How Did We Ever Make it too Adult Hood

[Chico Mio]

Oh it made me roar! For me:

Riding the ponies in the field down the road with just my friends dog lead round their necks ( I actually fell off one of these and broke my arm when I was riding 'officially' with tack!)

Jumps made out of old bread crates propped up on their sides with sticks 'so they didn't fall over'

Taking the riding school ponies back to the fields in their bridles - sometimes 2 up


Just for all you nostalgia smitten peeps, be assured this behaviour is still alive and well in some parts of the world where H & S depend on your own common sense or lack of it!

 

[k1963]

Aargh - bending poles !

I went on a riding holiday in 1977 . There was a gymkhana held in the local village in honour of the Queen's Silver Jubilee.
We were divided into teams ( I can't remember the name of the team now because I'm old

) , but for some reason , we decided to all wear bowler hats . The holiday centre owner had a supply for some reason . During the bending race , my pony for the week , got a bending pole ( garden cane ), under his tail & unsurprisingly , turned into a bucking bronco . Worse was to come though . Someone had the bright idea of a balloon race . You cantered along , bursting balloons with a sharp ended garden cane - even at 14 I could see this was not a good idea !
The noise of the balloons sent my pony ( not surprisingly again ) )wild & I ended up 2 fields away . I let the poor pony graze , while I drank cider with 2 local lads

 

[k1963]

Here's another - At the riding school , it was gymkhana day .I was in the lead in the sack race & could imagine the lovely red rosette I was going to win . Sadly , I tripped in the sack & the speedy pony I was leading jumped over me . I could have wept ! That rosette should have been mine

Used to love watching the showjumping on TV & discussing it all at great length with my horsey friends , the next day at school . I was mad on Graham Fletcher

& a foreign rider called Ferdi Tyteca ( probably spelt wrong , sorry ). The females used to go wild when he entered the ring . Then he got older & the last time I saw him on TV , he was met with polite applause , poor man !

 

[k1963]

My Mum was always bit miffed that we helped at the riding school for no pay or free rides , but said ' You will have great memories ' & she was right .

Last one for now - On the riding holiday , we thought it hilarious to sew up the sleeping bags , but the owner was not best pleased when we tired of that one & decided to put dung in them instead ......

 

[Hippona]

Aahhh...back in the day.....

Usual stuff- barebacking pony up from field, no hat....all the local bus drivers used to know me by sight and tell my mum what I'd been up to.

Riding in the dark...no Hi Viz in them days.

Jumping the drain covers along the wide verges with cars whizzing past your ankle......
Galloping/cantering along any stretch of grass or track...(ponies never seemed to go lame in those days) and then wondering why it was that the ponies used to set off at full pelt whenever we rode out at the same place again....

Riding accross the school field in the summer holidays...

Elastic chin strap flipped over your brim for aesthetic purposes.

Green quilted waistcoat and rubber riding boots - carrier bags over your feet in winter as a nod to insulation.

Straights....none of this mixed and balanced feeding...my pony was fed oats/cereal and mollasses and HAD to be ridden daily otherwise it went (even more) demented...wonder why that was then ??!!

 

[Finnbob]

Jumping picnic tables on little ponies, not at home I mean out at proper picnic spots! Jumping groynes on the beach, never knowing if there was a step up or a huge drop the other side. Riding one back to the field (in just a headcollar) and leading a couple more.

Can also admit to jumping over other kids and being jumped myself!

 

[Fletchersmum]

Aahh a trip down memory lane, do kids have as much fun these days with their ponys? will they be able to tell funny stories to their kids and grandkids as we are??

Another funny thing I remember my friends and myself were riding our ponies out when we saw this beautiful stretch of lovely flat grass, with a bit of an incline, perfect for a gallop!!

We proceeded to line up our ponies and then went hell for leather to the top what fun. When we looked back there were whopping great holes and divots in the immaculately mowed grass and a man waving his fists furiously at us

We had just ruined his pristine golf course!! ooops

 

[ribena73]

This is so funny!! For me it was

riding from field to house and back again in headcollar and not hat (down busy road and though housing estate with a canter in the park)

lying under jumps while others jumped over us

deciding that actually I wanted to ride side saddle cos I wanted to be able to ride in a dress, so just sat sideways on the horse with one foot in the stirrup. Went well until I decided to have a jump then obviously fell off

Sleeping in the hay barn the night before a show to make sure we were up the farm early to get the horses ready

Stuffing second had riding hats with foam and the elastic chin strap with the knot of course

And probably many more but don't have time to think of them!

 

[Wasrandyra]

It started early for me

My mum used to hack with me on the front of the saddle when I was about 3/ including cantering etc.

