Let's reminisce...!!

[MiCsarah]

Im only 22 and things have changed loads since I was a kid. We used to get dumped up the riding school for the whole summer, sleeping in the old hay barn with just a deaf dog to look after us. Going to get the ponies in from the field and jumping on and galloping home. No adult supervision and just working to get free rides. Ponies never had rugs on and horses just had the one but were never clipped. Riding without saddles on in lessons and 'round the world' in trot and if you fell off you just did it again.

 

[TheoryX1]

I can remember Jacatex. Also yellow string gloves, yellow polo neck sweaters, going for rides in your hacking jacket with a shirt with a huge collar underneath, long rubber riding boots by Harry Hall, Caldene jods in varying shades of beige, wearing a hairnet under your riding hat, which was kept on your head by a piece of elastic. Riding the riding school horses back to the fields along main roads with just a hemp halter on, bareback with no hats. Cavaletti jumps and using traffic cones for jumps!

Going to gymkhanas, doing 'around the world', 'scissors' and all sorts of other things. Writing your ponies name all over your school pencil case and dreaming of being a professonal rider (never decided what discipline, but eventing seemed good as you got to wear three diffrent sorts of kit - how ironic), talking non stop about horses to your school mates (no change there, but its not the same talking about your horses in a Board Meeting, which to my utter shame I do admit to doing), having competitions with your friends as to who is the 'most horsey'.

Oh happy days, and I forgot Pony Magazine, and was there something called Light Horse? I seem to remember it for some reason. Buying Horse and Hound and reading about all your heros, treasuring your grooming kit and writing your ponies name on it in nail varnish.

I do so wish we could go back, I dont remember there being fat horses, or lameness, the roads were qiueter and nobody got sued.

 

[monikirk]

He, he - I remember building jumps out of the bales all over the stubble fields and then having to cart them in with the rest of the merry throng of pony mad kids all for the reward of a pepsi that had to be opened with a can opener!

Being sent upstairs in the barn at the end of summer to fetch the jute rugs down because I was the lightest and might not fall through the ceiling!

Rubbing down the trailer and then having to revarnish it every summer! Also standing in the trailer with horses that kicked the whole way to a show!

Oooo Arrrrr - those were the days

 

[little_critter]

I came back to riding about 4 years ago after a 12 year break. When I went shopping for a riding hat I wondered what had happened to chin cups and drawstrings.

 

[Miss L Toe]

When I was learning to ride in the late fifties, a lot of the ponies at the school were docked.(I can't remember when docking was made illegal - I think in the forties, so they must have been old ponies). There was no school, so you just got lead by a stable girl out on a hack and learnt as you went along. Most ponies were ridden in pelhams with two reins - I remember how my hands used to ache after a ride from trying to hold them as instructed. My mother, at great expense, bought me a proper riding mac. It was ghastly, made out of a rubberised tent like material that covered your knees, and had straps that went under your thighs to hold it down. There were three punched holes under each arm, and this was the only ventilation. I used to sweat buckets in it!

Gosh, a riding mac, our instructor had one, it was a wonder to behold :lol: we "bairns" each had one pair of elephant wing jodhpurs made out of cavalry twill, with leather knees. No hats unless at a show, we shared one, it was a faded brown thing with knicker elastic chinstrap, made of cardboard.
I had a red tie with brown horses heads, wore it with my school blouse, thought I looked really smart!
M&S panties were chrissy pressies and worn for parties, but we had an endless supply of blue flannel knickers, considered OK for Gym when at primary school.

 

[Ladyinred]

Bran mashes, boiling barley and linseed stinking out the kitchen!! I liked the smell but apparently the parents didn't.

The worse for me were the old tarred rope haynets and having to fill upwards of 30 a day, all of them weighed. Hell on the hands.

Goodness, I can even remember the novelty of rubber curry combs being introduced and no one being quite sure of what to do with them!

 

[Hairy Old Cob]

Feet Freezing in long rubber riding boots that always filled up with cold rain and had to be tipped out at the end of a wet ride or wet days hunting. Quilted jackets that were as waterproof as a tea bag, if your hat fitted properly the elastic was considered surplus to requirement an old riding hat that had turned green with age and probably mould.Steam virtualy coming out of the neck of my rubberised cotton riding mac
Aerborn sheeets with jute rugs on upside down after hunting

Horses and ponies never had the problems that they do today they just got ridden.

 

[Tnavas]

The days gone by - sigh!

Day Rugs - Coloured wool with a contrasting trip - sold in different weights made with pure wool. Jute rugs, with witney blankets underneath.

I remember buying the first synthetic rug a Navy Lavenham - Zeb looked so smart in it.

Leather boots with a million buckles but so smart when beautifully kept. Being able to ride for miles without having to stress about traffic - used to ride my crazy nut job of a TB along the main road to London without a care in the world. He'd bolt off at the drop of a hat - it didn't phase me at all.

Lovely good quality leather bridles in London Tan - would mellow with use to a lovely warm brown.

Games at all gymkhanas, single row rosettes and no prize money - we went for the fun of taking part and the possibility of a rosette.

Velvet hats that did actually protect your head as much as the current monstrocities do - my horse somersaulted over a fence, rolled over me and stood on my head when he got up - I had a perfect hoof shape cut out of my velvet hat - slight concussion but no lasting damage.

We rode 1½hrs to the farrier and back again with lovely new shoes, beautifully fitted and shiny with hoof oil.

We didn't feed those that lived out - they ate grass got worked and roamed their big paddock with several other horses. The ponies didn't get rugged unless clipped.

They were the days.