Ladies of a certain age.....

[littleshetland]

You'll know what I mean. Out riding with a friend of a similar age and reminiscing about the good old seventies (no hats, string girths ,set of shoes cost a fiver etc etc) and ended up with a rousing chorus of 'Follyfoot' followed by 'White horses'.......Happy days!

 

[Selkie]

I had a lovely set of red nylon girth and matching reins!

 

[wren123]

And the only rugs were new zealand, jute and sweat rug!
I used to love that dark guy in Follyfoot, can't remember his name!!

 

[littleshetland]

Yes! Red nylon reins! I think they were all the rage!

ps. David Vine presenting the show jumping on BBC1!

 

[littleshetland]

And the only rugs were new zealand, jute and sweat rug!
I used to love that dark guy in Follyfoot, can't remember his name!!

Steve (be still my beating heart..) and Dora (jealous? moi?)

 

[MerrySherryRider]

I always wanted to have a haircut like Dora's. It was feathered. Mum said no. I hated my plaits with blue spotty ribbons.

I mostly remember the absence of health and safety. Riding bareback and leading 3 more in from the field.
Hats were only worn for 'proper' riding. You couldn't hurt yourself just messing about, or so we thought.
The hats with elastic were pretty useless, the jods had wings. Hair nets and hacking jackets had to be worn for lessons. Yuk.
Shetlands and diddy ponies had those little felt saddles. Perhaps they were ahead of their time with a forerunner of treeless saddles.

No one worried about getting ponies on the bit. How could you ride hell for leather if you were bothered about tucking the little nose at the correct angle ?

 

[OLDGREYMARE]

And hay was £20 a ton (40 bales?). My plaited reins were blue!

 

[applecart14]

I remember when red bandages and numnahs were the in thing along with 3 ring snaffles that every horse had to have regardless of whether they required it or not!

Cantering on every grass verge, even if you could only get two strides in at a time.
Not giving a stuff what position your horses head was in or even being knowledgable enough to care!
Going to local shows and actually competing on grass - YES GRASS!!!!
Riding down the high street and being totally unaware of the dangers of cars.
Doing a 'pretend' dressage test on a school playing field!
Galloping up a set of steps built into the side of a hill and hoping your horse would work out the striding for itself.
Building xc fences out of old tyres and bits of rotten tree branches and pretending you were the next Ginny Leng!
Endless hot summer evenings after work galloping your horse on a massive area of wasteground and hollering out to dog walkers to get out of the way.
Jumping your horse every evening without fail.
Taking part in every fun ride that you could get to.


And about a zillion other things that we did that I certainly wouldn't never do now including most of the above! But I have to say they were the best days of my horsey life, and days that I would have back in a heartbeat as I miss the fun and the carefree attitude that we all had and the irresponisbility of it all.

 

[Sprout]

Oh YES - White Horses with the gorgeous Boris, Follyfoot, cavaletti grids with no reins or stirrups on a normal hairy pony, string girths, heavy stiff newzealand rugs, jute rugs, baggy jodhs, and thick yellow jumpers knitted by your doting Auntie ...... happy days.

 

[littleshetland]

All riding instructors had sticky out jods and a no nonsense head scarfs (a la princess Anne) and SHOUTED a lot!


ps remember Black Beauty on the telly?

 

[julie111]

Oh I remember those red nylon reins along with the New Zealand rugs and jute rugs. I used to charge across playing fields and jump my girl over park benches, we would hack 6+ miles to get to a couple of shows and hack back again this would include riding along the uxbridge road near Southall! I never worried about anything and nor did my horse, nowadays I worry about everything those were the days!

 

[littleshetland]

Oh I remember those red nylon reins along with the New Zealand rugs and jute rugs. I used to charge across playing fields and jump my girl over park benches, we would hack 6+ miles to get to a couple of shows and hack back again this would include riding along the uxbridge road near Southall! I never worried about anything and nor did my horse, nowadays I worry about everything those were the days!

My first ever horse came from Southall market (don't ask!)....

 

[OWLIE185]

When the only bedding available was straw and the only feed was oats, crushed barley, bran and Spillers pony nuts.
When you could ride along Totteridge Lane in North London on a Sunday morning and not a single car would pass one.
When a hack on the roads included cantering on the roads to get back before it got too dark.
When we hacked in the dark to and from Monday show-jumping at Belmont Riding Stables on the Ridgeway in Mill Hill North London.
... and many happy memories of hacking to Hampstead Heath, Hyde Park, South Mimms Woods and Bricket Woods.

 

[irishcob]

I grew up in the 70's but somehow missed Follyfoot. Have just found a load of episodes on YouTube - they look perfect for whiling away this rainy afternoon! Thank you!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7PJdbcCjnus

 

[MerrySherryRider]

I remember when red bandages and numnahs were the in thing along with 3 ring snaffles that every horse had to have regardless of whether they required it or not!

Cantering on every grass verge, even if you could only get two strides in at a time.
Not giving a stuff what position your horses head was in or even being knowledgable enough to care!
Going to local shows and actually competing on grass - YES GRASS!!!!
Riding down the high street and being totally unaware of the dangers of cars.
Doing a 'pretend' dressage test on a school playing field!
Galloping up a set of steps built into the side of a hill and hoping your horse would work out the striding for itself.
Building xc fences out of old tyres and bits of rotten tree branches and pretending you were the next Ginny Leng!
Endless hot summer evenings after work galloping your horse on a massive area of wasteground and hollering out to dog walkers to get out of the way.
Jumping your horse every evening without fail.
Taking part in every fun ride that you could get to.


