How long have you owned horses - how times have changed

S

SpruceRI

Well-Known Member
Joined
3 July 2006
Messages
5,368
Visit site
I've owned my own horses for 19yrs, and always kept them at non-horsey private homes or farms.

Was thinking the other day how times have changed:

When I got my first horse, he wore a blanket lined green waxed canvas rug, with a surcingle over the top to keep it straight (never worked). The leg straps and chest straps were made out of thick pigskin leather which were really stiff to undo and all the buckles rusted. The rain did eventually soak through so if you took the rug off off they took about 3 days to dry, plus they weighed a ton. Think my boy Flynn only had one New Zealand rug in those days, so presume he just got wet the rest of the time.

Feed: Basic pony nuts, and a hot bran mash on a cold Sunday after a long ride. Well, I say a long ride, probably no more than 1 1/2hrs of walk and trot, but as I was frozen solid in my draughty wax jacket and cheapo rubber riding boots, I presumed he was!

Don't think I ever had his teeth done.

Kissing spines and a bad back were unheard of, although many horses had white marks on their withers where their rugs rubbed (or their saddles)

Hay: you got the choice of meadow or seed hay. I always bought the cheapest and I think 30 bales used to last all year.

Christmas Day: you never saw a soul about so I used to ride the traffic-shy Flynn into the Town Centre and Dad took pics of us outside the Town Hall and on the cinema steps!

Show Jumps: mine were made out of old pallets, buckets and hop poles. I have one remaining hop pole, acquired 2nd hand, a bit thin now, but 20yrs + life, not bad for a jump pole!

What other happy memories of days gone by do you lot have?
 
I was thinking this just the other day when someone kindly send me a quilted blue stable rug with silver, sparkly shooting stars over it for daughters new pony. When I was a kid we just had jute rugs and New Zealands.

Cavaletti's - does anyone still use these? These made up every possible combination of jump that I could think of, combined with oil drums in the little bit of paddock I used for a bit of practise.

Bits - I am sure there were only snaffles, kimblewicks, pelhams and gags and most of them were nickel.
 
Ha!!! Ive owned horse 23 years. I remember the green NZ rugs and wax jackets that both went as stiff as a board when wet!!!! Stable rugs only came in blue and red.
My livery bill ( full livery ) was £11.50 a week including hay/ straw/ feed ( chop, bran and sugarbeet! ) and stable plus he was used for an hour a day on the riding school so exercised as well!!! A full set of shoes cost £16.50..... WTF!!!!!!!
crazy.gif
grin.gif
crazy.gif
 
Flynn was lucky enough to have a quilted stable rug. It was blue and red!!!

I still possess 2 jute rugs, one for Rosie and one chopped down to fit Inks the Shetland, as you couldn't get hold of rugs for Shetlands in those days!

I rented that field with 2 stables for £100 a year! What bliss. Now I pay more than that a month!!
 
I have had horses since I was about 5 years old, like Stinkbomb and Ravenwood green canvas NZ's, jute rugs and leather rollers were the norm. We fed straights and gave bran mashes, saddles had serge linings, I can't remember ever having a saddle cloth, and you used snaffles, kimblewicks, pelhams or doubles. Nylon headcollars weren't about that I recall, we had those grey chrome leather ones, or prickly hemp rope halters.

Oh yes, since 1970 things have changed a lot, much of the new stuff is good, a lot of the old horsemanship has been brushed under the rubber matting and forgotten, that isn't entirely bad, but not all good either.

I sound like my Grand Mother reminiscing about the 1920's. Hmmmmm.
 
Have had two-stage horsiness: riding school slave as a child a very long time ago and didn't get my own pony until I was 47 - but it's never too late to have a happy childhood! When I started riding again 10 years ago I had to start from scratch as I learned to ride in the old grip-with-your-knees chair seat.

