Reminiscing, the good old days and catalogues and tack shops….

[Snow Falcon]

Ww had a Barratts if Feckenham by us and its where the lady in the shop was putting her advert up for a trailer for sale on the noticeboard as Mum and I were in there buying a body brush for my horse.

We went that weekend to see the trailer and bought it. That was back in 1996 and I still have the trailer now.

There was a large department store in Birmingham, I don't remember which one and they had a very small horse section. I used to love looking in there too.

Great post Domino Brown.

Same shop! I think it may have been Rackhams in Brum?

 

[rabatsa]

Loved Barretts. I bought my first Shires rug from there. It was £70 and i was so proud of it This was the early 90s.

On a Saturday morning everyone bought the Yorkshire Post for the equestrian section. It had pages and pages of horses for sale. We would read every single advert.

I bought a 4yr old Irish mare from an advert in the Yorkshire Post. It was from a dealer and the week VAT came in. The dealer had forgotton to add VAT to the advert, so my £300 horse ended up being £325 as VAT was 10%.

 

[scats]

Ah the original Robinson’s, I loved it. The new one was rubbish in comparison.

 

[Burnttoast]

I grew up near Newmarket so the first tack shop I ever went in (long before I had my own horse) was Horse Requisites. Took me years to achieve the wool Newmarket stripe exercise sheet/day sheet combo I hankered for from that day ... I used to go in to stroke them and look lovingly at brushes and bandages while mum and dad were doing the weekly shop!

 

[ecb89]

I was a ponyless teen and wasn’t allowed riding lessons as my dad hates horses as was convinced I would get paralysed. I read vicariously and loved horse and rider magazine. I used to go through the derby house catalogue and make wish lists. As an above posted mentioned, I learnt all about the different bits, martingales, bridles, brushes etc through reading catalogues

 

[Jambarissa]

I used to get Horse and Pony and then Your Horse magazines and they'd come with all the catalogues and leaflets.

Robinson was always so cheap compared to the single localish tackshop, I got a chequebook at about 13 then no one could stop me ordering! Used to charge myself a fortune for postage because I didn't know how to do percentages

As soon as I could drive I took a trip across the country to one of their sales.it was heaven. Bought a dirt cheap summersheet that had been personalised and returned, it said Bracken on it.

Later moved near enough to visit, it was great before the fire. After that the staff didn't seem very knowledgeable about the stock, I always knew exactly what they had!

And yes, the CAM catalogue, beautiful wooden stables with a clock tower

 

[Jambarissa]

And do you remember the leaflet that came in Horse and Pony magazine that was about a boarding school with horses? That was my dream.

 

[Maddie Moo]

As a pony less child, I would spend hours circling things I wanted in the Shires and Derby House catalogues Including all the things I would need to set up my own yard. I used to visit the local tack shops and I bought my favourite RS pony a new Horseware headcollar once, which the RS owner very kindly used for him.

It also taught me all the names of the different bits etc, especially the Shires one!

 

[Maddie Moo]

And do you remember the leaflet that came in Horse and Pony magazine that was about a boarding school with horses? That was my dream.

Queen Ethelburga’s!

 

[Love]

I actually mentioned this on the other thread, but me and my best friend would spend hours on the house phone with a ride away catalogue each telling each other a page to go to and then picking out which stable rug or showjumping jacket we would buy if we had our own pony.

I also remember my auntie buying me a grooming kit when I was 7 or 8 and it was the absolute best thing in the world to a pony mad riding school child. I still have and use some of the brushes now 20 years later!

Not the clearest photo but this was my all time favourite coat - a puffa jacket covered in jockey silks. I absolutely would buy another if they were still for sale!

 

[littleshetland]

Back in the mists time when my Dad used to drive me to school - late 60's or early 70's we would drive past a tack shop, in which was displayed a shiny new saddle in the window. I became obsessed with this shop and was constantly pestering my dad to stop at the shop. He never did, until one day, to my amazement he said 'ok...but not for long' ! I made a bee line for the saddle in the window, and thought it was the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen (apart from ponies/horses...any equine really) and pleaded and begged with my dad to buy it for me. I just wanted to take it home and stare at it all day I suppose! He wisely said no, several times, as I had no pony, and absolutely no chance of getting one and it was about £100 - an absolute fortune back then.

