Memories of the old days,,, best memories b4 health and saftety

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lazyfoxx

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looking back i wonder sometimes how we made it through our horsey days. I learnt to ride on friends ponies before having lessons at a riding school in kent. We used to share tack among the ponies, only the liveries or " big " horses had their own, a saddle cloth was a tea towel, and if a horse had a snaffle bit it was riding school proof. We were taught to mount and dismount from both sides, with and without stirrups, we used to canter in the school with our hands on our head, we jumped with folded arms, we used to do round the world and through the needle at walk and if you got stuck halfway on round the world they would flick the whip and make your pony trot on...at evening time the turn out fields were a fair way and the rule was if you can vault on ( bearing in mind said pony just had a headcollar on ) you could ride it down to the field- no hat obviously ! all the liveries had jute rugs for winter horrible scratchy things and the feed room had a mass of dustbins containing oats, bran mash. sugar beet, pony nuts, corn flake stuff, and various liquid additives. it was considered an honour to ride a livery horse i can still recall the excitement of seeing my name and the space for the horse being one of the livery ones ! it was like getting the best horse in town !. we often rode along grass tracks by the roads trotted and cantered, jumped ditches and often came back with scatches and cuts from overhanging branches. it was exciting and fun and we did all the yard chores before earning a free ride every 8 weeks, long saturday afternoons spent tack cleaning with good old saddle soap - those were the days !
 
Memories of riding my first pony bareheaded and barebacked, in just a headcollar, across a 40 acre field at a canter with cows hooning all around us!!! (if I did that now, I'd fall off LOL).

Also I have memories of doing a physical exercise on horseback called "Round the World". Basically you had to touch your toes with your hands, then lift your leg over the saddle and sit sideways, and then lift your leg over again and sit facing the horse's backside! and then round again and do it all again the opposite way. THEN you had to do it bareback! Novices did it whilst someone else held the horse's head; everyone else was expected to do it on the lunge rein. If they really wanted to challenge you then you'd have to do it in trot and canter as well!! Gosh........ H&S would have a seizure if they saw that now!!!

Anybody else remember doing "Round the World"???
 
lazyfoxx said:
looking back i wonder sometimes how we made it through our horsey days. I learnt to ride on friends ponies before having lessons at a riding school in kent. We used to share tack among the ponies, only the liveries or " big " horses had their own, a saddle cloth was a tea towel, and if a horse had a snaffle bit it was riding school proof. We were taught to mount and dismount from both sides, with and without stirrups, we used to canter in the school with our hands on our head, we jumped with folded arms, we used to do round the world and through the needle at walk and if you got stuck halfway on round the world they would flick the whip and make your pony trot on...at evening time the turn out fields were a fair way and the rule was if you can vault on ( bearing in mind said pony just had a headcollar on ) you could ride it down to the field- no hat obviously ! all the liveries had jute rugs for winter horrible scratchy things and the feed room had a mass of dustbins containing oats, bran mash. sugar beet, pony nuts, corn flake stuff, and various liquid additives. it was considered an honour to ride a livery horse i can still recall the excitement of seeing my name and the space for the horse being one of the livery ones ! it was like getting the best horse in town !. we often rode along grass tracks by the roads trotted and cantered, jumped ditches and often came back with scatches and cuts from overhanging branches. it was exciting and fun and we did all the yard chores before earning a free ride every 8 weeks, long saturday afternoons spent tack cleaning with good old saddle soap - those were the days !
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Very similar!! Except i grazed at Pony Club and we wore hats all the time and my saddle cloth was a beach towel (very colourful). Falling off was something to boast about (old saying about the number of times one fell off meant you were a good rider eventually). ONe of the old pony club instructors bewailed parents that spent a lot on new tack and said that a kid only needed a pony, a halter, and a hard hat! Mind you, I remember the ponies being less naughty back then but manybe we didn't notice so much when we were younger. I have a photo where we were trying to encourage a pony to buck just to see if we could stay on; ti was one that didn't like bareback but it wouldn't do it for the camera! And the camera's then were the old 'send away and wait a week to see if you were lucky enough not to chop the rider or horse's head off (so you can tell how long ago it was)
I don't do the bareback anymore (the withers of horses are not as comfy) and I need the mounting block for getting on, but I will still ride and jump without stirrups, trot and canter along the roadside, jump ditches, and get cuts from overhanging branches.
I probably clean the tack less often now though...
 