I decided that I didnt need her . We kept the horses in a loose yard so they could wander about and I somehow managed to lure a horse next to the wall I had clambered onto and get on its back. Getting off was much more scary so mum found me in the 'yard' with little fingers knotted into the horses mane while she ate her hay with jam sandwich all over her neck and mane ( and me) I was 4!!!!

Later childhood led to cowboys and indians in headcollars, rarely putting a saddle on in the summer and wading off into the sea to swim the ponies. Jumping anything - safe or otherwise.

Wore a velvet hat with elastic strap which I also used to flip up. My mum used to ride in a headscarf like the queen lol!

Cantering on verges, hearding sheep and falling off a lot with bare legs into either brambles/stinging nettles - usually without a hat on . I used to think I only needed a hat if I was going on the road - WHAT!!!!????

Happy days

 

[SaffronWelshDragon]

Brilliant thread!

Obviously the mandatory bareback riding, we also did the headcollar and leadrope races up the fields which the ponies loved. Vaulting over the ponies back and doing a forward roll on the other side. Cantering along wide grass verges next to the road and trying not get decapitated by the steel wire coming down diagonally from the telephone / electricity posts.

We also used to ride across golf courses (albiet legally on a bridleway), although there was a toll ride at the top, which didn't have the key for. One day we went up there and someone had left the gate open, great we think and go through the gate. My sister, which was behind accidently let the gate go and it swung shut, locking us in. We panicked, thinking that we'd get a bollocking if we got caught without a pass and had to devise an escape route which involved jumping a fence and getting the horses to climb an embankment which was thick with bushes. They did it, bless 'em, but we came out way off the bridleway onto the golf course green! Had to creep back to the bridleway without being seen. Great times!

 

[Bug]

This post has had me crying in the office!

I have done the usual bareback riding the r/s ponies down the road, leading 2!

Also, I used to drive the tractor at the riding school when I was about 12,

with lots of girls on the back, chucking off hay etc into the fields. The amount of girls that used to fall off when the accelerator got stuck down and you had to stand up onto the brake to get that to work....

My friend and I used to ride her 17hh ex hunter together down the lane to collect the glass milk bottles and then canter back up the verges holding onto them and each other!

 

[sally2008]

What a great thread. I remember learning to drive the yard dumper truck aged 11, travelling to shows standing up in the back of the trailer with the horses and waiting until all the construction workers had gone home then racing our beasts from bridge to bridge, dodging the machinery along the way, on what is now the M25 - before they laid the road surface I hasten to add! OMG how that ages me!

 

[Fletchersmum]

It was a long walk from home for me and my friend to our ponys stables about 3 miles, we used to caj a lift back with someone from the yard, or one of our dads would collect us. This meant spending all day at the yard in our holidays. We would take sandwiches and climb to the very top of the hayloft and eat our lunch. The summers always seemed so hot then and the holidays lasted for ever.

Then we would have hose fights to cool each other down, which we thought was hilarious, we dared each other to soak the next person who came round the corner of the stable block. Once we could heard one of the stable girls on her way round the corner ,so there we were poised with hose, when the YOs husband walked round the corner all dressed up in his tweeds ready to go shooting, he got such a soaking OMG we had such a bo****ing.

 

[k1963]

I'd forgotten ( it's my age

) about chucking hay off the back of vehicles at the riding school . That was ok , but there was always your arch enemy ready to push you off the truck

When I rode in Epping forest they decided to put down sand tracks & long tracks covered in that ' tan ' type of stuff ( like you get in indoor schools . ) These were great as you could go for a burn up on them & our instructor used to set us off in pairs so we could race . I was coming around a bend at full pelt on a really slow old cob ( until he got onto the track , then he thought he was a racehorse !) when I saw a woman practising dressage

I yelled ' Sorry , I can't stop ! ) & told my instructor who said not to worry , I'd never see the woman again .

A few years later, I was being interviewed for a job at a Saddlery shop . I got the job but my boss had a secretary . Yes , it was dressage woman

. Not a day went by when she didn't say ' I'm sure I know you , did you ever ride in the forest ?'
I had to admit that I had , but lied about the tracks , saying my instructor wouldn't let us on the tracks because she thought the going was unpredictable , etc , etc .

