So what's changed? (massive essay, read only if looking to kill time!)

Ah yes, Jute rugs and blankets, definitely swanky to have ANYTHING clipped! Stubble, remember stubble?! And plough, come to that.
I rather like New Zealand rugs - they kept pony dry and rideable without turning him into a steaming great wuss!
Plastic covered browbands, anyone? Stable rubbers, and haywisps (can still make one!) and riding to the forge, on the offchance! Waiting around for a bit and the farrier would nail that shoe back on for you! No really! We always went to him ! And if you'd lost one and hadn't managed to pick it up, he'd fish round in an enormous great pile of old shoes and find a likely looking one, heat it up a bit, bang it about a bit and have it on in no time!
Ah me, sign up all who will - we should organise a get together!
 
Am I the only one whose pony had a tasteful line in matching plastic browband, nylon plaited reins and string girth. My lad's colour was yellow.
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BLUEBAG!


The only thing for getting yellow out of tails in the late 60's!

And string girths and tarred jute haynets and straights - and the first Spillers pony cubes and inhumane twitches - first met one of those when I was eight. Fierce riding instructors in full make up who made you get on from the ground and if you couldn't get on from the ground you spent the whole lesson trying. (Actually she's still alive and kicking AFAIK and a luminary in the BHS)
 
Dunno, how does one ask?

Come on, all you Susan Pykes and Cousin Celias, adjust your siggies to include the Dandy Brush, Bran Mash and Hacking to Rallies Clique, and someone ask admin to sticky it for a day or two, while we all hark back to Jakatex macs and those boots that used to coat your saddle with black rubber.
And drinking tea out of mugs which had undoubtedly been used to hold at best Neatsfoot Oil and at worst Bone Radiol ....

Members must demonstrate their ability to apply a kaolin poultice, by the by .........
 
Yes Help 1, my friends and i did exactly the same with the bales in the stubble fields, take down the farmers stack and make a coarse its was great fun. I had to hack to every show in the summer holidays, we hacked 15 miles did evey class possible and hacked home! Poor horse must of taken a week to recover! My friends and i used to go on day rides with ruck sacks and have picnics with the horse tied up in the woods (with their reins!!) the things we did and i was far more content with life then. As for clothing i had one of those thin navy blue diamond quilted coats with a cord collar think they were made by Lavertherm, i had it for years. And i loved the that seris of books Jills gymkahna.
 
I don't know how to do siggies. Shall I join the "I'm a stupid technophobe" clique instead?
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I had a navy blue thin quilted jacket with cord collar too. I had forgotten about that. I actually liked that quite a lot.

I also remember that my jodhphurs were all loose and flappy round my string thin legs. Now I struggle to heave my massive tree trunk legs into a 30" waist pair. Getting depressed now...........may have to start that diet again
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Click on user options at the top and then fiddle around - I think it's edit personal details or something, type it in, go right down to the bottom and click submit, and you're away.

I remember thinking that the absolute height of chic were the multicoloured PONY CLUB reins/girths/plastic browbands. Only I daren't get them even if I could have afforded them, as I was definitely out of my depth at Pony Club. So I settled for blue. We would have looked lovely together, Murphy's Minder!
 
How well you have all described my childhood in the 60s, including the secondhand 'batwing jodhs' the riding mac, in fact everything is a treasured memory. Best of all was the fact that we could get on and have fun without our parents even giving a thought to health and safety! Yes and we're all still here. Great days!
 
Wouldn't we just! My friends pony wore blue! Dare I admit I had a pony club browband for a while, although didn't last that long in pony club. Got told off for feeding my pony bananas, not as an everyday diet just as a treat at a rally
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I never had a pony as a child, but I did manage to persuade my parent to pay for 6 lessons for a combined Christmas & birtday present 1 year. The school was too far away for me to do work for rides so I had tyo make do with catching the late bus home from school some days & go to the saddlery to wistfully breath in the smell of the leather. I had my budget for necessary kit fully worked ready forthe joyful day when I got a pony. Sadly my pocket money never stretched that far & I "grew out of it" for a while until my youngest son announced that he would like to learn to ride 9 years ago. Now I have 3 to make up for lost time!
But if it cheers you up my son hacked to a PC rally Wednesday evening all by himself. I rode up after work & we hacked back together. Sunday we are hacking to another one, so all is not lost.
 
Ah baggy jods school shirts with pony club ties and all day rides with squashed picnics and warm squash. If someones pony was always a complete deamon to catch and we would all just round it up bareback in headcollars with a lunge line! A new dandy or body brush in my christmas stocking. Being able to make a makeshift haynet out of bailer twine and scary Pony Club stable management instructors who tested you to within an inch of your life.
 
