Signs you were a horsey kid in the 1960's/1970's

Love this thread. I remember so much of this and was only talking about old fashioned rugging at the weekend.
I remember building jumps in the back garden and winning Hickstead Derby so many times out there with a piece of string tied round my leg for reins.
Do kids nowadays know how to do 'around the world' and 'thread the needle' and can they get free rides in return for helping out?
Who remembers webbing girths and using Duraglit to make stirrups shiny.
 
Giving the ponies a can of lager once a week as a treat. Sheepskin nosebands everywhere because Red Rum had one, then lt was Boomerang bits. Tack being orange when lt was new. Though all the saddles we got to sit on were ancient flat things with stirrup bars that dug into your thighs. Tying the ponies ln stalls with a weight on the end of the rope so there wasn't a loop for them to get caught up ln.
 
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I was a horse mad kid in the 70's. I didn't have my own pony - and I Iived for my weekly riding lesson no matter what the weather. I would ride anything, and I remember a 12hh pony that needed excersising - but it didn't have any tack. I duly 'made' a bridle from rope and rode bareback. My bedroom was covered in horse pictures and horsey parephanalia. I loved watching Black Beauty, Follyfoot, Flambards and Champion the wonder horse. I used to set up jumps in the garden and pretend to ride a pony over them. On TV it was Harvey Smith, Caroline Bradley, Eddie Macken, Hugo Simon, Nick Skelton, Captain Mark Phillips, Princess Anne, David Broome....I could go on. Those were the days......😌
 
dogatemysalad said:
Loved Follyfoot, does anyone remember The White Horses ? It was German/Yugoslavian and was dubbed over in English.
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Ohh gosh, yes!!! It started me off wanting a "white" horse; and that search ended with a gorgeous little grey pony who was my first pony and was an absolute darling, I loved him to bits.

Apparently there IS a true story behind the White Horses, something to do with the Second World War I believe? Where they took the White Lipizzaner horses to safety on a train to protect the bloodlines? Perhaps someone will know more? I seem to remember reading/hearing about it somewhere.

Ohhh (edited) and thanks to the person who posted the Black Beauty theme music; complete with the LWT intro bit!! It just had me in total bits!! Loved it. Bless you!
 
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ycbm said:
Pennewood Forge Mill, Mattie Brown.

Caldene jodhpurs with wings, second hand, too expensive new.

Nickel bits.
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I lived not far from Pennwood riding stables, too poor for lessons there (too poor for lessons anywhere), but my richer friend Jackie tried out Pennwood Forge Mill when he was for sale before he went on to great things. Her father wouldn’t buy him!
 
MiJodsR2BlinkinTite said:
Apparently there IS a true story behind the White Horses, something to do with the Second World War I believe? Where they took the White Lipizzaner horses to safety on a train to protect the bloodlines? Perhaps someone will know more? I seem to remember reading/hearing about it somewhere.
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I’m not sure how it ties in to the TV series (I’m just a little too young for that), but the story you mention is true. There are a couple of books about it - I’ve read The Perfect Horse by Elizabeth Letts - and it's a fascinating story.
 
This thread is brilliant! I remember all the things that have been mentioned, they are bringing back so many happy memories😊. My family was poor so no pony or lessons for me but I’d walk miles just to look at them in fields and dream... I’d ride (and fall off) anything when given the chance. Saved up for a grooming kit - all natural materials, no plastic in those days- for the pony I couldn’t afford. My first riding lesson was 2 1/2 years ago aged 61 and last year me and my gorgeous rs horse and won the Summer Dressage Championship. I’m living the childhood I always wanted and never had.
 
Too poor for ponies here too. I made jumps in the garden, bounced away on a tilted tree with a skipping rope for reins, 'galloped' through every field we passed in the campervan, and worked like a slave at a local yard for 50 minutes riding.

We weren't allowed in the house with the instructors, even in winter and made dens in the muckheap with sacking to sit in when it was cold, I spent all my pocketmoney on polos for my favourite mare.