 

[BallyJ]

Queen Ethelburga’s!

I signed my parents up to the mailing list for this! We'd get the prospectus every year!

 

[humblepie]

Most towns in the 60s & 70s (showing my age here!) had tack shops. I lived abroad as a child and remember visiting the tack shop in Faringdon, where my grandparents lived, and being in heaven. It was the smell of leather as you walked on the door.

Coincidentially was talking about Faringdon the other day - apparently the saddlery shop is now a cafe called Saddlers. Our town had a proper saddlery shop, in a row of terraced houses pretty much in the town centre and that isn't a village but a big town. And even more randomly as part of a clear out yesterday I came across and threw away a receipt for a Jackatex item (not sure what, it just had the price paid and Jackatex written on it).

 

[J&S]

No catalogues that i can remember when I was a child in the early 50's but I do remember having Horse and Hound magazine and being obsessed with a grey race horse called Ballymoss.
I don't know where my own tack came from for my ponies, presumably my father bought it, but I have a photo of my NFx pony in a brand new honey coloured bridle. Much later on in life my teenaged daughter got a hankering for yellow covered rubber reins! Oh horror! As seen in a catalogue she got hold of.

 

[tristar]

I'm even older, and I used to pore over the ads in the back of Horse & Hound, saving up for my first black riding jacket from Jackatex. I kept it for over 30 years, long, long outgrown, I loved it so much. It took me nearly a year to save up for it (in the '70's).

oh i got one of those, got dressed up to ride my pony, was walking past the church and passed an american girl staying at the showjumping yard, she said ``hi, you look so smart``never forget that.

 

[ecb89]

Ahh yes I wanted to go to queen ethelburgas so badly.

 

[Errin Paddywack]

When I bought my first pony back in 1969 there were no local saddlers. We eventually found Townfields at Allesley. They were only a tiny concern then operating from a small room at the back of their house. Became my favourite place to go and we saw them expand into a lovely big showroom and of course saw them at a lot of shows. Still got some of the tack we bought there. Around the same time friends of my husband started up a RS and then went into tack sales. RS long gone but the saddlery became Tower Farm Saddlers who have grown a lot and are really excellent. We are so lucky as they are only a mile or so from our field and we can get just about everything we need there.

 

[Indy]

I got my first pony from a for sale advert in the Doncaster Free Press, there wasn't even a picture. We went, saw and brought him home the same day. He cost £235.00

 

[Crazy_cat_lady]

I've now completely given up horses but was a horse less child in the 90s/ early 2000s

*Watching Badminton and videoing it to watch again and again - used to love King William showing off up the trot up!

*Buying horse and pony magazine and reading the photo stories and putting the posters up on my bedroom wall

*Going to the tackshop and dreaming about what I'd buy for my own horse

*Gymkhanas at the riding school and pinning the rosettes to a cork board I had in my bedroom

*Helping out at the rs - there was a huge group of us who'd be up there as often as possible

*Loaning one of the rs ponies and wishing I could buy him as I hated how many lessons he had to do, and seeing other people on him

*Taking my magpie models everywhere, and setting up "hacks" in the garden or along the landing! Writing "lists" for lessons they would take part in! (I still have the models at my parents house)

*Jumping "jumps" made out of garden canes and flowerpots on foot around the garden

*Riding my rocking horse along to badminton or the racing

*Playing Mary King's riding star or Equestrian 2001 over and over on the ps1

*Reading the Robinson's catalogue and dreaming of all the tack I'd buy

*Watching chatter happy ponies (strop was my favourite) and if wishes were horses (I can still hear the theme tune in my head!)

*Want the model horses sold in the tackshop - first Julip then Breyer - it used to be exciting having birthday money to be able to actually choose one

 

[Fransurrey]

Ah, I do miss proper tack shops. They're mostly boutiques, now, full of big brands and not a lot of useful stuff, unless you want cheap made in India saddlery. I used to work near Edenbridge and they had The Barn (I think!). I used to go down on my lunch break and spend my entire lunch (and probably salary, lol!) there.

