Tour :)
 
Tnavas said:
Worming was awful - you needed to give the horses a week off to allow their poor tums to settle after the stuff had ripped through them. :(
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i always wondered why my mum gives the horses a day or two after worming before working them- i still leave them for a day (do it just as their normal day off and work around it), just in case they feel peaky, but I get looked at like i'm crazy if i discuss it with people!

this is obviously where the habit stems from :)

ps there's nothing wrong with riding the farrier, as long as they are at least fairly attractive (rules out 95% of them lol) :D:D:D
 
Cadfael&Coffee said:
i always wondered why my mum gives the horses a day or two after worming before working them- i still leave them for a day (do it just as their normal day off and work around it), just in case they feel peaky, but I get looked at like i'm crazy if i discuss it with people!

this is obviously where the habit stems from :)

ps there's nothing wrong with riding the farrier, as long as they are at least fairly attractive (rules out 95% of them lol) :D:D:D
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The yard I worked on it seemed like a right of passage ... oh and the vet ;)

I may have a habit of looking at french chateaus for sale just to see if they have pictures the original stable blocks so many of the stables of the old houses here have been turned int cafes I think it's sad :o
 
littlelegs said:
I can't remember what happened to kills father. Railway children the mum wasn't a widow, the dad was falsely accused of fraud or similar, then returns at the end.
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True. But in the meantime they only had buns when mother sold a story.
Also the station porter was called Perks. Which is perilously close to Perkins. Which proves something.
 
I still think England is the WORST place in the world to keep horses or ponies no matter what regime you have or whether or not Perkins is there to provide lashings of ginger beer.

(Sulking as I slipped and sat in some cold mud yesterday and there was no one to help me up so I had to plonk my hands down into a load of cow pats to haul myself up and pull my boots out)
 
tallyho! said:
I still think England is the WORST place in the world to keep horses or ponies no matter what regime you have or whether or not Perkins is there to provide lashings of ginger beer.

(Sulking as I slipped and sat in some cold mud yesterday and there was no one to help me up so I had to plonk my hands down into a load of cow pats to haul myself up and pull my boots out)
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Its the mud!!! :mad:

p.s I don't recommend stuffing Stockholm tar down your horse's throat to worm, I am not sure how effective it is! Or how good it is for the horse.
 
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