Admittedly it's 1980s, but every time I hear Eurythmics 'Sweet Dreams' I get a flashback to standing in the yard's haybarn with a pitchfork as a mike and I can smell horses.
 
im incredibly pleased to hear I wasnt the only one who rode a pretend pony in the garden and built jumps. My favourite was a bank and ditch combo, I can remember it now, mainly because it drove my mother mad (see the other thread by cblover!). A pole across mums ornamental patio wall, jump over that down into a paddling pool full of water, out of that, one stride and over a childs wheeelbarrow as part c! I was made to tidy them up after each game but they came out every single day through the school holidays. White Horses and Belle & Sebastien was weekday tv during the school holidays and not to be missed, along with Black Beauty on Sundays. Who remembers Ann Moore with Psalm and April Love?
 
MiJodsR2BlinkinTite said:
Ohh gosh, yes!!! It started me off wanting a "white" horse; and that search ended with a gorgeous little grey pony who was my first pony and was an absolute darling, I loved him to bits.

Apparently there IS a true story behind the White Horses, something to do with the Second World War I believe? Where they took the White Lipizzaner horses to safety on a train to protect the bloodlines? Perhaps someone will know more? I seem to remember reading/hearing about it somewhere.

Ohhh (edited) and thanks to the person who posted the Black Beauty theme music; complete with the LWT intro bit!! It just had me in total bits!! Loved it. Bless you!
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The White Horses started my love of Lipizzaners. The story of how they were saved during WWII is incredible.
 
Pushing a little into the 80 ' s. The advent of fancier Rubber riding boots. Stylo? with leather inserts at top. Kept mine for years. Romika Turf ? You could also get them in Burgundy or olive or were those Caldene? Shergar, Sefton, Towerlands Anglezarke on my bed room wall.
 
Nylon girths that always seemed to fold in on themselves. They must have been so uncomfortable for the ponies.
Yes to thatching. Rugs were very expensive, so if you needed to thatch you cut open a hessian sack in which most feed arrived in those days. I saw hessian sacks for sale in an antique and curio shop the other day!
Learning how to make hay wisps at an unmounted pony club rally.
Like another poster, my first pony cost £50, and grass livery was 5/- a week in summer and 7/6 in winter with hay.
My much loved black velvet riding hat was as soft and squashy as a trilby.
My only grooming kit was a dandy brush and a hoof pick, and I only ever had rope halters. Nylon halters didn't exist then, and leather ones were for posh folk.
Ponies mostly lived out, unclipped and unrugged. Laminitis was rare. If something went lame without an obvious cause you chucked it out for 6 months. If it didn't come right it was put down.
Navicular was a death sentence.
Saddles were interchangeable between horses/ponies. Get a saddle, bung it on, as long as the tree wasn't touching the spine you were good to go.
I am 64.
 
i've already posted but someone mentioned rubber riding boots earlier and that triggered a memory. I remember having to ride without stirrups at the riding school and everyones boots falling off because our mums bought them too big for us so they lasted. The instructor had to go round and gather them up and then it too ages to find your own ones. I also remember the nightmare of getting the boots on and off when they got tight!!
 
You never ever wore full riding boots as a child or even a teenager. Always jodhpur boots. The jodhpurs used to ride up as no chaps back then so you’d end up with sore ankles from rubbing. My pony has copd which was unheard of and you couldn’t buy shavings. We had to have peat which was absolutely horrid. Especially sitting on concrete floor as no rubber mats. The only bits were really a snaffle or Pelham. No one had a schooling ring. Not even the local riding schools. You used your field. No thermals so in the winter you froze. No one had transport. You hacked everywhere. Horses were very expensive too. My mother took out a bank loan for my 12.2. And hardly any for sale. No internet. Just the local paper or tack shop.
 
Doing my Pony Club C+ test (anyone remember that?? people look at you blankly if you mention it these days) on a part bred Arab riding school pony who enjoyed jumping and pulled like a train. I loved him!
We had to do a course of jumps, met one just all wrong and both of us ended up on the floor. Dusted ourselves off, jumped it fine second time. DC whose farm we were on thought it was hilarious, congratulated me on the entertainment value and I passed the test. Happy days...
Pinnacle was being allowed to take him to Pony Club camp at Cheltenham Racecourse, where we amazingly won the pairs dressage! He was used to deep bark and sawdust beds not straw, so ate most of his bed every night... Dear lad.
 