I found a photo the other day that was taken at our town's carnival procession about 40 years ago. I was riding on a pony dressed up as a Native American with just a feather as head protection! We were all from the local riding school.
 
I had a dreadful upbringing. I'd happily spend all day at the yard, often riding and jumping various horses with no-one else around. I'd hack out, bareback and no hat, across the desert and gallop along the beach, jumping fallen trees, along the dual carriageway, staying out for hours without telling anyone where I was going or when I'd be back. During A-levels, I'd head off to the yard, start teaching at 9 and carry on through save for chips in newspaper in the tackroom (eaten with fingers) for lunch.

One memorable day, dad slept in on competition morning, so mum took me to the yard and went ahead to tell the organisers he was running late. Driving back along the dual carriageway she found dad, in his competition gear other than a hat, cantering up the side of the dual carriageway bareback and with just a headcollar and leadrope, because she had all of his gear in the car.

Fun days (although no more hatless after I fractured my skull :( )
 
MiJodsR2BlinkinTite said:
Memories of riding my first pony bareheaded and barebacked, in just a headcollar, across a 40 acre field at a canter with cows hooning all around us!!! (if I did that now, I'd fall off LOL).

Also I have memories of doing a physical exercise on horseback called "Round the World". Basically you had to touch your toes with your hands, then lift your leg over the saddle and sit sideways, and then lift your leg over again and sit facing the horse's backside! and then round again and do it all again the opposite way. THEN you had to do it bareback! Novices did it whilst someone else held the horse's head; everyone else was expected to do it on the lunge rein. If they really wanted to challenge you then you'd have to do it in trot and canter as well!! Gosh........ H&S would have a seizure if they saw that now!!!

Anybody else remember doing "Round the World"???
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Yes Round The World and Scissors haha!!

Those were the days :-)
 
Riding stable pub ride age not quite 18, got away with drinking plenty.On the way back we all has to cross our stirrups, knot our reins & canter holding hands with 1 other person.
I remember the escorts words, people have more fun when someone falls off.......wonder what an insurance company would say to that today!
 
w1bbler said:
Riding stable pub ride age not quite 18, got away with drinking plenty.On the way back we all has to cross our stirrups, knot our reins & canter holding hands with 1 other person.
I remember the escorts words, people have more fun when someone falls off.......wonder what an insurance company would say to that today!
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Wish I'd been there!
Also want to add that if we fell off we were told we weren't riding well enough; if the horse was naughty then we were told we weren't riding well enough (never would have thought of shoving it full of 'calmers') and if the horse wasn't going well - yes you guessed it, we were told we weren't riding well enough! (although the odd gadget had begun to appear back then, if you used a martingale for more than a few weeks/months then it was felt that you weren't good enough to school the horse!
 
wkiwi said:
Wish I'd been there!
Also want to add that if we fell off we were told we weren't riding well enough; if the horse was naughty then we were told we weren't riding well enough (never would have thought of shoving it full of 'calmers') and if the horse wasn't going well - yes you guessed it, we were told we weren't riding well enough! (although the odd gadget had begun to appear back then, if you used a martingale for more than a few weeks/months then it was felt that you weren't good enough to school the horse!
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Kinda agree with this still.......:-)
 
im 24 and did all these things, we used to stop at the riding school owners over the weekend in a static caravan that had bin bags for windows other than the main front window which was still in place. ohhh what fun we had lol watching scary films. we used to take the horses out after the lessons had finished across the moors bareback with only a head collar and leadrope and one of us always fell off, i remember going back with a friend us two being the only ones out of 7 to make it back on a horse LOL. we also did around the world and scissors and lessons consisted of riding without stirrups and reins knotted and you would rather fall off than say no to the instructor else you'd be dragged off and told you couldn't get on again until basically you manned up and learnt to ride! parents would sue these days lol but we did have some great fun times working out how long it would be before you got a 'free' ride on the naughtiest pony ... and if you got a super naughty one you knew you'd worked well. :) happy happy memories
 
god i did all of that as a kid, good old days! :) now i get my kids and neice doing around the world, ride with no stirups and hands out to the side to make things fun but i also threaten them with death if they dont keep those darn heels down!
 
