Question for those who were horse owners in the 1970's

[Rowreach]

that's what mine looked like except that the straps were cross-overs, and they clipped on on both sides.

I love the selling point that the rug was 'inedible'

I wish they made inedible ones these days?

 

[humblepie]

I remember making an exercise sheet in the late 70s. Think may still have it somewhere

 

[meleeka]

The chaskit spider didn't cross over though, just threaded through each other between the hind legs.

I think that was late 80’s/early 90’s. They looked incredibly complicated.

I remember New Zealand rugs never fitted around the chest. I did buy one once that did (it was blue too which I thought was very cool). Sadly my pony must have got caught on the first night of wearing it and ripped the front clean off . I never did find one that fitted as well.

I remember being given a Polywarma rug which was much too big. My mum cut the back end to size and sewed darts in the shoulder to make it fit. All my friends still had jute rugs so I felt very posh.

 

[Winters100]

I had ponies in the late 70s and 80s and we used new zealands which came with an attached surcingle. Agree with Meleeka that they never fitted around the chest and had to be 'turned up' with darts in the chest line to fit.

At night they wore jute rugs, if it was cold with a sheet and a newmarket blanket under, and always with an anti-cast roller.

I remember viewing rugs with crossed surcingles with great suspicion!

 

[honetpot]

I was a groom in 1976, hunters and show ponies, and I was taught the cross the leg straps in the middle and back to the side it came from. They where made of chromed leather, with a buckle that went through a slot, this is where you adjusted the length with the buckle, reinforced with the same chrome leather, with a clip on the other end. The canvas rugs were so heavy and had a canvas surcingle, with a wool blanket lining.
I have a lot of stuff from the late 70's, string girths, web girths, and even some body brushes, which are still usable.
I can remember when modern puffa jackets came out, they were usually adapted ski jackets, for riding in wet weather it was a canvas cream coat.
In 1981,I bought a waxed Barbour riding coat and thought I was the bees knees, when it rained the pockets would fill up with water.

 

[meleeka]

In 1981,I bought a waxed Barbour riding coat and thought I was the bees knees, when it rained the pockets would fill up with water.

I remember that well. They also went all
slimy when wet and took an age to dry.

 

[Lois Lame]

Not sure about the spider system but you could buy a canvas rug with the Y fastening, and my instructor told me that such a thing is better as it doesn't interfere with the back legs. The horse can move better it in.

I've not see a rug with the Y fastening for yonks. Decades.

This Y fastening has a strap that comes up between the front legs and loops onto the little breast strap at the front of the rug. The bit under the girth area divides into two, and one comes up on each side of the horse and clips onto the outside of the rug up near the flank, sort of, or maybe the hip. A bit further forward than that. There are no leg straps at all. For some very strange reason, the rug stays as well-placed as any rug I've ever seen. No surcingle.

 

[Red-1]

Definitely not the 70's, got my first pony in 1980 and it was all roller or surcingle then.

Weirdly, I remember highly padding the jute roller in the stable, but the New Zealand had a single-buckle matching canvass roller which was simply put on.

I did love turning blankets back though!

I wish those were still around.

Got two still around in my tack room! Didn't know they were no longer a thing as I still used them after an event until Jay stopped in 2014!

 

[lannerch]

A

And by 15 horses were considered veterans without many years riding life left!

and still are nothings changed there , my veteran 18yo is retired with navicular.

the blankets under the rugs if you were posh were the lovely gold and black striped Whitney ones .

 

[Tiddlypom]

I was a groom in 1976, hunters and show ponies, and I was taught the cross the leg straps in the middle and back to the side it came from. They where made of chromed leather, with a buckle that went through a slot, this is where you adjusted the length with the buckle, reinforced with the same chrome leather, with a clip on the other end. The canvas rugs were so heavy and had a canvas surcingle, with a wool blanket lining.

That’s right.

I’ll shamelessly show this screen grab of a H&H feature from Oct, as it is my old horse in the bottom left picture, prancing about in the snow in his canvas NZ rug, which fitted just as you describe. Pic taken in the 80s, but the rug was already 10 years old by then.

He must have just been turned out when I took that pic, as usually it would be hanging off over to one side . Modern turnouts are waay better than their predecessors.

 

[ycbm]

A
the blankets under the rugs if you were posh were the lovely gold and black striped Whitney ones .

