Older peeps: is it a myth that there are more owners with less horse knowledge now?

FionaM12 said:
I know horse-care has changed enormously since then, and there have been lots of threads on that topic.


What I was hoping on this thread was to discuss the relative knowledge/standard of ownership between, say 30+ years ago and today.
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I had my first pony in the 70s. Back then we wormed twice a year if we thought they needed it (i.e. if they looked a bit thin), we never had the dentist as there weren't any - if your horse got thin in his teens, the vet would rasp them. We used colic drenches and that funny cough mixture stuff that you rolled into a ball and popped into the horses mouth (a guy up the farm who had flu took some once and said he sweated like crazy for about 4 hours then was miraculously cured!). We rode bareback in headcollars and no hats (hats were useless and fell off before we did, generally). Our ponies lived out without rugs and didn't get much hay. We fed a mug of oats the day before a show/gymkhana to spice them up a bit, or a mug of boiled pearl barley to fill them out the day before hunting. We rode to the farrier (who was also a blacksmith) and it took about an hour to ride there. Shoes were £6.40 a set in the mid 70s.
 
Judging by some of the comments written on a facebook group that I read, I would say that there are a lot of horses out there that are very lacking in care.
 
lhotse said:
Judging by some of the comments written on a facebook group that I read, I would say that there are a lot of horses out there that are very lacking in care.
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There were 30 years ago too. I knew of some dreadful neglect and ignorant owners, but without things like Facebook, perhaps people were less aware.
 
fizzer said:
I do think that years ago that

a) There were possibly not as many yards, more farmers have turned to horse yards in last 20 yrs

b) Most horses/ponies I knew of were all worked/had a job

c) Families tended to share than have one each

d) Lots more people probably went to a riding school for a longer length of time before purchasing.
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I agree with a you say!

anuvb said:
Interesting question OP - I don't think there is less knowledge but I do think there are fewer old 'horsemen/women' around than there used to be... you know the sort that knew exactly how to poultice, what to do if colic occured etc etc.

What I do think has changed has been people's expectations. Riding/horse owning is much more accessible now because of the increase in people's disposable income. In some ways this has brought much improvement (better Health and Safety, better welfare standards for example) but it has also meant people are often unrealistic about what is involved in ownership, and not matching their ability with the type of horse they purchase. 30 years ago we all went for a decent horse with a leg at each corner which could do a little bit of everything. It didn' matter if it had a wall eye, or a bog brush mane. Nor did it matter if it bucked off your little darling every lesson - after all we learnt by the seat of our pants!

Now people go for the ones which can compete, look pretty etc but don't necessarily want to put the time or effort in to teach it the basics. Overall horses are much more commercial than they used to be and if it doesn't suit it is often sold on, rather than the time and effort put in to turning it around.

I don't know whether it's worse or better than 30 years ago - just different!
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Agree with this too.

I well remember the 70's heck I remember the 50s!

In the 50s and early 60s the only people who owned their own horses were either very rich or farmers.
As more people started to buy ponies for their children so they were usually kept at livery in a riding school.

The people teaching back then were mainly teaching to Military standards. They were either ex military or had been taught by someone who was.
Then people started keeping their own horses in fields they owned or rented, they rarely had lessons except for PC Rallies and Camps.
Then these riders started to teach.

Nowadays I think that in the average riding school the standard is a lot lower. Health and Safety plus the 'sue' factor play a large part in pupils being nannied.

I also think that a lot has changed. All the horses and ponies, bar three or four, lived out all year, rugless. They never got mud fever or rain rot, thought the former could be because we rode on the beach a lot in the winter.

They all worked 6 days a week for at least 2 hours a day, maximum of 4 hours. They hunted and went to gymkhanas and were well fed and cared for.
The farrier did their teeth and, they were wormed twice a year. Saddles were flat, and each horse had its own. There were never sore backs or girth galls.

The knowledge of horsemanship was higher. No excuses were made for a horse's misbehaviour. They knew how to feed according to work, weight and temperament.
We did have several ponies come the the riding school that had laminitis. They were rarely ever kept stabled. Work and grazing on hill pasture brought them sound.
The vet was a rare visitor. Certainly no one would have asked them for feed advice.

People are a lot 'softer' than they were back then. Horses today are far more pampered which, is why I am sure there are so many more problems.
 
When I was a child several centuries ago most of us rode at riding schools and I remember many a happy day spent from dawn to dusk doing odd jobs round the yard to earn a free ride or too but along the way picking up lots of stable management info and basic horse care. My parents were relatively well off but would have no more thought of buying me or my siblings a pony than of flying to the moon!!! I just don't remember there being all the diy yards around then as there are now. I'm sure that most people who had horses then had them at home and probably had a Perkins who looked after them! I don't think then there were what are now termed 'happy hackers'. If you had a horse it was either for competition or more likely hunting. Horse knowledge and care was learnt from an early age.

Nowadays you can buy a horse or pony so cheaply and it seems every other farm has diversified into a diy yard so that horse ownership has become accessible to almost everyone but sadly basic knowledge has been lost along the way.
 
I'm not sure on how to answer the question really.

