How horse care has changed....

Do you remember those string vests we used on sweaty horses? Mine was bright yellow on a liver-chestnut mare - very garish but I thought it was the bees knees! I had the yellow string vest and one New Zealand - only used in horrible weather - which was 2 rugs more than most of my friends. Grass livery was £5 per week in 1981.
 
NoCollection said:
Do you remember those string vests we used on sweaty horses? Mine was bright yellow on a liver-chestnut mare - very garish but I thought it was the bees knees! I had the yellow string vest and one New Zealand - only used in horrible weather - which was 2 rugs more than most of my friends. Grass livery was £5 per week in 1981.
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I still use these on my horses! :) With a layer of straw underneath to dry them of (thatching)
 
All of this is true and how much I had forgotten, I have a habit for collecting rugs, back in the day we used just a new Zealand and if it got really cold then popped a duvet underneath, I am only 36 so how fast things have changed :)
 
I'm sure modern string rugs won't have the same characteristics, ie not fitting any horse in the yard, they were fine on day one, but after that, they dragged down to the knees at the front, so you had to get a roller to allow the horse to be walked or it would trip up, they did remove sweat, but then you had to somehow fit a jute rug on top to make sure horses did not "break out", then you had to go in later, remove the jute rug, and groom out the criss-cross marks with a body brush, and if the horse was wet you had to walk it for twenty minutes and do the whole thing all over again. by this time the string rug had stretched over the tailhead, so you had to fold it here and there before you went back to report on the problem, then of course it was time to check on the horse and put his witney blanket on, with a jute rug and roller, plus skip out and "set fair" the straw bed. His wooden barrel type bucket had to be topped up using two galvanised buckets [they had two little ridges] which you had put outside his stable to make sure it was not too cold.
On hunting nights they had grey woollen bandages with cotton tapes which had to be ironed to make them flat , and you had to make an bow tie knot on the outer side, so it all looked neat, obviously he had to have his tail bandage removed, or you would not have a job in the morning.
 
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Rubber matting is something else which is new. I'm using straw for now, but most of the other stables where I've got my mare have matting.

I think straw beds, done well, are a work of art. I take great pleasure in building up the edges and laying a lovely deep bed, mixing fresh and used straw to discourage eating.... I love the feel of the fork (we called pitch forks "pikels" here in the north) working through the straw. Simple pleasures.

Rubber matting just doesn't have that sort of appeal. But then, I've never come across it before. I guess it must have its plus points as so many people seem to use it.
 
And how about putting jute rugs on upside down, on a sweaty horse, sometimes with a string rug plus straw thatch underneath? Bran mashes and stable bandages all round after hunting, any remaining mud removed next day with a cactus cloth.
 
What exactly do those string vests do? I remember seeing them as a child but not knowing what they did. I still thatch to this day though, can't afford something as fancy as a thermatex!
 
On a different note, I grew up in Hong Kong whre you either rode polo ponies or ex race horses. The polo ponies were 13.2 max, all Borneo stallions, unshod and never sick or sorry. They carried grown men on the polo field and us kids the rest of the time. All kept in stalls with no bedding in open sided barns, turn out was rare maybe tethered if they were lucky. Tack mostly consisted of rubber pelhams with roundings, no sight of a snaffle EVER! Believe me, you needed the brakes when your mount decided to mount anything stationery or took a dislike to the pony next to him. Saddles were plonked onto red towels folded in half, with maybe a lump of foam at the front to prevent sores. Boots and bandages were unheard of. To get to polo matches they were loaded in an 3 toner lorry, crammed in across ways, with a long piece of rope going from the front to the back, herringbone between the ponies. No roof either!

The horses were a bit luckier, they got loose boxes and a greater variety of bits, bridles and saddles. They were also more sane! Worst of all was riding in an army Universal Pattern saddle, fits any equine but is like sitting on highly polished lump of concrete.
 
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MiCsarah, the idea of string vests was they let a sweaty horse dry, but prevented them cooling down too quickly. They were used a lot on race horses, you'd see the vest being chucked on steaming horses after the race. I don't really watch racing though, so I don't know if they still do that.
 
omg I still feel the rub of the saddles, I mean they rubbed everywhere, especially inner thigh and the leathers used to "snap" together, trapping a thin fold of skin on ones calves. If on a one sided horse and had to gallop on it for a while, one arm was pulled out of its sockets, and one leg was under severe strain. The leather was hard as iron, any attempt to add saddle soap removed the colour but did not make any difference to the leather, unless Neatsfoot oil was used, in which case one had a big brown stain on the "cavalry twill" joddies [elephant ears], but now I am going back to the 1950's and most stuff was "ex army", ie khaki.
No wonder we preferred riding bareback, as long as the horse had a normal spine, any suggestion of high withers, and we gave it a swerve.
 
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JenHunt said:
numnahs that didn't have fluff on them and no-one used square saddle pads
numnahs only came in cotton, in black, brown or navy - green if you were really lucky!
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I prefer numnahs to saddle cloths (why get more of the horse hot and sweaty than you have to?) and got a very odd look from the shop assistant when I asked for a thin cotton numnah recently.
 