Oh I could bore you all night with this!! ;)
Catching pony down the fields - didn't matter if it was laid down, just get on it till it got up, headcollar/leadrope (often only attached to one side so little steering), no hat & gallop as fast as possible up the field! If 5 ponies needed bringing up, then I led 4 & rode one!!
Silly gymkhana games in the school, eg trot to one end, throw yourself over the fence (no floor touching allowed on the school side), grab a dock leaf, remount from the fence & canter back to the other side without reins, waving said dock leaf round your head!!! :D
Trotting down to a major roundabout in town whilst standing on the saddle of my 12.2hh & attempting to swipe as many pears or plums off the trees that lined the street!! May I say that I still hold the record - made it 3/4 of the way to the roundabout before falling off!!
Swapping stirrups with my friends whilst trotting down the roads - extra points for making your friend nearly do the splits!! ;)
Jumping benches & picnic tables in the local forestry!
Picking my friend up from the bus stop every night & her hopping on the back of my horse! Once her shorts ripped - caused a few raised eyes from passing drivers!!
Going off for the day from aged 6 with other girls, some sarnies & drink & 10p for emergency phone box use!!! No one worried unless we weren't back by feeding up time!
Jute rugs & canvass New Zealand's!! Blankets underneath folded back to a point & secured with a roller....
Main Ring Blue or Main Ring Red were 'newfangled' horse feeds! Boiling barley in mum's pressure cooker & the lid blowing off.... She's never forgiven me.. ;)
Hideous coloured bit rings & martingale stoppers! Those horrendous petal over-reach boots that drove everyone mad as children on ponies galloped round jumps!!
I'll stop now sorry!! :D
 
I'm also from that era, we used to race motorbikes on the beach, always bareback so we could swim the horses afterwards.

H and S isn't quite so manic in NZ as it is there, but I still think those us that grew up in the 60's and 70's had the best childhoods. Not just with horses, but all around.
 
Jumping jumps made from drain pipes as poles and plastic garden chairs as 'wings'. Ah they did the trick :)

Also being told to undo the horse's saddle whilst mounted, undo the girth and shuffle forwards, slipping the saddle onto the fence and riding bareback. All of this was in walk, weren't even allowed to stop to do it. Awe I sometime miss those days, everything seems really serious now!
 
Playing tag on the ponies in the school in just a headcollar. Jumping a pony with two of you on him at the same time. Only using a saddle for competing or xc. Going out for 5 hour rides, and messing around doing stupid things! Miss those days.
although will say I got on my mare and chased my old pony round the field from the back of her the other day after he decided to be difficult. I was only when I was cantering slightly out of control in a headcollar down a hill with me on top of the rug that I remembered I had grown out of getting on without a hat!
 
I remember my pony being lame one day when three of us were going to go hacking. Simple solution - doubled up on friend's 5 year old pony!

Also, when I first got my pony we didn't have a saddle - so simply rode bareback for a month or so... Did my first 'proper' cross country jump that way! He was fab, you could jump him without a saddle/bridle/headcollar - he'd just pop into canter and hop over them all with me clinging on :)

With the current horse health and safety is probably a godsend, he's a bit of a liability :p Although I will still ride in from the field in a headcollar....
 
Yep, I did most of this stuff. In my teens I helped at the local RS at weekends (escorting rides AND teaching without a qualification to my name!) We used to ride the horses to the field bareback with just head collars, canter along the grass verges next to the road and then all pile in to the YO's mini (old style) to be driven back to get the next lot. Hats were a choice not mandatory.

