Old fashioned horse stuff sometimes still the best...

I remember going out for hacks in a polo neck and a hacking jacket, I thought I looked the bees knees but probably looked like an idiot in the rise and rise of the sweatshirt. looking back though I dont remember being cold and wet, I think the jacket was thick enough to stop a bullet

I remember when Westropp over reach boots when they first came out, they made a delightful clacking sound when your pony cantered and it sounded like he was going at light speed. I was therefore disappointed to buy some modern ones and found that the clacking sound was no more :(
 
pansymouse said:
Enfys said:
What I do miss, and cannot find is proper lunging cavessons. You know, the ones with the balancing strap up the front. I have yet to find a cavessson that doesn't flop without them.
QUOTE]

It's a Wels cavesson - I'd love to source one too
Click to expand...

I got a new one last year by accident! Ordered a pony size lunge cavesson from some random online shop and when it came it was the wrong colour and had the strap down the front. I had never seen one before and was on the verge of sending it back but an older horsey friend stopped me.
Click to expand...
 
Joddy clips! Most annoying things ever!
Still have my clicky over reach boots somewhere, used to be so jealous of those who had multiple coloured flaps!
 
I have a beautiful pair of leather knee boots (serge lined!!). I lost my mare last year so am moving on...in every sense of the word. If anyone is interested, please PM me. Sssh - it's advertising - sorry. I remember the canvas NZ's and jute rugs and string girths and plaited nylon reins - oh those were the days.....and yellow string gloves. How time flies!
 
alainax said:
I still only use leather head collars and laced reins :p I loved clackey over reach boots! We need to make those fashionable again :p
Click to expand...

Yes, I have always used leather headcollars too, some of mine are over 20 years old. I have laced reins somewhere but now I love my thick round rope ones and I would feel really weird using proper flat reins again.

Someone mentioned brass clincher browbands, I used one of those for years, I was having lunch with a friend who wrote saddlery books once, years ago, and he hated brass on bridles, said only gypsys and the army should use them, I didn't mention that all my bridles had brass browbands on them :(

I wasn't a fan of petal boots though - but at least they buckled up and you didn't have to battle to get them on and off. I can't count the number that I cut off in frustration.
 
Pinkvboots said:
lavenham quilt rugs they were one of the first after the jute rug.
Click to expand...

Oh yes, when I bought my first horse he had a jute rug with a wool blanket underneath. I saved up to buy him a stable rug and as he was quite wide the YO recommended a Lavenham. It fitted him like a glove and had wonderful elasticated surcingles. The rug lasted him until I lost him and then became my other horse's rug until he became too big for it. It hasn't fully retired yet, as it lags the water pipes to the washing machine which is in a chilly outbuilding.

They don't make em like they used to.
 
i'm guessing that when you guys say 'canvas new zealands' you mean the canvas rugs will wool lining?

I love them!! Like, I love synthetics as well, but you can't beat a good canvas rug, as heavy as they are!
 
There is still a place for the big heavy canvas new Zealand rugs. Infact here in NZ they are still widely used. Horses living out 24/7 tend to go through more rugs, I have some canvas that are 10 years old and still going strong, just get the odd reproof. Also I find that sometimes there can be huge changes in the weather, ie frost in the morning but getting up to double figures by the afternoon. Horses definitely sweat much less in them. I think they have much better airflow so skin conditions don't get the same chance to survive.
 
emmad96 said:
i'm guessing that when you guys say 'canvas new zealands' you mean the canvas rugs will wool lining?

I love them!! Like, I love synthetics as well, but you can't beat a good canvas rug, as heavy as they are!
Click to expand...

yes, we are talking about the wool lined canvas rugs :) I am so glad that I have the option, my modern rugs freeze solid at times, a canvas one would be dreadful, it would stand up by itself in cold temperatures. Yuk.
 
alainax said:
I still only use leather head collars and laced reins :p I loved clackey over reach boots! We need to make those fashionable again :p
Click to expand...

Put clacky over reach boots on pony i was riding, not because he needed them but because I wanted to look "cool" when we started trotting he took off like a bat out of hell from the noise lol
 
silv said:
There is still a place for the big heavy canvas new Zealand rugs. Infact here in NZ they are still widely used. Horses living out 24/7 tend to go through more rugs, I have some canvas that are 10 years old and still going strong, just get the odd reproof. Also I find that sometimes there can be huge changes in the weather, ie frost in the morning but getting up to double figures by the afternoon. Horses definitely sweat much less in them. I think they have much better airflow so skin conditions don't get the same chance to survive.
Click to expand...

This is really interesting - in the days of original NZ rugs, we only had one rug and as soon as horse was clipped, they wore that rug until spring. I never remember them sweating at all unlike nowadays. Annoyingly I have just given OH my last one which would have fitted current horse to use for dog beds. Natural fibres actually seem so much better for them.

Still feeling very happy with my witney blanket. 2 degrees out with a sharp wind and horse was nice and toasty underneath out exercising today.
 
