SilverLinings
Well-Known Member
With apologies to YCBM for stealing her idea and b@stardising the title!
We have a huge range of ages and experiences among the posters here, so what can you remember about riding and keeping horses in the past? For interest, please can you include a rough date/decade or an idea of when the fashion/practice/product died out for those of us who may have missed it! And prices would be interesting for services and products.
From the 1980s I remember the colour options for things like bandages, headcollars and saddle cloths being limited to brown, red or blue with few exceptions. Leather headcollars were more common than nylon ones. Children's johdpurs were a nasty polyester mix with minimal stretch and scratchy waistbands, and had to be worn with clips or they would ride up. Johd boots always came with the choice of Grosvenor or Hanover toes (square or round shape), I think this stopped in the late 1990s. String-vest sweat rugs were de rigour and jute rugs were commonly used with wool blankets underneath and a roller (this continued to be common until around the mid-late 90s). Most people would also have a cotton summer sheet. Most ponies lived out full time, and people tended to rent a field rather than keeping their horse/pony in a yard. Cavaletti were widespread and no one realised there might be a safety issue (ditto fixed fences x-country). Feeding straights was still common, but more and more ponies had basic pony nuts. As children we did loads of fun things like paperchases and playing cowboys and Indians, and would disappear all day only giving our parents a vague idea of where we were going and an agreement to be home for dinner (hacking without phones obviously continued until the early 2000s). I am glad I had that freedom without a mobile phone as it made me much more confident, particularly when faced with a problem.
From the 1990s 'petal' over reach boots and the click-clacking sound they made when the horse moved, Nagrag (I think that was the brand name) cross country colours with matching saddle cloths (I wanted a set for the PC hunter trials but they were too expensive). In the mid-late 1990s artificial fibre turnout rugs finally arrived in tack shops, seeing the end of the old waxed-cotton New Zealand rugs which stank, were barely water-resistant, and weighed about as much as the horse. Man-made fibres meant stable rugs replacing jute rugs and blankets (or duvets), and new wicking rugs (like the red, blue and white Aeroborn rug) started to replace the string rugs. There was a phase where Muckers were the footwear of choice, to be worn with carefully pushed down long socks, my god your feet got cold in them though! There was also a fashion for full-length chaps in the mid 1990s. Eventing still included roads and tracks and the steeplechase. Late 1990s a full set of shoes plus a trim cost £30, hay was £2-£2.50/bale and straw £1-£1.50/bale. Field rent with a wooden stable was £10/week.
In the 1990s there were still loads of local events within hacking distance, including shows, hunter trials, ODEs, SJ and mounted games. 'Novice' SJ and x-country started at 2'6", and jumps were only lower for cradle stakes classes for very young children. Until the late 1990s the majority of children (and a lot of adults) didn't have access to horse transport and would hack to shows, hunting, lessons etc. You would see posters in the area advertising events and you would send off an SAE for the schedule, and then post your entry form with a check or postal order to the secretary. If you entered a dressage class you had to ring the secretary at a set time the evening before to ask what time your test was, ditto with ODEs.
I do miss the horse community that we used to have, it seems to be much smaller now, with fewer activities and more novices and people who are in it for the social side more than the horses. On the other hand, rugs, clothing, tack and veterinary treatment is miles better and we have greater knowledge about horses and how to meet their physical and psychological needs.
I have a friend who is 96 (born in 1928) and she remembers her parents hunters being requisitioned by the army, and also that pre veterinary antibiotics if a horse cut themselves there was a real risk it could prove fatal. Her parents (middle class) employed live-in grooms and they would go over the horses with a fine-tooth comb daily to look for any small scratch, and if one was found it was kept scrupulously clean to avoid infection. Horses in work were still routinely kept stabled (often in stalls) and were taken to water four/five times per day as water wasn't left in the stalls. Deliveries from the train still got delivered by horse and wagon, and farm horses were still common.