Once we were swapping horses in a lesson and I decided to get from one to the other without getting off LOL. a friend and I doubled up bareback on one horse to do some jumping. Another friend was showing off her new pony and I'd come up straight from work still in work clothes and she offered me a go so I kicked off my stilletos and tucked my skirt in my knickers and jumped a course of jumps.

At the RS everyone wanted to ride the horses with the running martingales because that they were the 'fizzy' ones and therefore more fun.

We used to hack to shows (does anyone still do that?) we used to do the fancy dress classes bareback with no hardhat as it would spoil the look of the outfit.

We all used to fall off regularly and learned how to relax when falling off to lesson pain and that still stands me in good stead to this day (I fell off today when my horse did a very sharp sudden spook and at 55 landed and rolled and don't even feel slightly sore)

Jute rugs with rollers, canvas new Zealand rugs. Ordinary blankets pinched from the linen cupboard at home for the horses that really felt the cold. Haynets were a rarity. Metal water buckets. Old butler sinks in the corner of the stable for feed troughs. I even recall a couple of old rail way carriages used as stables.

Oil drums with poles for jumps (in fact, anything you could get your hands on to fashion in to something that could be jumped) and galloping hell for leather toward a jump balanced on seat bones, pony club kicking with one hand on the reins and wielding a 'crop' with the other. You didn't care on what stride you arrived at the jump as long as the pony jumped it.


Boy it was fun back then. Nowadays because I actually canter more than once when hacking I'm regarded as some kind of nutter and people get warned not to go out hacking with me because I'm mad LOL
 
I remember riding my pony from my house back to field on the road bareback, no hat in just a headcollar and one leadrope. Remember the days before mobile phones , we would go out on the ponies in the morning and be gone all day, no one knew where we were. Couldn't do it know though, haven't got the confidence
 
I've always been safety conscious. I have a sister with brain damage so falling off and hitting my head/breaking my back has never been an option lol
 
Remember all these things, used to ride my first pony bareback as I had to cycle to him and couldn't be bothered to carry the saddle. He was a bit of a spooker and I frequently ended up on the floor, he always waited for me which was odd as he could be a git to catch in the field. Never told my parents what we/he got up to.
 
It used to be the rule that any grass verge was there to be raced on, I saw a young girl charging up a grass verge the other day and it made me grin, people think it's weird now to charge anywhere :/
 
One thing I really miss is good old fashioned Gymkana games at shows! Haven't seen one for years! It's all too serious with showing/jumping/dressage now to piss about having fun!

I Do around the world on my tb's. I go funny looks and incredulous comments off of people for putting my muckle big concours skirt on over my head whilst on my ex-racer with no one holding on to him. Apparently I am suicidal!
 
I am only 16 and remember when I was 7 we used to trot up a busy village road with only a bridle on a 16.2 hunter leading another horse! Luckily the ponies were saints but I wouldn't dream of doing that now! We also would canter up verges and jump fallen trees, round the world is still popular now though!

Edited: I too miss the local gymkhanas, although I used to fall off at almost every race and just get back up like nothing had happened!
 
Gloi said:
If we did enough work cutting chaff on this machine we earned a free ride.
http://www.agritv.net/phpprojects/uthai2/agri_tv2/admin/userfiles/image/newimages/rajkumar_02.jpg
We were barely in out teens and there was nothing to stop us chopping parts of our bodies off as we stuffed hay through it.
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Yes! We used to have one of these. We'd be early teens shoving hay down the chute not really paying attention! The person turning the wheel would get annoyed if you put too much hay in!
 
I managed round the world about three years ago - can't do it now though as my arthritis has got worse (I am 50!).
My son did a jumping competition at PC camp - bareback and headcollars only - when he was 15. I think they got to just under 4 feet. He is 21 now so it must have been in 2009. I'd better not mention the PC Branch in case the H&S Police are lurking!
Son had a race with a cyclist on my old pony - son and pony along edge of field , cyclist on road that runs alongside. It was about half a mile. Pony won - he alway was a daft speed merchant!
 
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