I remember: Jill books, string girths, plaited nylon reins, HOYS, Royal International and Olympia all being on BBC1 after the 9 o'clock news each evening (I kept a scrapbook of results), jodhpurs that weren't stretchy, polystyrene back protectors, chin harnesses that you bought separately and strapped onto your velvet hat.
 
the first thing i can ever remember thinking was i wanted a horse

i still have a video of follyfoot, someone bought me dorian williams book, i had a black jacatex riding jacket, which was greatly admired by an american horsey visitor, i bought my first saddle from pennwood for, wait for it...........£9 and knew pennwood forgemill personally

i remember lugging round all those jute rugs when i first started a business and how think how lovely todays rugs are every time i use them nearly

but that tack shop full of london coloured bridles with their shiny
bits and lovely wide hunter nosebands and the glorious smell of leather

going to the royal show at stoneleigh and seeing horses like skibbereen a beautiful chestnot who, out of 40 horses in the ring stood out, in a class of his own, when ridden by vin toulson, i would spend the whole morning sat by ringside watching class after class of ridden and in hand classes, it was fascinating

sitting up till midnight with my grandad and his wonderful tales of riding through the deserts of arabia

does anyone think horsey tendencies are hereditary?
 
GreyMane said:
Doing my Pony Club C+ test (anyone remember that?? people look at you blankly if you mention it these days) on a part bred Arab riding school pony who enjoyed jumping and pulled like a train. I loved him!
We had to do a course of jumps, met one just all wrong and both of us ended up on the floor. Dusted ourselves off, jumped it fine second time. DC whose farm we were on thought it was hilarious, congratulated me on the entertainment value and I passed the test. Happy days...
Pinnacle was being allowed to take him to Pony Club camp at Cheltenham Racecourse, where we amazingly won the pairs dressage! He was used to deep bark and sawdust beds not straw, so ate most of his bed every night... Dear lad.
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C+ still exists, it didn't when I did my PC tests, you just had D, C, B, H and A. I remember tetrathlon being introduced and being there mainly for boys, the girls could compete but didn't qualify for anything but the boys did, my friends and I weren't impressed as we could beat the boys!
 
Riding in flared jeans and willies - jods were for special occasions.
String gloves - with leather bits if you could afford the upgrade (we couldn't)
Rope or webbing halters - headcollars were for very fancy people
String girths and velvet browbands
Using a tea towel I had embroidered my initials on as a saddle cloth
No pony ever wearing a rug (I grew up in North Yorkshire)
Being pimped by my Mum as a crash test dummy for dangerous ponies and race horses coming out of training
Tethering our pony on the village green when we ran short of grass
Watching Mrs Bartle teach whilst a lanky teenage Chris swanned around the yard
 
I'm 1970/80s but thatching was still something we did as kids when we got soaked hairy ponies in. I taught some teenagers how to do it at a riding school a few years ago and they really did think I'd come up with something amazing.
Personally I much preferred the rather snazzy fleece wicking rug I'd just bought!!

Don't miss jute rugs or those new Zealand waterproof rugs but they did last forever.

I know the safety gear is loads better these days but there is something about teaching kids to ride by throwing them up and telling them to hang on which I think we've lost.
 
Surbie said:
Too poor for ponies here too. I made jumps in the garden, bounced away on a tilted tree with a skipping rope for reins, 'galloped' through every field we passed in the campervan, and worked like a slave at a local yard for 50 minutes riding.

We weren't allowed in the house with the instructors, even in winter and made dens in the muckheap with sacking to sit in when it was cold, I spent all my pocketmoney on polos for my favourite mare.

Admittedly it's 1980s, but every time I hear Eurythmics 'Sweet Dreams' I get a flashback to standing in the yard's haybarn with a pitchfork as a mike and I can smell horses.
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Oh yes - we only got into the house if a limb was broken. When it was freezing we stood in a circle on the muckheap, feet buried, drinking soup out of flasks.
 
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