Horse-related things in living memory of older forumites that would surprise the younger ones.

[slimjim86]

I still have one pair of the wide cord johds (bottle green ones) from the 1990s and I wear them sparingly to make them last! I am hoping they will come back into fashion again, they are nice and warm in winter, and hide dirt well

mine were bottle green too lol

 

[SilverLinings]

In the 80s and 90s de-nerving was still quite common, but tendon firing died out earlier on.

And purple spray could apparently fix any would

 

[MurphysMinder]

I don’t know about colours being limited in the 80s , but in the late 60s my pony proudly went to shows with blue brow band , blue nylon plaited reins , blue nylon string girth and blue “string vest” sweat rug . We all wore white “gym shoes” for gymkhana classes . Oh and usually hacked around 5 miles each way to the shows .

 

[The Xmas Furry]

In the 80s and 90s de-nerving was still quite common, but tendon firing died out earlier on.

And purple spray could apparently fix any would

Yup, purple spray was the go to, along with white or black wound powder, but Dermobion topped the lot

 

[Ceifer]

Yup, purple spray was the go to, along with white or black wound powder, but Dermobion topped the lot

A sad day when you couldn’t get dermobion anymore

 

[MurphysMinder]

Kimblewicks on strong childrens ponies as thought better than them coping with 2 reined pelhams.
Plenty of other bits around in the 60s and 70s, I've still got a 'crime box' that I used to lug to PC training sessions in the 80s of very severe bits.

In the late 60s I forgot curb chain when I took my very strong Welsh D x hunting. Decided not to confess to my mum as she might spoil my fun , after about an hour of being carted everywhere she spotted the problem when we had a roadside check and I was ordered back to the trailer

 

[Time for Tea]

I remember the chin cups. All the rage until it was discovered they did more harm than good

I loved my chin cup hat strap!

 

[Cowpony]

Ooh yes, and the treatment for colic was a drench, or failing that, a bottle of warm beer.

 

[SantaVera]

Worming with panacur every six weeks

 

[Time for Tea]

I remember my full length riding mac, white rubberised cotton of some sort, very heavy and cumbersome. Not very waterproof out all day in Dartmoor rain either!

 

[scats]

Kimblewicks on strong childrens ponies as thought better than them coping with 2 reined pelhams.
Plenty of other bits around in the 60s and 70s, I've still got a 'crime box' that I used to lug to PC training sessions in the 80s of very severe bits.

I still swear by a kimblewick for strong or overly keen ponies (yes I was a junior showjumper in the mid-late 90s )

 

[Time for Tea]

Also remember everyone had plain leather reins, which were hopeless in the rain, and string gloves didn’t help much

 

[AthenesOwl]

I remember the chin cups. All the rage until it was discovered they did more harm than good

Oh yes! I remember the excitement when hats with chin cups came in. I had a jockey skull cap for which my mum made me a lovely navy blue silk.

I’m horrified now that no one looked at chin strap hats and thought they were a bad idea, although they were a definite step up from what came before them.

 

[Carrottom]

Grooming kits in the 1980s up until around 2000 always seemed to have the same contents: body brush, dandy brush, mane comb, hoof pick, rubber curry comb, metal curry comb and plastic curry comb, a pair of scissors, and a stable rubber (cloth). And in the 1980s and early-mid 1990s most people still knew how to make and use a wisp and how to strap (properly).

You describe my grooming bucket! Plus a najic brush.

 

[Ratface]

So many already mentioned......
Lead lotion
Yellow jumpers
Blue or yellow aertex polo shirts in summer
Jute rugs with rollers and newmarket blanket under - and heavy NZ rugs, plus holey sweat rugs (I still have one of the latter)
Tying with a weighted log in a stall
Plaiting in a straw bed
Metal water buckets
Calkins and wedges on shoes were common

Chaskit rugs were revolutionary when they came out, then the Lavenham lighter rugs . So much more to add, later...

"Ah - I remember it well . . ."

 

[Old school]

As a 9/10/11 year old, I longed for jods with a front zip. I thought my pair with zip on the hip were so old fashioned. Now in my fifties I would love a pair with the zip on the hip. Perhaps they are still out there, but I never come across them.

 

[Ratface]

Thank you, I had always wondered as it looks lovely in pictures. I know it used to be common in private stables for the stalls to be plaited, but I suppose if you had live in grooms (and many books advised no more than two horses to a groom - we are clearly all gluttons for punishment nowadays) then they had the time to do that.