Posh people had rugs that sang power ballads ??? ? They were Witney (Oxfordshire, where they were made) blankets, definitely only for posh people whether you had the singing and dancing version or not ?


eta still being sold in Witney!

https://www.witneybedding.co.uk/english-horse-blankets
.

 

[tda]

In the 70's most horses & ponies didn't have rugs - it was only the "posh" people who rugged.

This, we grew up with various horses and ponies and they all lived out and none owned a rug.
We were just pleasure riders/drivers.

 

[vhf]

This rug came with my horse in 1985. Modeled here by my current mare. I got his old rugs out to throw away - and then put them back again.

 

[spacefaer]

In the 70s I had a 12.2 who never wore a rug and a 14.2 who had a jute rug with a roller, and a canvas NZ with a stitched on roller.
I got a 15.3 in 1983 and he had a polywarma nylon rug - it was navy with red trim and had cross surcingles. I also had navy jodhpurs - coloured ones were a new concept then too.
Around 1989, I had a Lansdown NZ with a spider system - absolutely brilliant rug - it also had a thermal liner many years before the main rug manufacturers thought of it!

 

[J&S]

I well remember the heavy green canvas rugs with attached surcingles, they used to rub like heck on the shoulders and I lined mine with various materials from silk and satin to trying some rabbit fur from an old coat! Thank goodness for the lighter rugs with shiny insides that we use now! I don't have any examples of canvas or jute rugs left but I do have, as a prized possesion, a blue/white checked cotton "duster" rug, leather strap and buckle at the front and a fixed sircingle with a leather strap and buckle. It is only pony sized but I just love it so much, have used it alot for travelling in the summer.

 

[tatty_v]

I can remember rugging up my friends pony for the night in 2003/4 and he still had the folded blanket underneath and the roller on top. Perhaps her mum was just a bit retro?!

 

[pansymouse]

In the 70's most horses & ponies didn't have rugs - it was only the "posh" people who rugged.

This. We lived in North Yorkshire and I never saw a pony in a rug. There weren't many horse where we lived, only a few hunters which as far I remember mainly lived in wearing jute rugs with blankets underneath and rollers over.

 

[Keith_Beef]

I remember that well. They also went all
slimy when wet and took an age to dry.

Every Barbour I've owned has drain holes with brass grommets in the pockets. They dry quite quickly, even hung up in my unheated tack room garage.

 

[Annagain]

I suspect rugs as we know them arrived a fair bit later than we imagine. I 'worked' ( i.e. mucked out all day for a free ride) in a riding school from about 1989 to 1992 and all the horses had jute rugs with blankets underneath that we folded to a point and then back under the roller. They never spent any money on the horses if they could help it but I remember as the jute rugs got broken and had to be replaced, they were being replaced with cross surcingle rugs - all of them navy with red binding. They would probably have been a couple of years behind the times but not loads so I'd think it was the late 80s.

They didn't get turned out in winter so there were no NZ rugs apart from three of the ponies. The ponies all lived out in a big yard and were let into the indoor school at night. There was one very fine pony, Ben, who was rugged and two oldies, Flicker and Shelly who were clipped and rugged - I assume now due to cushings but didn't know about it at the time. They still had the NZ rugs when I stopped going there in 92.

I also remember my share horse's owner buying one of the first 'revolutionary' Rambo rugs for her other horse- I'd have been about 15/16 so in about 1994/5. I was expecting something space age and was quite disappointed to see it was very similar to his normal rug. The only difference was it was bright green and we could leave it on him in his stable. There was never any talk about weights though, it was just rug or no rug. We couldn't rug Eb as he'd get too hot and have a sweat rash. It was only when they developed lightweights that we could rug him - to keep him clean more than anything - and they were never waterproof!

 

[Sussexbythesea]

I still have my pony’s original Lavenham, it’s not been used since the late 80’s. The straps are completely detachable both sides and are a plastic click in affair. I must have got it between about 1982 and 1985.

 

[vhf]

I well remember the heavy green canvas rugs with attached surcingles, they used to rub like heck on the shoulders and I lined mine with various materials from silk and satin to trying some rabbit fur from an old coat! Thank goodness for the lighter rugs with shiny insides that we use now! I don't have any examples of canvas or jute rugs left but I do have, as a prized possesion, a blue/white checked cotton "duster" rug, leather strap and buckle at the front and a fixed sircingle with a leather strap and buckle. It is only pony sized but I just love it so much, have used it alot for travelling in the summer.