I'm amazed at the variety of tack there is now - I gaze in wonder at all the bits in catalogues and wonder if anyone out there knows what they all do - when I was a kid you had a snaffle and if you were a very very good rider you had a double or a pelham. But I think horses suffered a lot in the past with badly fitting saddles and those string girths that gave horses horrible painful galls are thankfully gone. The new materials in tack and rugs have definitely made horses' lives easier.

My treasure as a kid was my riding raincoat - a long white rubbery object, freezing cold and impossible to clean - I used to scrub it with a nailbrush and it became more and more unsanitory but I thought it was the coolest thing.
 
I had a long yellow rubbery raincoat! It was revolting!

I also was a child-slave before I talked parents into buying me a ned.

Used to work for a couple who kept sheep, goats and ponies on a small holding. The wife had been in hospital for a month, and hubbie couldn't cope with the animals, so he'd fed them and chucked straw bedding over the door, and the beds were about 2ft high, and the goats' heads were touching the roof!! Worked there all through one winter. 8hrs of mucking out per day (took 2 of us a whole Sat and Sunday to muck out one stable!) for an hours ride each day!
How many kids would do that these days? None I bet?
 
Oh God yes, horrible red string girth that always got tangled up in itself and took a degree in rocket science to straighten it. The only nuts I can remember being on the market were Main Ring Blue, Red and Green and suppliments - table salt! I would think nothing of hacking for 4 hours on my own and remember having no reservations about riding over the M1 bridge in Leicestershire with heavy lorries flying by the side of me. One green NZ and a brown jute rug with 3 blankets underneath which you had to fold over in a correct manner before putting sursingle on. We would hack for miles to local gymkhanas. You were taught 'heels down, toes in and grip'.

Thank the Lord we have moved on
laugh.gif
 
Started horse ownership 30ys ago but had a 6yr break. I dont remember ever feeding mixes it was always straights. No one fed haylage. I remember the horrible canvas NZ, & Boxing day pub rides. Hardly anyone at the yard had a box, so hired David Mansbridge who was the local transport guy. Not the posh horseboxes of today, more like a cattle box. People still bought dodgy horses off dodgy dealers, horses were still being stolen & freezemarking was starting to take off because of it. I love the rugs of today, the colours, the fancy clips, haylage, rubber mats, the fact I have learnt so much & continue to & that my horses have benifited from it. I also love the fact that if my mare had fractured her splint bone 30yrs ago, she would have been PTS. The only think I miss, the lack of traffic on the roads.
 
Bought my first horse 30 years ago - a 16.2 IDx hunter type, cost £800 including all tack, as honest as anything. Had a green canvass NZ and a jute rug. We used to put some foam under the surcingle to stop it rubbing. There weren't any travelling farriers then, so I used to take a day off work and hack to the forge and then back again. Grass nuts had just been invented
smile.gif
- we used to feed them with oats and bran. There weren't many wormers about - there was one (can't remember the name) that was blue pellets and we were banned from using it coz it killed YO's chickens
shocked.gif
. We never poo-picked, all the livery horses were in together and then moved to the next field, the fields were harrowed and cattle used to graze them after the horses. There was much less traffic and I don't remember ever getting abuse from anyone when I was out riding - unlike today.
 
Bought my first horse 30 years ago - a 16.2 IDx hunter type, cost £800 including all tack, as honest as anything. Had a green canvass NZ and a jute rug. We used to put some foam under the surcingle to stop it rubbing. There weren't any travelling farriers then, so I used to take a day off work and hack to the forge and then back again. Grass nuts had just been invented
smile.gif
- we used to feed them with oats and bran. There weren't many wormers about - there was one (can't remember the name) that was blue pellets and we were ban
 
I did the riding school slave thing and look back on it as being a fantastic time. We were lucky to earn a free ride and I think to pay for an hours lesson or hack was 7/6d (about 35p). I remember it being quite an innovation to have a blue new zealand instead of the bog standard green. Jute rugs which became kind of stiff with poo were replaced with nylon quilted stable rugs. Drop nosebands were commonly used and twisted snaffles. Having a saddle with knee rolls and a deep seat was very desirable but most were like old hunt saddles with flatish seats and serge linings. When I look back at how I kept my first horse in the 70's /80's it's so different to now. English leather was the norm for tack as the only imported "indian" leather saddles really were awful and fell apart. I used to ride out in a hacking jacket because it was practicle and warm. Jods were not stretchy at first and only in beige. We used to ride and lead two horses bareback in headcollars along a road to take them to their fields with no hats, would'nt get away with that now. Anyway feeling very nostalgic and old now!
 