We have a huge range of ages and experiences among the posters here, so what can you remember about riding and keeping horses in the past? For interest, please can you include a rough date/decade or an idea of when the fashion/practice/product died out for those of us who may have missed it! And prices would be interesting for services and products.
From the 1980s I remember the colour options for things like bandages, headcollars and saddle cloths being limited to brown, red or blue with few exceptions. Leather headcollars were more common than nylon ones. Children's johdpurs were a nasty polyester mix with minimal stretch and scratchy waistbands, and had to be worn with clips or they would ride up. Johd boots always came with the choice of Grosvenor or Hanover toes (square or round shape), I think this stopped in the late 1990s. String-vest sweat rugs were de rigour and jute rugs were commonly used with wool blankets underneath and a roller (this continued to be common until around the mid-late 90s). Most people would also have a cotton summer sheet. Most ponies lived out full time, and people tended to rent a field rather than keeping their horse/pony in a yard. Cavaletti were widespread and no one realised there might be a safety issue (ditto fixed fences x-country). Feeding straights was still common, but more and more ponies had basic pony nuts. As children we did loads of fun things like paperchases and playing cowboys and Indians, and would disappear all day only giving our parents a vague idea of where we were going and an agreement to be home for dinner (hacking without phones obviously continued until the early 2000s). I am glad I had that freedom without a mobile phone as it made me much more confident, particularly when faced with a problem.
From the 1990s 'petal' over reach boots and the click-clacking sound they made when the horse moved, Nagrag (I think that was the brand name) cross country colours with matching saddle cloths (I wanted a set for the PC hunter trials but they were too expensive). In the mid-late 1990s artificial fibre turnout rugs finally arrived in tack shops, seeing the end of the old waxed-cotton New Zealand rugs which stank, were barely water-resistant, and weighed about as much as the horse. Man-made fibres meant stable rugs replacing jute rugs and blankets (or duvets), and new wicking rugs (like the red, blue and white Aeroborn rug) started to replace the string rugs. There was a phase where Muckers were the footwear of choice, to be worn with carefully pushed down long socks, my god your feet got cold in them though! There was also a fashion for full-length chaps in the mid 1990s. Eventing still included roads and tracks and the steeplechase. Late 1990s a full set of shoes plus a trim cost £30, hay was £2-£2.50/bale and straw £1-£1.50/bale. Field rent with a wooden stable was £10/week.
In the 1990s there were still loads of local events within hacking distance, including shows, hunter trials, ODEs, SJ and mounted games. 'Novice' SJ and x-country started at 2'6", and jumps were only lower for cradle stakes classes for very young children. Until the late 1990s the majority of children (and a lot of adults) didn't have access to horse transport and would hack to shows, hunting, lessons etc. You would see posters in the area advertising events and you would send off an SAE for the schedule, and then post your entry form with a check or postal order to the secretary. If you entered a dressage class you had to ring the secretary at a set time the evening before to ask what time your test was, ditto with ODEs.
I do miss the horse community that we used to have, it seems to be much smaller now, with fewer activities and more novices and people who are in it for the social side more than the horses. On the other hand, rugs, clothing, tack and veterinary treatment is miles better and we have greater knowledge about horses and how to meet their physical and psychological needs.
I have a friend who is 96 (born in 1928) and she remembers her parents hunters being requisitioned by the army, and also that pre veterinary antibiotics if a horse cut themselves there was a real risk it could prove fatal. Her parents (middle class) employed live-in grooms and they would go over the horses with a fine-tooth comb daily to look for any small scratch, and if one was found it was kept scrupulously clean to avoid infection. Horses in work were still routinely kept stabled (often in stalls) and were taken to water four/five times per day as water wasn't left in the stalls. Deliveries from the train still got delivered by horse and wagon, and farm horses were still common.
- we are clearly all gluttons for punishment nowadays) then they had the time to do that.