Mine was near impossible to move when wet or muddy, and went stiff as a board and impossible to move when cold! I still felt posh having it though!

 

[Sussexbythesea]

What we had before that.

 

[HappyHollyDays]

I had wool army blankets which folded back and were kept in place with a roller. I don’t have the roller anymore but it was jute and dark blue felt, leather bound with two buckles. The rug itself slipped all the time, stank of wet pee and was encrusted with poo. Thank god I now have liners and lightweight no fills which I can wash every 10 days or so ?

 

[Meredith]

OH will not be pleased because I have pulled this from the furthest highest shelf in the indoor tack room where it is kept safely and he will have to climb up to return it.

I made this rug for my first pony from quilting bought at a local market. The pony was bought as a foal in 1966. I know I made this before I got married, 1972. You can see the repairs I have done. I think it was used as an under rug in later years. It has been stored away since 1992 when the pony was PTS.

 

[Pippity]

I suspect rugs as we know them arrived a fair bit later than we imagine. I 'worked' ( i.e. mucked out all day for a free ride) in a riding school from about 1989 to 1992 and all the horses had jute rugs with blankets underneath that we folded to a point and then back under the roller. They never spent any money on the horses if they could help it but I remember as the jute rugs got broken and had to be replaced, they were being replaced with cross surcingle rugs - all of them navy with red binding. They would probably have been a couple of years behind the times but not loads so I'd think it was the late 80s.

I 'worked' at a riding school in the mid-90s on a similar arrangement. Ponies were kept two to a loose box during the day, then turned out rugless overnight. The horses each got a loose box to themselves overnight, mostly unrugged but one dainty palomino had a jute rug with the obligatory blanket and a roller. I always wanted to rug the palomino - I'd read all about how to deal with the blanket and roller! - but was never allowed to. (There was a particular clique that did the horses. The rest of us were only allowed to deal with the ponies.) There were one or two NZ rugs, with rollers, that were used on whichever horses had a day off.

The owner was very old-fashioned and very resistant to spending money, with the former taking priority! If she'd been offered a jute rug for £20 or a lavenham rug for £10, she'd have taken the jute. However, she'd be more likely to have taken two ripped jute rugs and stitched them together to make a frankenrug.

 

[vhf]

My old jute rug. Was held in place by a huge leather anti-cast roller with a pad of cushion foam under it. If it was really cold, he might get a car travel rug, or more likely straw, under it. Our hunter livery at the time had the glorious striped Witney blankets and a beautiful padded roller. But the jute rug stank just as much as mine!

 

[Leandy]

From my recollection, my ponies had jute rugs, blankets and rollers for when they were stabled in the winter and canvas NZ for turn out, again with a surcingle round their middle and chrome leather leg straps which you either linked together or crossed. that was throughout the '70s. Cross surcingles and quilted rugs didn't turn up until the early eighties as I recall. I went to a big yard to do my BHSAI in 1983 and I noticed their smart competion horses were wearing rugs with cross surcingles whilst the more bog standard school horses still had rollers etc. The cross surcingle rugs never seemed to be straight and of course, it was a mystery how to keep a stable blanket on under one and they often got a roller added with blankets on a cold night. Noone had invented liners then!

 

[Pinkvboots]

I remember in the eighties I had a TB on loan and his owner came to see him quite regularly, I remember him presenting me with a lovely green lavenham quilted stable rug for him, I was the the envy of everyone on the yard as most horses had jute rugs for the stable.

 

[Meredith]

I noticed their smart competion horses were wearing rugs with cross surcingles whilst the more bog standard school horses still had rollers etc. The cross surcingle rugs never seemed to be straight and of course, it was a mystery how to keep a stable blanket on under one and they often got a roller added with blankets on a cold night. Noone had invented liners then![/QUOTE

I made this rug for my first pony from quilting bought at a local market. The pony was bought as a foal in 1966. I know I made this before I got married, 1972. You can see the repairs I have done. I think it was used as an under rug in later years. It has been stored away since 1992 when the pony was PTS.View attachment 65322

Sorry, Leandy, but I think I had.?

 

[windand rain]

Mine still had rugs with surcingles when feather/down duvets came in as we used them as under blankets towards the end of canvas rugs. So probably early 70s for the first nylon rugs