I've been a horse owner for 27 years and yes, my first horse did have a canvas New Zealand and a jute rug! In the winter there would always be a big pot of barley boiling away on the stove in the tackroom!

However, 27 years on, I'm still using hop poles for jumps - so some things never change!
 
Tack is lots more colourful.

Saddles no longer look like tools of torture (For horse and rider)!

Leg protection was bandages.

Rugs were just canvas New Zealands, Jute or wool. Sweat rugs were those funny holey things. (Thank goodness for progress).

You only ever saw Hunting horses or very fine horses/ponies in rugs. Anything that could develop a good coat was fine without.

Rubber reins, rein stops etc were always in Orange.

Hats just had a single strap under the chin and were about 5mm thick.

Buckets were yellow, black or white.

Feed was straights or nuts.

For me most things have changed for the better
smile.gif
 
Although I haven't owned horses for as long as the majority of people as i am still under 20 my pony still has a jute rug - although the leg straps have come off it it is still a fantastic rug and his stable rug is a old style blue and red one. Although he does now have a new turnout rug, his stable rug will do, keeps him dry and i am sure he is gratefull that it isn't a weird colour and covered in glitter.
 
I too had a very long and bulky rubber- lined riding mac. It smelt horrible and had leg straps on - for humans! I remember falling off into some mud and my Mum being really cross with me because she couldn't sponge all the mud off properly. I think it was the stupid mac that made me fall off anyway. I'm sure it must have got caught on a jump as we went over!

We also used to use anything we could get our hands on to make jumps. One of our faves was an upside down hayrack. You used to have to be really accurate jumping through the legs. We also used to jump a lot of drop fences which we'd made on the hill out of dry stone walling. Health and safety - I think not!
 
Oh i remember with my friends horses (didnt have a horse when younger
frown.gif
) that no one seemed that interested in worming or getting teeth done.

Many people mixed their own feed.

Parents refusing to pay for rugs so when horse was washed we got old sheets and stuffed straw underneath and tied it up with rope.

Drivers showed more respect to those out hacking

Saddlecloths/numnahs were a luxury

Most hats didnt come with chin straps!!!

Cantering on grass verges!

Jumps made out of anything you could find, sometimes old wooden backless benches!

Cattle trailers were all you really seen at shows

Feet were done when horse lost a shoe!
 
Oooh the good old days
grin.gif
I remember when no-one had heard of an outline, half chaps or pasture mix - it was galloping round, rubber riding boots and flaked maize all the way!! Jumps were homemade poles balanced on tyres or oil drums, full livery was £15pw, there was no traffic on the roads and you could gallop on the grass verges of the A roads and hardly see a car!

Hmmmm.....I sound like a right old fogie now
blush.gif
 
Frighteningly, 35 years............

I remember only putting my hat on before I went into the ring, caravans towed behind lorries, jute rugs, wing commander style johdpurs, and bareback speed classes at the end of most shows.
I also was a child slave before that, in a riding school that was also a dealing yard, and for a days work we got to ride a pony bareback to the field at the end of the day. Health and safety would have a field day at what we did then, bareback wrestling races, I was taking out hacks of ten to fifteen people as a twelve year old kid, and I remember dealing with the horses with strangles cleaning up their abscesses when I was only ten or so. And spending time trying to get the grass sickness horses to eat something, just horrible, and then one day they'd be gone. The smaller horses and ponies were kept in stalls, and you had to dive in fast to tack up the ones that would kick as you went in to tack them up!
In the 'advanced' class, we were basically the kids who sat on well enough to be put on the horses off the boat so the YO could see what they were like. We used to dread the winter when the TB's were pumped full of oats.......

