How it used to be in the days of yore!!

Achinghips

Achinghips

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I remember:
Days of no hi-viz, no hat, no safety stirrups, not worrying when it snowed and the horse had no rug, feeding bran mashes and soaking sugarbeet PELLETS, not worrying about “working from behind” or“collection”, having a ciggy on horseback and keeping polos in my pocket to hide the smell from my dad and giving the rest only sometimes to the pony, breaking my arm on a motorbike and telling my mum I came off the horse when she had to pick me up at hospital, tying the horse up to a park bench on a busy road and then going into the post office to buy penny chews and a copy of “Tammy” and cantering on the road to get back to the field before dark.

Now tell me I'm norty:D
 
Smokers among riding friends/collegues (including me!) always used to enjoy a ciggie while out. When I was working in a flat racing yard, the first thing to come out of the pocket after a bit of work was a packet of fags, and we all used to enjoy a quiet smoke while the horses cooled off (but not if the guvnor was watching). My most favourite rides of my youth were summer evening ones to the pub, and then riding home with great hilarity and rather worse for wear. Happy days.....
 
Going out on my pony for a whole day in the summer hols--no worry about traffic/ peadophiles or whatever!
Hacking to shows.
shoeing costing 12/6 (75p in todays money)
Hay 10s. (50p)
boiling barley for hours on end.
I was good girl! lol
 
I wish I'd had a pony or horse in the days of yore, it sounds like fun (except for the rugs, I have seen them before and they were rubbish!)
 
NZ rugs were vile, rubbed like crazy on the withers, all the horses of my friends had white hair at the end of their manes, poor things.

I remember raiding my dads bar and putting a load of whisky in a panda pops bottle, going out for a hack and being so drunk, I'd get on the saddle and come right off the other side, landing flat on my back while my steady cob carried on eating grass, nothing would move the bugger - he was like Dawn French's pony from that video!!

oh and riding all the time in Adidas Trainers!!
 
Hacking out bareback with just a headcollar for brakes and steering; no hat :eek: barefoot (pony) flip flops (me) :D:D ; 10lb bag of pony nuts from the local pet shop 2/6 (thats 12.5p today).

Could probably think of more if I could de-addle my brain! Those were the days ;)

Fairy
 
Hacking miles and miles to shows and hunts, jumping 5 bar gates, and yes, bran mashes too! This was in the 1980's rural Peak District.
 
You mean you guys don't still ride in nowt but headcollars? Don't just chuck your beast in a field for the winter and drag it out for a day of amusement?!?

Man I need to catch up with the times!
 
... cutting up my mum's bedsheets and tying them on with her dressing gown belt due to sweet itch. Boy did I get a wallop across the head for that - and she used to wear about 5 rings on her hands!
 
Cantering on every grass verge we came to!
The cob was absolutely bombproof, the daytime traffic only consisted of tractors and lorries (very few families had more than 1 car and that was parked outside work all day) and the verges were kept mowed & litter-free.
These days, the verges are overgrown and full of litter and even on the most bombproof horse I'd be very wary of the volume of idiotic drivers on the roads.
 
I cantered on an inappropriate verge the other day and felt a little burst of secret glee at my naughtiness. :)

I was thinking about childhood horsey things earlier, for some reason I remembered the term 'stargazer' being used a lot by the all-knowing lady at the local yard where I bought my pony (the same lady who insisted all her clients cut the little rubber spur rests off their long rubber boots because they were cruel) ;).
 
I saw in the news a few months ago (cant remember if it was on tv or here) someone set up a pub for riders so they can ride to the pub and tie the horses outside to the posts (western stylee) while they had a wee drink. Need some more of them :D
 
Admittedly it wasnt soooo many years ago (at least I'd like to think I wasnt thaaat old) but when I was younger I shared a horse with my sister, out hacking one would ride, one would rollerblade. Lead rope attached to the saddle so pony could pull the rollerblader up the hills :)

Those were the days!!
 
riding in a headcollar and a maxi skirt sat sideways on the pony. riding to the pub. going out all day with a packet of crisps and a bottle of lemonade. swimming with the pony in the river. never clipping or rugging.
 
cantering on grass verges, hacking out before school, walking down the field wearing only a bikini jumping on bareback and galloping back to the gate. Being out on a hack on my own for 3-4hrs and getting home to Sunday lunch on the table (and having to sit on a newspaper in jods to stop getting the chair horsey).
 
Oh yes! Cantering along grass verges and trying to get the ponies to jump peoples' driveways:o

And, as I just remembered on the 'bran mash' thread, using hot bran as a poultice, held over the foot with old walking socks... and neat iodine slapped on any wound, big or small, whether it belonged to the horse or to you...:D

Spending ages polishing brass bit rings, stirrups and even the studs on the saddle with Brasso.

AND the fact you could have horsey stuff in any colour, as long as it was black or brown. But mostly brown...
 
Ooooooh I love this kind of post a bit of nostalgia, here goes .......

My parents were quite strict with me going out in the evenings :( so I used to take my pony riding regularly in the evening to meet my boyfriend (whoever he was at the time)!!!

NZ and jute rugs, hacking several miles to go to a show, hunt meet, PC rallies etc. A crap (but reliable) farrier who had 2 size of shoes, a pony size and horse size and he damn well made the HOOF to fit the shoe!! :( :( No wonder the poor chap was always lame!! Galloping across the moor down hill with my friends saddleless and probably hatless (my
mother was chief instructor of the PC at the time) the list goes on ........
 
Goya said:
Going out on my pony for a whole day in the summer hols--no worry about traffic/ peadophiles or whatever!
Hacking to shows.
shoeing costing 12/6 (75p in todays money)
Hay 10s. (50p)
boiling barley for hours on end.
I was good girl! lol
Click to expand...


Goya we must have been doing this in the same era, I remember it well. The blacksmith wouldn't dream of visiting, I had to ride miles to take the pony to his forge. We used to make our own chaff on a manual chaffcutter that my Dad found at a farm sale. Oooh and the all day rides/adventures on our ponies, with our duffle bags containing our sandwiches.....riding home just as it was getting dark. Happy days.
 
all of these things plus the smell of liniment, cough electuary (?), green oils, hoof oil in the 'red tin' and Stockholme Tar .I used to leave after breakfast and ride for hours on the moors then tie Molly up to a tree (:O) while I had a quick dip in the burn. Back home for tea and Molly turned out after eating a BRAN mash with some treacle in it. There seems to be quite a few of us old farts still around, my blacksmith charged 2/6 pence which was a fortune back then. I got 3d for pocket money and thought I was rich:) I used to read the Bunty and the HandH which was in black and white and was chock a block with racing news and hunting. Wish I had kept them :( Yep, things were different and possibly better because we had less.
 
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