And about a zillion other things that we did that I certainly wouldn't never do now including most of the above! But I have to say they were the best days of my horsey life, and days that I would have back in a heartbeat as I miss the fun and the carefree attitude that we all had and the irresponisbility of it all.

Ooops, I must be regressing. I still canter on the grass verge along the dual carriage way and several other transgressions, like whooping through meadows laughing like a hyena.

No longer ride in a headscarf though and hi viz has been invented.

My first private riding lessons were 5 shillings. That's 25p for an hour in todays money.

 

[Banjo]

these are all such happy memories. We had such fun. My friend and I used to go off for hours with hour ponies with out a care or worry in the world.

I used to love watching Horses Galore, Adventures of Black beauty which I was pleased to see is coming to the Horse and country channel soon

 

[pansymouse]

What about those cotton string gloves that only fitted when they were freshly washed and took about three days to dry?

All tack started life london tan and was oiled to brown with neats foot oil.

My string girth was yellow and I had a matching bown band covered in yellow and green plastic ribbon stuff. I was hard done to and had make do with plain reins

 

[Ruftysdad]

Talking about Follyfoot I was so engrossed in watching it on one occasion I forgot that the chip pan was on and set the kitchen on fire. We had ducted central heating and the smoke went all through the house. My new husband was not amused.

 

[Dollysox]

Oh yes - I loved Steve in Follyfoot (there is a Follyfoot website too http://follyfoot-tv.co.uk/index.php). He was my first real crush. And I had the blue nylon plaited reins and matching string girth, despite not actually having my own horse! I used to spend the whole weekend at the riding stables helping with anything and everything that might earn me a free ride. I used to rent one of the horses for the day to go to the local show, which was a good hour's hack away, and enter for absolutely anything that we might be eligible for. Usually we only made it to about fence 3 or 4 in the showjumping before being eliminated!

Very happy horsey days.

 

[HappyHollyDays]

Making two tone browbands using velvet ribbons taken from my mums sewing box. Having a very heavy jute rug which in all it's years was never cleaned.
Bunking off school to spend the day with my pony.
Hot summer days spent at gymkhanas getting completely sunburnt because nobody used sunblock.
Being made to strip off at the back door because you and your clothes smelt of horses (well what did they expect after a day in the stables) and then eating dinner that had been in the oven for hours with cling film over it to stop it drying out.

Those were the days.

P.S. I still have a string girth

 

[Tess Love]

Does make you wonder how we all survived and why it's all got so complicated! Quite sad really that children don't enjoy the fun we had back in those days. Me and my friend thought nothing to going out with our ponies all day with nothing more than a packet of sweets and a drink.

I thought this the other day when I cancelled going out for a hack on my own because id forgotten my mobile phone and thought it was too risky! I miss those carefree days!

 

[littleshetland]

Oh yes - plastic 'ribbon' brow bands were the height of sophistication then, cotton string gloves, neatsfoot oil.....I could go on and on....

I remember having a bay pony and wishing he was 'Rex the Robber' white, remember him?

 

[wren123]

That's it the lovely Steve from Folyfoot, he was lush! And what is wrong with string girths?
Not a lover of all this matchey matchey or bling now I am afraid!

 

[littleshetland]

I think this could be turning into a 'Steve from Follyfoot' appreciation thread....

 

[OWLIE185]

...and fully Livery in London was £15 per week and one could phone up and say one was coming up and the horse was beautifully groomed and tacked up ready to hack out.

 

[WelshD]

I remember even the junior jumping at shows regularly being 2'9+ courses

 

[Nessa4]

I got barred from the local Launderette (remember them???) for washing and drying my jute rug!!! I don't think it did their equipment any good, but the rug came up nicely, though a size smaller!

 

[Amy567]

Well, I wasn't even born in the 70's so I don't have those memories. But even as little as 14 years ago, there were far less of the hat brigade, everything was at least half the price it is now. I was looking for competitions, any decent ones are at least 30 miles away, and even my local shows charge £9.50 for one class and £5 for a clear round! I remember when you could take £20 with you and do a clear round, three classes and have a burger and chips. I genuinely took £50 with me to my last competition, did three classes, a clear round and had a burger and chips and came home with pennies for change!

 

[vickyb]

I got barred from the local Launderette (remember them???) for washing and drying my jute rug!!! I don't think it did their equipment any good, but the rug came up nicely, though a size smaller!

I used to wash my jute rug in the summer. I used a clean plastic dustbin and would let it soak in bio powder, then agitate it with a broom and finally rinse on the fence with a hose. It would take several days to dry, but always came up beautifully. My mum used to wonder where all the spare blankets had gone in the winter - they were on the pony under the jute rug, all held in place with an anti cast roller (can you still get them?) It was beautifully made and padded.
I always hated those nylon girths, they always folded up on themselves, it must have been so uncomfortable for the ponies. It was lovely when Cottage Craft brought out their girths, which stayed flat.

 

[Hippona]

Thankyou ladies.....Im having a crap day and youve made me smile...brought back some lovely memories.

I wonder when I became such a wuss....Im going to have more fun, Ive decided ...stop taking things so seriously