An amazing education, though, I learned so much, but I'm very glad times have moved on.
 
Wow, awesome thread. I have to say my memories are similar to yours. I had my first pony about 15 years ago.

First pony never had a rug at all. He wore a Dr Bristol with a drop noseband and later a pelham with roundings and a drop noseband. My bridle was Italian leather so we used to soak it in neatsfoot oil for about 2 days before we used it... I remeber being very sad the day AFTER my mum soaked the reins. LOL I had no brakes that morning
grin.gif


Second pony had a NZ rug - massive heavy thing that rubbed her shoulders and whithers. We used to use tea towels over the winter area to help prevent rubbing. She wore a cheltenham gag with one rein (and she stil used to p*ss off with me all the time).

Never even occured to me to have back/teeth checks. Both ponies were kept in a field by themselves and were out 24/7. I remember my mum agreeing to pay livery for a stable for 2 weeks over the Xmas holidays as a special treat and pony had a jute rug to wear then. I thought i was la creme de la creme that Xmas with my STABLED pony LOL.

I never clipped. If pony was hot after a ride, I just waited for her to dry off (mostly) before rerugging. We were quite posh with feed though for those days (
tongue.gif
) and she had a coarse mix with chaff and sugar beet. I think this was mostly because my mum didn't know anything about horses and thought a mix was the safest option than leaving her 12 year old daughter to 'guess' at what a balanced horse diet would mean.

Jumps were either anything we could find out hacking (ditches, gates, hedges) or made of brooms balanced on buckets. Schooling was non existant. The primary aim of hacking was the get to the galloping field and then race my friend's pony.

I had a crash cap with a chin cup, a pair of FREEZING cold rubber riding boots and one of those white 'bobble' back protectors that came down so low that I couldn't sit down in the saddle with it on and had the really humiliating gusset strap. I had constant rows with my mother about wearing it because I loathed it. I distinctly recall riding in a full length suede skirt for most of the summer as it was more comfotable than my horrid nylon jodhs.

God knows how my pony survied looking back, but I had lots of fun!
 
I've been around horses for 40 years now - with a sizable break in the middle - I remember being able to buy a horse for a few £ (literally) - my mums were all insurance write offs or completely mad,

the livery yard we ran bringing in £9 a week from up to 20 horses
crazy.gif


jute rugs with lots of blankets underneath,

stretching thier front legs after saddling as their skin was always pinched in the string girth,

riding in a broken tree saddle and nobody at all blinking an eyelid (it makes me shudder now)
blush.gif
,

No idea in anyones head of a dentist or back person or saddle fitter

Navicular being the end of the road everytime

pony nuts being a new type of food,

feeding flaked maize, bran, oats and sugar beet, being allowed to ride my pony out whereever I liked however long I liked because I had reached the grandly responsible age of 9,

coloured cobs being very inferiour to any other type of horse,

string sweat rugs with a straw thatch underneath,

a cobbled stable yard (why cobbles when they were so difficult to keep clean!),

shavings being posh

having no idea what the term dressage meant and never having a lesson.

few people having transport for their horses and definatly no travel gear

no sign of a gag - it was all snaffles with the odd martingale

riding schools being common - there were 3 on the very small island I lived on

Thank goodness those days have passed in many ways. I don't know if a lot of these things were a sign of the times or just part of my unique childhood
grin.gif
 
I was at my friends yard the other day when I heard some one complain they they could not possibly ride coz they didn't have there 1/2 chaps, When I said 20 years ago we didn't have them he just looked at me like I was mad! He then told me he could not balance with out them because they are suede they stick to the horse & they keep his leg in the correct position with out them his legs are all over the place & he is likely to fall off!