Come on, you fogeys, nothing much has really changed.
Plenty of people leave their horses out all year 24/7.
Lots of folk feed by eye - I have yet to weigh a feed (don't tell the BHS
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Folk still hack to shows, meets etc in many places.

And think of the bad old things -
The jute rug you washed only to find the rug stretched, but the lining shrank, and it smelt weirdly of dog afterwards.
The 'spider' NZ rug fastening (considered high tech) which seemed to require crawling under the horse to perform some strange macrami weave thing.
Bran poultices which your horse ate within milliseconds of application.
Indoor schools surfaced with old used shavings...so when you fell off you were in a cloud of disintegrating ex-bedding.
The time taken to buckle up endless brushing boots before they had Velcro...the aching arms from trying to get O/R boots on a horse whose feet were always one size too large.

It was Hell.
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But much more fun shils, and I am beginning to think that horses back then were tougher creatures, and I am certain that children were! You never cried if you fell off because the instructor either laughed or terrified you out of it.
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(mind you I think I am glad not to have to wear the nasty nylon johds, rubber boots, rubber mac and cork hat any more, we must have smelled very odd
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Especially given that I don't know about you, but I only had a bath once a week, unless I got spectacularly wet and muddy out hunting or something!
Shilasdair, you stay right up with it, my friend. You velcro away to your hearts content.
The best thing about the past is the rosy glow!
 
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...... and then came the indian leather tack, technicolour wellies, pink jods, treeless saddles, and those bl**dy parellis!!
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My resolve is now beginning to waver. Guess which word did it?
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I'm just trying to imagine approaching the redoubtable Miss W in pink jodhs (I think the batwings would have met with more approval) and suggesting that as Nobby looked to me as if he would rather not be ridden today, so perhaps we would do some ball bouncing........
 
My mum used to work so would drop me off for a whole day pc rally with packed lunch and trailer left there unhitched. My pony wouldn't load unless ridden into the trailer so unattended, I'd ride him into the trailer, whilst it was unhitched, leave him in for lunch and do the same at the end of the day waiting for mum to collect me - and I wasn't the only kid that did this. One time the DC offered to ride him in for me when I was busting for a wee and could hardly stand up! Great days and not a back protector in sight!

I also used to ride up to the village shop, tie pony up to the railings cowboy style, and get sweets then ride back feeding pony an equal share of cough candy in between cantering up the verges and jumping the drains. I'd never let my kiddo do that now, although she's the same age I was and has a very safe pony, but it's all the weirdos out there I worry about, not my child's or pony's competence...

I agree that distances have changed too, the shop hack was about 5 miles round trip. My daughter wants to do it with me but thinks we should camp the night at grandad's half way round! God I recall hacking home 10 miles after a full day's sj at a show.....

Big sigh, I WANT IT ALL BACK AGAIN, and I don't want to be 41! And what was wrong with jute rugs anyway?
 
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...... and then came the indian leather tack, technicolour wellies, pink jods, treeless saddles, and those bl**dy parellis!!
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My resolve is now beginning to waver. Guess which word did it?
S
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Dunno, but I'v got a pink stringy halter and matching carrot stick if your interested? Your horse will be a perfect hack, jump ten feet and make a great fried breakfast if you use them! Go on give it a try!!
 
Or the extreemly scary Mrs A (who had hair and stares of steel) popping down to the paddock to do a bit of carrot and stick with overpriced peice of plastic and bailer twine. More likely to chase you with a long lunge whip
 
angel bones have to agree we too were 'abandoned' at rallies giggled my socks off when i read your post my sister and i used to do the same ..... but do agree with those horrible O/R boots never mind your arm aching the true skill was could you not lose a finger getting them on and once on would you ever manage to get them off your poor unsuspecting pony ever again.
 
On the plus side, when I started working with horses, rugs were easy to work out. Each horse only had two - either a jute or a navy blue stable rug with red binding, and a green/brown NZ.
Now if someone asks me to turn out their horse, I go through agonies of indecision trying to work out which is the TO rug.
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I'm currently re-living my Thelwell years so please can I be an honouary member of the clique?

Even I can remember, only what 12 years ago when the Robinsons catologue rug page was literally either stable rug or one of those turquoise green new zealand rugs
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Where I first started to ride it was all about the string girths and stretchy palm gloves
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Please can i join as well, I used to have a yellow string girth and the yellow cotton plaited reins. My hat was so old it had faded from black to brown and the elastic had a knot in it. I also got given a pair of jodphurs with the wings although I never wore them. We used to hack to shows with our packed lunch and one jacket between us, had to co-ordinate classes so we could share until my mum got me one from a jumble sale.
 
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