'old fashion' things you still do ...

[armchair_rider]

What else would you do with lead ropes? Other than leave them trailing for people to fall over

 

[rowan666]

I still call rising trot, posting and trimming, pearing. All the horsey folk i know round here think i talk in riddles!

thatching also a life saver for me too as the nags are out 24/7

is the lead rope thing really old fashioned? I thought that was just a general tidy thing

i feel old!

 

[Bestdogdash]

Well we always thatched a wet horse when I was younger, Now with the two younger who live out naked I don't have to worry, except when they were really wet one time as do not have rugs for them to thatch under I rubbed them with towels.
I was always taught if they are warm behind ears they will be fine, anyone else heard this?

We always thatch after hunting under a string 'vest' sweat rug no less !

Never ever ride without a hairnet

Boiled barley, boiled linseed and soaked sugar beet all used

Travel in pads and bandages (not boots)

Dubbin on my boots twice a year !

 

[spottydottypony]

Dry the horses off when sweating or wet with wisps of straw (tight bundles in the hand) works well on wet muddy legs too!

 

[Spottyappy]

Well we always thatched a wet horse when I was younger, Now with the two younger who live out naked I don't have to worry, except when they were really wet one time as do not have rugs for them to thatch under I rubbed them with towels.
I was always taught if they are warm behind ears they will be fine, anyone else heard this?

I still thatch, works much better than so called wicking rugs!
Yes, check ears at base and if warm, horse ok. Also, check behind fore limb, where girth goes into should are as if that is warm too, horse is fine.
Hot cloth, also.

 

[Caol Ila]

I seem to be the only person I know who walks their horse out for 15-20 minutes after a hard workout to cool and stretch their muscles. Is this old fashioned? I don't know. It makes sense, as this is what they tell humans to do after a workout. Back in the mid-1990s, I had a scary old-style riding instructor named Lois who, after the lesson, made you walk around with the horse until its chest was cool to the touch. There would be these parades of kids in the barn's carpark, leading the school horses around and around in what was sometimes the most miserable weather. You'd come in to the tacking area to check with her, hoping your horse was cool enough because it was bloody freezing walking in circles around the carpark, and she'd pat the horse's neck and chest and say brusquely, "No. He's still hot. Walk for another ten minutes." God help the child who tied their horse up and started untacking it when it was even a little bit warm. She'd go ballistic at you and rip your head off. Terrifying.

I think I still have hang ups from this early education. If I'm a bit rushed at the barn and put my horse away without as long a cooling-out period as I'd wanted ideally, I worry about her. I can still remember Lois screaming at some hapless kid that if you put away your horse hot, it was going to get sick, tie-up or colic, and die.

Lois aside, I think it's a good idea. An equine bodyworker came out to do my horse a couple weeks ago and said her muscles felt really good, nice and relaxed. So I'll keep doing it.

As an aside, I don't know if they still make riding instructors like that. You learned a lot about horsemanship from her, not just riding. I don't know that being bad tempered with your students is the best way to teach (I'm nice to my students now, but being a raging, scary b!tch just isn't me), but they bloody well learned what you wanted them to learn. Fear is a great motivator.

 

[Kelly Marks]

Lead horse home on the last part of a ride.
Make a square of dust from curry comb when body brushing ...

 

[Toffee44]

I still use a metal curry comb and body brush, never see anyone do that?

Thatch

Surcingles prefer bottom layer rug to have none and put a elastic surcingle on top

And I think if I were to go hunting I would make a warm bran for the evening and use stable bandages.

 

[armchair_rider]

Isn't 'posting' an Americanism rather old fashioned? It's the term used in the Saddle Club books.

 

[Little Nell]

Love this
Thatching - yes
Bandaging - yes
Feeding straights - yes
Blankets - yes
body brush and curry comb - yes
saddle soap and saddle oil - yes
No bright colours, everything white, havana or black - yes
and i have another one...............
I still use a brass browband

 

[Toffee44]

Oh and only walk the last half mile of a fast ride. Can't stand people who gallop home same reason as above really I like to turn out a dry horse

 

[tiggybeans]

Put my hairnet on under my hat. Tack my horse up in his Havana-coloured, bling-less tack. Pick his feet out before he comes out of the stable!

Walk for the first 10 mins of the ride til he is warm, walk the last mile home to cool off. Thank every driver that even changes gear as he goes past us.

Clean my tack after every time I ride (although have just given up the glycerine in favour of new-fangled balsam!).

I pull his tail - does anyone do this still? - and his mane with a comb.

I use a rubber curry comb to clean off the body brush and in summer wipe off the dust with a stable rubber. I use a sweat scraper if I bath him in the summer - and I still use Bloom shampoo.

Until recently I even had a canvas New Zealand rug!!!

I am a product of Pony Club c1970s.