The YO has all our stables bedded down with straw and the edges plaited as noted above. There are only five resident horses,YO and four grooms. YO has just finished mowing, tedding, baling and storing 900 bales of home-grown hay. We still have around 600 from previous years' cut. One of the grooms has been helping.

 

[MissMay]

We used to give our ponies a can of beer before a day out so they would sleep better and have more energy the next day- mind blowing

Mounting blocks were never used everyone either mounted from the ground or got a leg up if your pony was too tall. Now I wouldn't dream of Mounting from the ground unless no alternative

 

[SilverLinings]

I remember riding two to a pony as a child (never for long, generally as part of some sort of game) which I wouldn't do now. We also used to hang off them like monkeys doing all sorts, and practice running mounts and dismounts which resulted in quite a few bruises and windings (of the riders)

 

[blitznbobs]

The CAM catalogue had me
Drooling but I could never afford the stuff

Boot hooks… zips apparently had not yet been invented (except on the puffa jackets of course)

surcingles with blankets folded to a point tucked under them

 

[SilverLinings]

The CAM catalogue had me
Drooling but I could never afford the stuff

Boot hooks… zips apparently had not yet been invented (except on the puffa jackets of course)

surcingles with blankets folded to a point tucked under them

I had completely forgotten about the CAM catalogue! I used to write lists of things from there and the Robinsons catalogue that I would buy my yard full of imaginary competition horses when I was grown up When I moved house I found the book I made when I was about nine with pictures of horses cut out of H&H and a made up name and description of each horse and their temperament underneath. I was a strange child

I remember in the mid-late 90s white-fur lined leather tendon and brushing boots were de rigour and I lusted after them. Bizarrely I saw a lot of them in the SJ warm ups at RWHS this year, which seems odd now that heating legs is known to be detrimental.

 

[ycbm]

Also remember everyone had plain leather reins, which were hopeless in the rain, and string gloves didn’t help much

There were laced reins, plaited leather reins and plaited brown nylon reins which eventually came in red or blue!
.

 

[ycbm]

Worming with panacur every six weeks

Or not at all because you had to get wormer from a vet. Horses routinely died of worm burden right up to the 80s when saddlers were allowed to sell wormers.
.

 

[HopOnTrot]

I miss my chin cup, I used to chew on it half the time!

 

[littleshetland]

I remember being told by my anciently old farrier back in the early 70's that feeding my horse 1/2 oz of Golden Virginia tobacco would be a very effective wormer for her.

 

[suebou]

And, pre CAM and Robinson, there was jacatex, jacket, jobs, breeches, macs, advertising in the horsey press. I had a hacking jacket and yellow polo neck jumper as well as their mods!

 

[Errin Paddywack]

Late 60's when I was working at a RS the wormer we used was a vile green powder which we mixed into their feeds. Can't remember how many of the horses actually ate it. Then wormer in little nuts came out, they didn't like them much either. Our horses always looked well despite working hard on mainly grass and hay. Very little hard feed and only straights back then. We used get the horses shod by farriers from the Melton Mowbray army base. Tack was basic, all the horses wore snaffles though one, a highland type who was very strong, was in a twisted snaffle and had laced reins. No rugs, everyone lived out in all weathers. Several who were long standing horses worked into their twenties and then had a retirement. Very little lameness and Dr Green usually sorted that.

 

[cauda equina]

There were laced reins, plaited leather reins and plaited brown nylon reins which eventually came in red or blue!
.

And I think you could get reins in the PC colours too?
There were definitely PC girths which annoyed my mum as it said in the Manual of Horsemanship Coloured girths do not look good

eta I remember the wormer in little plastic granule things - bright blue, and you had to keep the horse off grass until they'd finished passing them

 

[Highmileagecob]

Baggy, beige jodhpurs.
Yellow string gloves.
Ponies didn't wear rugs.
Clearly remember riding down to the forge to have my pony shod. 10/- for a full set, and we wore them out in seven weeks.

 

[Boughtabay]

Not sure when this was (late 90s early 2000s?) but a local venue announced they’d no longer accept fixed peak hats to go round xc so an old skull cap was dug out of the tack room. It must have been a grey period for H&s because the skull cap with chin cup was accepted despite it only having a hook over clasp that undid itself if it wasn’t almost strangling-ly tight (and even then it might wiggle off occasionally)