I am a big lover of old fashioned/traditional gear and always have been - day rugs, summer sheets and leather work. Old stuff is better quality, better made, fits better, lasts longer and looks smarter. I love ebay, finding old stuff is so much easier now thanks to this :)
 
I'm the man who had to wash, repair or alter the Witneys. Jute, NZ rugs and rollers. It was hard work being a Saddler then back in the 80's.
When I was selling Witneys I bought myself one as I got them at trade prices and had it over my bed, was never cold. It lasted years until it finally gave up the ghost and ended up in the dog's bed not that long ago actually!
Oz
 
Woollen day rugs are the best, warmest and breathable, I'll never stop using them, although I am not immaculate enough to use them as actual day rugs. Summer sheets work as well as anything for flies, and are probably better than most modern fly sheets which horseflies can bite through. But I wouldn't go back to jute rugs, which quickly get wet and smelly, although a new one was a nice thing. : ) I remember how proud I felt of my first lavenham rug for my pony..
And you can't beat a newmarket wool exercise sheet (no static) windproof and much warmer than any fleece.
 
Cobbytype said:
Oh yes, when I bought my first horse he had a jute rug with a wool blanket underneath. I saved up to buy him a stable rug and as he was quite wide the YO recommended a Lavenham. It fitted him like a glove and had wonderful elasticated surcingles. The rug lasted him until I lost him and then became my other horse's rug until he became too big for it. It hasn't fully retired yet, as it lags the water pipes to the washing machine which is in a chilly outbuilding.

They don't make em like they used to.
Click to expand...


A lavenham stable rug came up on ebay in my pony's size and every day I kick myself that I did not bid on it!
 
There is no hope for me, I still wear a green lavenham waistcoat, I have two in fact but one has had a pocket removed by a thieving sweet searcher. My tack room as two blue lavenham rugs. All the horses have a leather headcollar with their name on, but they do have to 'earn' it first by winning their first red rossette. Leather kneeboots and laced leather reins are the norm.

Neatsfoot Oil and Carr Day Martin hoof oil, love the smell ! I inherited a leather lunge cav, with the heaviest metal fittings imaginable, complete with a metal stamp detailing the saddler that made it. Lovely but so heavy and cumbersome. What an old fashioned bird I am.
 
I don't think anyone has mentioned sweat sheets, or anti-sweat sheets or whatever we called them back in the day. You know the string vest type? Came in a myriad of colours, eventually.

We used to thatch a horse under them with a cotton sheet/day rug on top (depending on weather) They probably died a death after thermatex etc came out.

Does anyone still use them, or have any lurking in tackrooms?
 
^^ shires still make those! I have several... Sounds ridiculous but I chopped one up for dog rugs to be soaked in cold water for very hot show days.

I had a lavenham rug too.... I put it in the bin with a tear in my eye last winter after a bar steward mouse had it.

And I never knew that about brass on bridles! Whoops. I loved it, and still have brass fitting on Havana tack now (though not to go hunting).
 
Enfys said:
We used to thatch a horse under them with a cotton sheet/day rug on top (depending on weather) They probably died a death after thermatex etc came out.

Does anyone still use them, or have any lurking in tackrooms?
Click to expand...

I have one, and thatch with it quite regularly, even though we also have a few thermatex rugs.
 
The first rug I bought for my first horse was a Lavenham. I also remember buying her a nice wool day rug and changing the binding on it to the colour of my choice as back in the day they were always navy with either light blue, red or yellow binding. I wanted emerald green with white :)

I've still got a hunting breastplate I swapped for some old worn out stuff at Catlips, this would have been about 1987ish. That breastplate is still in use.
 
I gave my first bridle to the Gambia Donkey trust last year, I still have the folded girth, hand made of belly leather, circa 1973.. my saddle is jeffries 1987. I have a curb chain and some other bits an pieces, sold my hunting crop, dated Birmingham 1930 [I got it second hand]
 
Last edited:
emmad96 said:
i'm guessing that when you guys say 'canvas new zealands' you mean the canvas rugs will wool lining?

I love them!! Like, I love synthetics as well, but you can't beat a good canvas rug, as heavy as they are!
Click to expand...

Not in my case. A square wool blanket (army surplus itchy thing) was placed over the horses back and neck, up near to the poll. The jute rug went on over the top and the blanket was folded back from the poll over the jute rug, then a roller secured the whole lot in place. As my horse had very little wither, 2 pieces of sponge were placed either side his wither to prevent pressure.
 
Cobbytype said:
Not in my case. A square wool blanket (army surplus itchy thing) was placed over the horses back and neck, up near to the poll. The jute rug went on over the top and the blanket was folded back from the poll over the jute rug, then a roller secured the whole lot in place. As my horse had very little wither, 2 pieces of sponge were placed either side his wither to prevent pressure.
Click to expand...

That description takes me back, if you were very 'posh' you had a witney instead of an army blanket.
When I was a wp all the horses were rugged like this, blankets (sometimes multiples) and jutes. In the mornings we would take the blankets off, and put the jutes back on with the fronts turned back under the roller, so like quarter sheets. When we quartered them we had to keep the rug on all the time.
 
Enfys said:
I don't think anyone has mentioned sweat sheets, or anti-sweat sheets or whatever we called them back in the day. You know the string vest type? Came in a myriad of colours, eventually.

We used to thatch a horse under them with a cotton sheet/day rug on top (depending on weather) They probably died a death after thermatex etc came out.

Does anyone still use them, or have any lurking in tackrooms?
Click to expand...

I've got loads of them, three or four in white, two in black and one in green and still use them regularly.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top