I'm starting to feel really old now, as I've a couple of nz rugs, waxed jacket a husky jacket, stringed girths and sweat rugs, boots, tendon boots, all over 30 years old and a 40 year old horse blanket that I put on my bed in winter, when it's really cold(best thing ever), no wonder my horses looked as snuck as a bug in a rug. But I do like the new rugs, just that you seem to have so many for differant things/temperature and they cost a fortune to have cleaned,mine seem to have 4/5 each I've lost count and yes I've also got 3 jute rugs:o:o:o:o
 
This is a great post!! I remember having to make a wisp at a PC stable management competition.
Felt brushing boots with straps! No back protector or chin strap when eventing! String rugs and green NZs - how I remember them. When I was based with an eventing trainer in the West Country in the early 80s and all the horses were only fed whole oats! And the first 15 minutes of every day was spent doing rising trot without stirrups - I can feel the agony still!
Never travelled a horse in boots only a tail bandage. Hunters bandaged with straw under. Straw thatching under string rug with upside down jute rug. Then changed when dry to Witney blankets and the jute rug the right way up with an anti-cast roller.
When did COPD appear? Never remember any problems - all horses on straw and hay. Must be the chemicals sprayed on the fields.
Hours spent at this time of the year bombing round stubble fields jumping the bales.
Hacked to every meet and PC camp.
 
Well, I still wear old quilted Lavenham jackets and old puffa jackets, I've never found a jacket as warm as the Puffa's since!

Does anyone remember the Lavenham blue and red stable rugs?
 
when i rode as a child jodhpurs ALL had the elastic under your foot to stop them riding up.

When i got back into horses last year i just assumed jods would still have elastics - but alas, it seems that they no longer do (and now, because i ride in short boots and no chaps) my jods ping up above my boots :(

Also when i was 11 i went to a week long residential riding holiday - in the evenings after tea we (the 6 kids there) were allowed to go out to the indoor school by ourselves and play with the jumps and do whatever we wanted. I think H&S would put a stop to that now - lord, we cant have unsupervised children having fun now can we!
 
I wonder how much of the "appearance" of COPD is down to better diagnosis.

My old boy Bamber (bought in 1972) was broken winded and later had some heart issues. But the vets didn't seem to do much except give him yellow medicine which he hated. It would be added to his food, and he'd circle his upper lip in his bucket to bring the pony cubes to the surface then just eat those, presumably as they'd not soaked up the medicine as much as the bran and oats! He choked once doing that, I had to get the vet out again as he had all his pony nuts stuck in his throat in a big lump!

Diagnosis of breathing disorders did seem pretty basic!

Mind you, the treatment of my asthma was pretty basic too!
 
On the yard I worked on in 1970-72, there was an elderly man (in his 70s I think) who was a retired groom who came just to be around horses. He told us to wash the greys in "Dolly Blue". And old groom's trick, he said.

I've looked it up, Dolly Blue was a Bolton made cleaning product which had some sort of bleach which gave whites a blue glow. I wonder what it did to the poor horses' skin?

I don't think we followed his advice by the way, I think Dolly Blue had already gone out of production.
 
That reminds me. I used to spend all my time down the riding school at summer holidays. We used to sleep in the old hay loft with a deaf dog for protection while the only adults were about 5 mins walk away. Uses to bring ponies in from the field bareback and were often left to our own devices
 
FionaM12 said:
On the yard I worked on in 1970-72, there was an elderly man (in his 70s I think) who was a retired groom who came just to be around horses. He told us to wash the greys in "Dolly Blue". And old groom's trick, he said.

I've looked it up, Dolly Blue was a Bolton made cleaning product which had some sort of bleach which gave whites a blue glow. I wonder what it did to the poor horses' skin?

I don't think we followed his advice by the way, I think Dolly Blue had already gone out of production.
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No it hasn't, someone on one of my showing forums had found a source for it. Its only the same as the blue rinse powder we buy from Supreme Products now.

My granny used to use it to make her whites "blue" white. I can remember the TV ads which used to make it sound like a competition as to who could have the whitest washing on the line.
 
MiCsarah said:
That reminds me. I used to spend all my time down the riding school at summer holidays. We used to sleep in the old hay loft with a deaf dog for protection while the only adults were about 5 mins walk away. Uses to bring ponies in from the field bareback and were often left to our own devices
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Haha, "a deaf dog for protection" :D Nowadays it'd all be risk assessed and be found to be breaking H&S rules! I hung out at a riding school too and used to go into the field which was hidden by the indoor arena, and climb onto the ponies in the field and try to steer without tack! We usually ended up bruised and laughing on our backs in the grass.

We also used to load the horses into a cattle wagon to go to the beach. Fully tacked, each one loaded crosswise with a pole between to keep them in place. No boots or bandages.

It wasn't any safer for us. A bunch of us teenage girls would pile into the cab, one of us on the parcel shelf. If we ran out of room one or two of us would cram ourselves in the back with the horses.

Our reward was the chance of a gallop on Formby beach sands, and maybe ride into the sea. Bliss.
 
VLHIEASTON said:
Well, I still wear old quilted Lavenham jackets and old puffa jackets, I've never found a jacket as warm as the Puffa's since!

Does anyone remember the Lavenham blue and red stable rugs?
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I do - I bought one for my horse - a lovely dapple grey he looked so smart in it but it was. His was the first on the yard. They only came in one weight which wasn't quite enough for a clipped horse and it was really hard to put a Whitney under it.
 
You lot must have been posh compared to us.

I remember buying my underblankets from Oxfam not Whitney.

My mother refused to walk round town with me carrying Oxfam bags
 
FionaM12 said:
They still manufacture Dolly Blue? I thought it was just a bit of history. Gobsmacked.
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Dolly Blue was fantatsic for getting yellow tails white :)

Does anyone else still use eggwhites when plaiting manes? works better than any plaiting lotions you can buy and make the plaits lovely and glossy.
 
Evelyn said:
Ginger cat I don't use it now but would seperate a couple of eggs when mum wasn't looking and steal the egg whisk and a bowl and whisk them up when I got to the stables.
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Thanks for that tip. I am having to plait now after years of just running the clippers over hogged manes.
 
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