I'm 30 and was lucky enough to have a pony since I was 5 (nothing special, a cheap dealer heinz 57 pony). My mum, auntie and other family members owned horses, so all my horsey knowledge from the age of 5 till now has come from them. This would equate to a total of approximately 50 + years of horse knowledge rubbed off on me.

There is sooo much to learn about owning horses, it must be extremely difficult for new horse owners. I am no expert, but I know when a horse is lame, sick, how to look after it and how they generally behave.

I think the Internet is a great tool for knowledge as are books. But possibly, the fact that horses are widely advertised across the Internet may inspire people to purchase them without the full knowledge required.

20 years ago, it seemed horses were only advertised in H&H magazine, local tack shops or you went to a local dealer. I don't think non-horsey folk really would have known where to look for a horse back then.

I don't ever remember clueless owners back then, maybe lazy owners.

I met a girl in her early 20's this summer who purchased a lovely recently broken section D. She has not sat on him for months as he tests her. In the summer I was asked why I thought he didn't want to walk to and from the field. The horse clearly had laminitus and she hadn't a clue what this was until I explained it to her.

I couldn't fault her general care for the horse- if she doesn't want to ride him, thats up to her. But how would a new owner learn about laminitus unless it happened to their horse or a horse they knew? Is this in a guide to owning horses book?

I first knew of laminitus when I was 6/7 as my mum and auntie would explain to me why the pony would be on a small, restricted grazing paddock.

Im just rambling now. Maybe there are more owners with less knowledge out there now? :confused:
 
Foxhunter49 said:
I agree with a you say!



Nowadays I think that in the average riding school the standard is a lot lower. Health and Safety plus the 'sue' factor play a large part in pupils being nannied.


The knowledge of horsemanship was higher. No excuses were made for a horse's misbehaviour. They knew how to feed according to work, weight and temperament.


People are a lot 'softer' than they were back then. Horses today are far more pampered which, is why I am sure there are so many more problems.
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This.

When my daughter was first learning I was stunned at how slowly she learned. I think there's a huge difference between not overfacing them but taking advantage of the window when they're competent and pretty fearless.

I learned to ride on the roads on a pony that was kept in someone's back garden. I think once I'd mastered rising trot I was off the leading rein and going on 'proper hacks'. I freely admit to being a bit of a wuss these days but back then there was no stopping me.

When I got my own horse, the YO was our point of reference and if she didn't know something, she'd have a chat with somebody who came to the farm and one way or another, most problems seemed to get sorted out. I think these days some do want a quick fix and aren't necessarily prepared to work it out and they may not have someone on the ground with sensible advice.
 
I think it's more complicated now. When I was learning to ride in the early 90s the range of feeds, rugs, gadgets etc was so much narrower than it was now. Probably the range of potential solutions for any problem was narrower too owing to the lack of different diagnostics options, horsemanship systems etc. The blessing and curse of the internet is easier access to experts, you aren't reliant on the local 'authorities' any more.

To be honest though I doubt that people's horse knowledge is much worse on average than it was 20 or 30 years ago. Even then the proportion of the population with experience of horses had declined massively from what it had been in the 50s never mind in the 20s/30s and the old style horsemen were dying out.
 
Havnet read all of the replies but, i started in the horsey world in 1990 and have run a livery yard for the last 11.5 years - i have seen and noticed a mssive change. Not knowing if it was me just being a grumpy old thing i asked a few friends who have been around them as long as myself - and they ALL agree!
It seems, or at least in our area that anyone and everyone just goes out and buys a horse without the knowledge to care for one :-(
i recently enrolled on a horse owning course just to see the content and i am actually considering making it a requirement for new owners to undertake if they want to be on my yard as in the last 6 or 7 years i have grown sick and tired of new owners who havent a clue, now i have my own children i dont have all of the excess time required to teach them all they need to know - just to provide basic care!

rant over :-)
 
When we got our first horse (1976, I think) there were very few horses in our village and the ones there were were mainly hunters. Ours lived on a farm with the farmer's daughter's pony. The only livery yard in the area was also a RS - now it's just a livery yard and competiton centre.
Sis and I had ridden for 7+ yrs at a different RS, where the RIs were also PC instructors and because of that taught a couple of famous local families of equestrians. Same RI is also still a BSPS panel judge. We learned enough to look after our easy to do cob before we got him, although Dad, who bought him for us, made sure that we and he were safe and healthy by being involved closely with his care.
Nowadays I see young teenagers being left to look after their horses by themselves, their parents seem to think that their responsibility ends when the pony is bought. When we were at livery, a good few years ago now, 2 sisters shared a horse, they didn't always go to the DIY yard together. They lived about 5 mins drive away from the yard but usually walked down through the wood and fields after school. No-one would have known if anything had happened to them on the way, or on the way home. They physically struggled to care for the horse and their knowledge was also very limited.
TBH you only have to read some of the posts on here to know that a great many people do not really have enough 'horse-sense' to keep a horse, except on full livery. And there are a large number of livery yards where YO doesn't have enough knowledge to make up for the lack of customers' knowledge.
There may be lots of information available on the internet but it seems that not every-one with a horse bothers to access it.
 
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