Stayed in the job for for 3 years & Dressage woman must have known I was the racing teenager , but probably decided it was a bit late to confront me & no harm came to her or her horse ( who looked so bored he tried to join us! )

 

[destiny11]

Great thread

Also remember helping with a RS and riding a pony bareback whilst leading one on either side for two miles along a busy A road!! Also, woman who owned it used to make us trot all the way

 

[SecretSquirrell379]

I used to get off of the school bus when I was about 8 and go straight down to the field and pick up my pony for the weekend

his headcollar was hidden in the bushes somewhere, just put that on and jump on, lead rope as reins. Didn't think anything of riding home with no tack, no hat and along a main road. If there was too much traffic I used to just ride on the pavement!! we rode through the woods full pelt and thought it was quite funny when we were grotted across the throat by a branch and fell straight off the back!!! We were gone for hours and my Mum never used to worry, we used to gallop across the back of the prison and think we were really brave!!!

 

[lisan]

This post has really made me laugh!

When I was still at Primary School we had two ponies kept at home, so I had to ride one bareback (headcollar and leadrope) and lead the other to about half a mile to the field everyday before school, can’t remember if I wore hat!

We lived a field away from the beach, so did most of my riding galloping up and down there, alone one day, thought I could make it from one slip road to the next before the tide came in, but we did’nt make it and had to make the poor pony scramble up the sea wall!!!!!!!

Used to go on all day hacks too with a picnic for lunch while mum was at work so no one even knew where we were

Hand me down hats with elastic chinstraps and a knot in them

Practicing vaulting on and going right over the top ending up in a pile on the other side, leapfrogging onto my 10.2 pony – poor pony!

oh, those were the days

And how H&S was our mum - my and my sis

on my pony grazing on the lawn!!

 

[k1963]

What a great picture

Sorry to keep going on , but every time I sit down , I think of something else !

There was a part of the forest which was very narrow & the tree roots had grown along , making it like a jumping lane , which is what we used it for. One day , it was sealed off with tape so my instructor went to ask the policeman what the problem was ( she feared a dead body from a gangland killing which happened , but this was rare .)
Turned out we'd been thundering along our ' jumping lane ' with an unexploded WW2 bomb underneath

 

[Janah]

Riding one and leading two to the field, all in headcolllars. Going out at night and riding my friends pony in the dark with both of us on until we met overhanging branch, as I was always on back got swept off. Jumping 5 bar gates with just a headcollar and leadrope, no saddle. Later on, jumping lane with no stirrups or reins and that was a bhs exam centre! Sometimes jumping lane taking our jackets off.

Sneaking out at night and riding anything within a 2 mile radius (sorry) never even knew if broken in to ride.

Jane

 

[brighteyes]

<font color="blue"> and riding anything within a 2 mile radius (sorry) never even knew if broken in to ride. </font>

Well it was afterwards! Must have been a widespread thing

 

[hoggedmane]

Riding in the back of a huge lorry - 10 ponies and 10 girls on the way to shows. I remember we passed the airport one day as a plane took off and all the ponies reared.

Jumping the hedge bareback on the way in from the field rather than open the gate....

in the dark!!

One year the field I jumped into was a hay field and the farmer was repairing the fence in the hedge. He heard hooves and stood up and waved. Luckily he ducked just in time as my 14.2 went over his head on her way to the hay!

long white waxed coats! now who thought of that idea?

ponies never had rugs or were clipped. Didn't seem to make much difference then!

I rode my pony to a show and competed in jumping and chase me charlie with my leg in plaster from a fall the previous weekend where I had smashed four bones in my foot. They made me stop jumping when it got to 3 foot!

 

[Chavhorse]

I told my mum about this thread last night (have printed it and will send it to her) she insisted I confess to the time shortly after Mum and Dad had taken my sister and I on Holiday to Holland and taken us to see the Trotter Racing.

No prizes for guessing what happened on our return....Two peices rope leading from the headcollars one old pram and the trolley used for carting the hay bales on. Luckily the field was too rutted to allow us to get any serious speed up and the rope was long enough so that the ponies kicking out actually missed our heads. We then decided we would be better off going up the drive round the stables and back as the tarmac would give us more traction....cue my sister spending the night in hospital and the loss of a family heirloom which had carried generations of babies.

She also reminded me of the time we turned the pond into the water jump at badminton with the use of small jump in and out "I heard this commotion and came outside to see you and Sara popping over the jump giving a bounce stride in the pond and popping out again I should have been angry but was too impressed that you had manged to place the jumps correctly to get the striding right"

I had what you may call an unconventional childhood

 

[Fazzie]

Ive done all the usual, riding bare back with 2 up, leap frog, etc such fun

probably the 'naughtiest' thing me and my mates did was bring my little 11.2 section a sapphire into my parents house, all had a ride round until she decided to leave a present behind in the hall!!!!!! we were terrified and about 10 of us were all cleaning it up and soaked the carpet through , as soon as mum walked through the door she knew

dad had to buy a new carpet

luckily my parents were quite cool about it and i didnt get too much of a telling off