 

[Perissa]

I still keep my manure heap square and tidy having always been told that you can measure the standard of the yard by the manure heap!

I pull manes and tails with a comb but admit to tidying the ends off with a solo comb.

I remember when pony nuts were considered the new latest thing.

Strapping and quartering, also set fair.

Use padding (gamgee in the old days but fibregree nowadays) under bandages. Applying bandages correctly, always front to back and with the flat side to the horse.

No bling and canary jods ONLY on children.

Sew hat ribbons away unless you are a professional.

Body brushes are always real hair.

Still use Hydrophane products and Gallop shampoo.

 

[PolarSkye]

Groom every day - twice a day - great opportunity to find lumps and bumps and I believe the brushing helps condition the skin and coat
Hot cloth
Body brush and metal curry
Mane pulled with metal comb (tail left natural simply because Kal hates having it pulled and I see no reason to torture him for appearance's sake)
Thatch and whisp (I hate turning out or stabling wet horses)
Warm up slowly when schooling
Cool down/walk off after exercise
Stretch out front legs after girthing up
No bling - plain tack only
Warm bran and stable bandages after rigorous exercise like hunting or eventing
No mixes for feed - pox on those . . . high fibre, low starch/sugar and as much forage as possible

P

 

[RutlandH2O]

use rope halters, one size fits all

^^^This! I use the same rope halters on my 18h+ Shires and my smallest donkey.

 

[MerrySherryRider]

Having read the posts, I can't say I do anything old fashioned now. Good practice is timeless, it isn't old fashioned to groom and exercise correctly, it never stopped being correct.
As for modern textiles in rugs, therapy aids, advances in tack design and modern feeds, I absolutely love them.
You can stick your thatching, I like the Bucas rugs and thermatex. If you only have a couple of horses, do you really want several sacks of feed to store and use up when one would do ?
Rubber matting is hygienic and time saving, deep littering is the work of the devil.
Modern wicking saddle pads, new technology in bit design- fabulous. Massage and heat pads are great, who has time to stand banging and grooming when muscles can be warmed or relaxed while you make the feeds up ?

I'd rather use a good cold therapy boot than stand for 3 times a day cold hosing for ages.
I love horsewalkers, I don't want to walk in hand for 30 minutes once or twice every day for months. Unless exercise needs to be straight lines only, I quite like to have some reprieve from the endless walking.

No, it was hard work when I was young, I don't want to make work for the sake of it. Where modern advances can produce equal or better results, it'll get my vote.

 

[3OldPonies]

Body brush and curry comb (didn't realise this counted as 'old fashioned' until I read other messages)
Plain havana tack and leather girth (only bit of bling is a small bit on my modern hat for day to day)
Velvet hat for showing (definitely no bling and ribbons tucked away)
Hairnet when riding my boy (pony tail or bun type arrangement (never could manage a neat bun that doesn't fall apart without a net) when out with someone else in case they think I'm weird)
Strapping (now and again)
Stable rubber
Can do proper bandages if needed
24/7 turnout
Swopping t/os for stable rugs if they come in
Tail bandage after tail washing
Squared off and stepped muck heap (yep I've heard that one too about neat heap, neat yard/horses)

There's probably other things as well that I don't think are old fashioned but serve me any my boys well and have stood the test of time.

 

[Rudolph's Red Nose]

I still have my old Witney blanket for putting under rugs unfortunately I have a "hot" cob these days but I just can't bring myself to throw / give it away just incase

 

[crabbymare]

I don't think of myself as old fashioned but I do like a tidy muck heap and clean windows in the stables. I teach people to wam up the horse before a lesson and warm down again afterwards which a lot of people are suprised about at first. I can bandage the right way (as taught by an old vet) for tension direction and the area covered. I use straights as the basis of my feeds keep the feedroom swept daily and hate waste in the haybarn. I also like to have everything on hooks or hangers or put away in drawers so there is no mess around. still have pretty much all brown tack and i use leather headcollars rather than nylon ones although I do like the wicking fabrics and rugs that don't weigh a ton

 

[Oddjobs Wife]

I'm with 3OPs in some of these old fashioned things, but on reflection, thinking about what I do and others do on my yard....

Use body brush & metal curry comb
Thatching
Hot cloth-ing
Warm up and cool down appropriate to the work being done
Muck out each day!
Turn up before 10.30am at the weekend/day off
Don't leave my horse unattended when eating his dinner
Feed ad-lib hay and control weight more appropriately
'Put up' bridles after cleaning
...and probably much more

I have modernised where I think it's more comfortable for my horse, or if there are time/money savers that aren't detrimental to my horse but always think carefully before doing so - but I am ancient now and still live the Pony Club values bashed into me aaages ago

 

[diamonddogs]

Putting up the bridle - reins (and martingale loop) into throat lash, noseband round the whole thing with the strap slid through the runner and keeper...