I remember bombing around on ponies jumping bare back, & hacking to local shows. Now there are no local shows in my area ( mostly because of Health and safety laws & insurance ) My Dad waiting at the yard for me to come back from hacks coz I had been gone so long & there was no mobile phone back then!

I must just say though I still think the best cooler rugs are the old string vest type with another rug on top, my one recently disintegrated & am horrified to find that most shops no longer sell them! I had to call about 7 shops before I found one that still stocks them.

Can any one imagine the kids of today thatching a cold wet pony?
 
Well I am 48 next so that would be 48 years, I was born on a farm to family that had working shire horses and bred fells and sections D. My earlist memory is sitting on a vast expance of shire horse back been brought in from work. The horses were worked all day with dinner break nosebag. My father and grandfather worked with horses the 70's. We didnt rug horses up but I remember the next door hunter family having heavy dute rugs and green canvas turn out rugs. I have bred and kept all my horses to the end. When I look at the vast array of horse gear these days it blows my mind I still have no gadgets, or bling still ride in all weathers but my present day horses have a life of Reily compared to how our farm horses used to work. But they were always fit and well and most lived into their late 20's or 30's and once unfit for work were retired off at the farm.
 
Did anyone use a chaff cutter? This was a antique contraption that us riding school slaves had to use as there were no manufactured bags. It was back breaking and seem to take ages to produce enough for 30odd horses!
 
[ QUOTE ]
Did anyone use a chaff cutter?

[/ QUOTE ] I did - used to work at the livery yard at the weekend and remember having to cut the chaff!
 
30+ years, my parents and grandparents were horsey, so I didn't stand a hope in hell not to be! Dragging the hairy muddy horses out of the field, riding out in just a headcollar and no saddle if the horse was wet. The old NZ green heavy as hell rugs, and loved the jute rug. Feeding all straights and boiling barley and linseed. Making our own chaff and diluting black treacle into their feed. Chopping up garlic and getting the honey from the bee keeper for the horses. Riding through the dark at 10pm at night with only the lights from the motorway floodlighting the fields. Having fun at the shows doing the last class which would be a bareback chase me charlie. Giving the horses a pint of guinness in their feeds twice a week. The old dented brown velvet riding hat that if you put a saucepan on your head it would give you more protection. Going hunting as my old pony loved it, even if I wasn't due to go, pony would hear the hounds and the horn and take me to join the others. Only having a choice of a kimblewick, pelham or snaffle bit. Always working hard to keep the horses and would help with bringing in the hay in the summer (I was too little to lift the bales so was sat in the seat of the tractor with wooden blocks on the pedals to drive it). Riding out on dewy mornings and picking wild mushrooms and bringing them home in my hat. As most of you have already said car drivers were always polite and would always give you a smile and a wave and drive past you carefully. Never had any problems riding into town and used to stop off at the local sweetshop with my friends whilst one held the ponies one would go in and get supplies of marathon, and mars bars and some good ole polos for the horses. Never thought anything of going out for a 4 or 5 hour hack. Putting straw under a holey old sweat rug to dry them off, and back then we used to strap our horses. It does seem that back then we really used to have fun which nowadays people don't seem to have with their horses/ponies as there is so much more of a sue culture. Oh and last but not least playing zorro and trying to get on said horse or pony by climbing out of a tree and launching oneself onto it's back (ususally ended in someone being a crumpled mess on the floor!)
 
[ QUOTE ]

I also was a child-slave

and the beds were about 2ft high,

8hrs of mucking out per day (took 2 of us a whole Sat and Sunday to muck out one stable!) for an hours ride each day!

How many kids would do that these days? None I bet?

[/ QUOTE ]

Sounds just like what i used to spend my weekends doing, only 5-10 years back! Especially used to detest attempting to muck out the 'portable stables' this were always beds at least 2ft deep, leaking and gross! Min number of stables used to do each day was 12.... max i did in one day was 24 which was ridiculous!
shocked.gif


Have been around horses for 18 years, having lessons and slaving away at another yard before getting to where i am now!
smirk.gif
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top