I remember my first order with Robinsons. It was a pair of gloves. Order form sent with postal order (by eck, anybody remember those?? ).

 

[SpotsandBays]

Yes I used to love circling in the Robinsons catalogue! (And shires too but Robinsons was cheaper).
Tack shops were different. They’re all so neat and tidy now with pretty displays, as a kid I remember going to tack shops where there was barely room to move as there was leather handing in bundles from above and piles of saddles and big baskets of brushes you had to rummage through. The smell was amazing!
Also remember absolutely relishing that occasional trip to Catlips! It didn’t happen often as it basically took a whole day

 

[Fransurrey]

Ah the original Robinson’s, I loved it. The new one was rubbish in comparison.

It was a great treat for me to be taken along with my friend who had horses. It was a big thing when they got the life sized plastic horse model! I bought my first ever hat, there. A Charles Owen Thelwell lined one.

 

[monte1]

I loved the Robinsons catalogue but even more I loved the Cam catalogue as I could even design my dream stables.

I loved the Cam catalogue to, in fact I had a super mare at the time called Cameo and her pet name was Cam :-D

 

[monte1]

I remember going to Reading Horse and tack auctions in the very early 80's with my dad, to buy a saddle for a horse we got on loan from the ILPH horse charity- now called world Horse Welfare i think. to get the correct sizing we used a coat hanger to mould at his withers and took it with us and tried it for size in the front of a few saddles before my dad bid on one ..... everything was so different in those days !
can you imagine doing that now :-}

 

[southerncomfort]

Brilliant thread! Bringing back so many wonderful memories.

For anyone who has ever been to RB Equestrian, or ordered from them online, Roslyn started out with a stall on Milton Keynes Market and built the business up from there.

Every Saturday, while my mum and dad were buying the fruit and veg, I'd be at Roslyn's stall. I'd save up my pocket money and buy the odd haynet or hoof pick, in the firm belief that one day I would have a pony of my own.

I occasionally would get Horse and Pony mag, the best issues were the ones with a free gift such as a bag of horse treats. My walls were covered with posters, mostly of native ponies.

The thing is that I'm still as pony mad as ever! And if I had horsey catalogues I'd probably still be circling things I'd like to buy for Bo.

 

[tristar]

i got pony mag, literally devoured it.

knew, i think it was brian who start derby house, used to meet him at haydock racecourse.

visited robinsons of wigan with a friend who made tack for them, then later bumped into the managing director at a huge tack shop in normandie, when i lived in france who graciously gave me a catalogueto read.

bought my first saddle for 9 pounds in a sale at mount farm, later pennwood saddlery home of pennwood forge mill, it was flippin orange nearly, well strictly speaking, london colour leather

once went to eight sale/auctions in 7 days in heyday of auctions.

so much has changed but over a long period of time really

and that tack shop in the town where i was brought up, the aroma of good leather, stunning london colour hunter bridles with sewn on stainless steel bits, the quality and workmanship!

 

[EventingMum]

Back in the 70's I remember the diamond quilted Beaver jackets and waistcoats in various colours - I had both in a powder blue, the waistcoat fitted under my hacking jacket for PC rallies and shows on cold days. The nearest we ever got to matchy matchy was coordinating our ponies string girths, nylon plaited reins and velvet browbands!

 

[myheartinahoofbeat]

I STILL love going to tack shops. I'm in my 50's and only had my own horse for the last 10 years or so.
I remember so much of the good old days with the mags, catalogues and the WHSmith win a pony competition

 

[Bobthecob15]

I signed my parents up to the mailing list for this! We'd get the prospectus every year!

Oh my goodness I was desperate to go there

My friend actually did go, so lucky!!!!!

Remember hat silks that were actually silk and not lycra? Had to be tied on

 

[dogatemysalad]

I bought my first bridle from a stall at the weekly market in Athlone in 1971. It was beautiful leather.