Oh yes, and I call the loops on tack runners and keepers!

 

[paddy555]

Lead horse home on the last part of a ride.
Make a square of dust from curry comb when body brushing ...

gosh I'm glad to see an expert does that as well ie leading. I do it for the last mile home and I get some very weird looks from "am I too pathetic to ride it" to "is the horse ill."

 

[PolarSkye]

I'm with 3OPs in some of these old fashioned things, but on reflection, thinking about what I do and others do on my yard....

Use body brush & metal curry comb
Thatching
Hot cloth-ing
Warm up and cool down appropriate to the work being done
Muck out each day!
Turn up before 10.30am at the weekend/day off
Don't leave my horse unattended when eating his dinner
Feed ad-lib hay and control weight more appropriately
'Put up' bridles after cleaning
...and probably much more

I have modernised where I think it's more comfortable for my horse, or if there are time/money savers that aren't detrimental to my horse but always think carefully before doing so - but I am ancient now and still live the Pony Club values bashed into me aaages ago

Mucking out each day is old fashioned?

P

 

[poiuytrewq]

Sorry poiuytrewq, no posh thermatex' allowed of this thread be off with your modern witchcraft

Accept my apologies!
I do however have Havana tack

 

[NikkiF]

Metal curry comb and body brush, old fashioned?? What on earth on earth do people use now

Warming up and down, definitely a lost art

Yup, still use stable rugs at night.

And other liveries think I'm weird cos I groom my lad every day regardless of whether he's being ridden or not! But he has a lovely shiny coat

 

[Twinkley Lights]

Body brush and curry comb (didn't realise this counted as 'old fashioned' until I read other messages)
Plain havana tack and leather girth (only bit of bling is a small bit on my modern hat for day to day)
Velvet hat for showing (definitely no bling and ribbons tucked away)
Hairnet when riding my boy (pony tail or bun type arrangement (never could manage a neat bun that doesn't fall apart without a net) when out with someone else in case they think I'm weird)
Strapping (now and again)
Stable rubber
Can do proper bandages if needed
24/7 turnout
Swopping t/os for stable rugs if they come in
Tail bandage after tail washing
Squared off and stepped muck heap (yep I've heard that one too about neat heap, neat yard/horses)

There's probably other things as well that I don't think are old fashioned but serve me any my boys well and have stood the test of time.

Love this thread all of the above except mine are in at night. I poo pick every day and love a neat stepped muck heap but I have a pile at the moment as it's had to be in the field. Someone please post a photo of a nice stepped heap ASAP so I can feel better

 

[micki]

I still use a stable cloth after giving them a good grooming, it leaves a lovely shine.
I always walk the beginning and last 10 minutes of a ride, i would hate to injure my horse because i am too busy zooming around on them.
I gradually fitten a horse up not jump on and expect an unfit horse to be able to work like i see alot doing now.
I would pull manes but one of horses will kill me if i try so i have got a solo comb for her and the other one is a traditional so has a long mane.
I never brush a mane out i always use my fingers to remove knots, unless it has been washed and then i will brush it when it is wet.
I don't use or like bling, i use plain tack but it is black.
I thatch with an old string sweat rug on wet horses.
There are probably loads more but i can't think at the moment.

 

[Shantara]

Warming up and down, definitely a lost art

Agree with this! Was horrified to see someone trot around the school a couple of times, then jump and when they had finished jumping, they hopped off and put horse away :O !!!

I like warming up and down.

Not sure what else is old fashioned! I'm relatively new to this world, so I pretty much do what I always have done (so long as it works!)

 

[3OldPonies]

arrghh, I've thought of some more!

Stretching out on a long rein at the end of the ride (like you see dressage riders doing at the end of a test) still riding on a contact but allowing the horse to stretch its neck downwards and to relax
poo picking daily (actually I do twice a day when the clocks change for he summer while the boys are indoors eating)
cleaning tack straight after it is used (completely at odds with some people I'm acquainted with) and putting the bridle up so that I know what has been cleaned as what has not
rinsing the bit with cold water immediately it has been used (much easier to clean without dried saliva and grass if he's had sneaky scooby snax)
picking out the feet before and after a ride (see previous comment about other people)
Stretching out the front legs after doing the girth up, and checking it again once mounted
Drying off before putting tack or rugs on (thatching is a bit messy I find, so string vest and modern cooler over the top)
Brushing the saddle and girth patches out after riding to remove any dried sweat and 'pointy' hair
Rubbing the legs after removing bandages and boots

Jeez, I think I could go on for ages - mind you a lot of these aren't necessarily old fashioned just things that people tend to let slip a bit when they are in a rush as so many of us are these days.

 

[OWLIE185]

Hacking out!