The "good" old days

[Halfstep]

I still feed straights. But thank god for ready bagged chaff - does anyone remember having to make chaff by hand? Nightmare. We had hayledge back then, but I suppose in reality it was siledge. The horses loved it though, and did well on it in winter.

Supplements have gone mental. There seems to be a supplement for every eventuality. Whether they work or not. However, I do think that joint supplements have made a difference to a lot of horses.

Thank God for modern rugs, old jute rugs and canvas New Zealand were a nightmare, nothing nice about them at all. I remember when Bucas made their first ever breathable turnout with cross surcingles. Amazing.

Those awful hats that we used to wear with the chin cups. So uncomfortable. Rubber boots. Horrid.

 

[cptrayes]

Gymkhana games at gymkhanas. Now only ever seen at Pony Club, but they used to be played at every little local show.

Barrel jumping (starting with four or more and taking one away each time so the jump got narrower and narrower and people were eliminated for runouts and refusals).

 

[SS123TT]

Jacatex black jackets - they looked like they were made of old blankets. Stone coloured rubberised riding macs - stiff as a poker. Yellow string riding gloves. I do think we over pamper our horses these days but I feel sad to think a lot of 'naughty' horses in the old days were suffering from bad backs etc and were very badly mis-treated.

 

[nicky_jakey]

Plain leather reins - how did we cope when it rained?!!!

Bareback jumping in a headcollar!

My pony (12.2 Welsh B) wasn't rugged - I think only one at the yard was! Rugs were for wimps!

Then I got my next horse...14.3 Anglo Arab. We got him a rug... but it was a 'horrible' canvas one - with one underbelly surcingle (sp?). We stitched satin / silk into the shoulders to stop them rubbing!

 

[_April_]

Everything was only available in blue or red.

I remember coming back from Olympia with a purple bucket and whip when i was about 10 thinking I was so cool!

 

[SVMel]

Proper old pitch forks (2 prongs), the muck heap making the indoor school surface at my riding school when it was just a little naval saddle club, watering the new fangled sand surface (when the place went up in the world to becoming an exam centre) by hand with a hose because we didn't have sprinklers,

Always turning out the ponies by riding to the field bareback, through the woods getting swept off by low branches then jumping the xc jumps bare back half a mile from any adult help before turning them out, group of 25 + ponies turned out with mares and geldings mixed and perfectly ok with it (!), getting said 25 ponies half a mile back up the road the next day with only 2 of you to do it (ride one, lead 9 and not hold the reins of the pony you're riding!),

And a bit later in life, thost annoying petal over-reach boots that all the jumping poies wore going 'clackety clack, flappity flap' ....... GREAT days!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Miss them so much .... so much so that I have just challenged the person I share neddies with to a day of gymkhana races in summer, with our two speedy veterans! I WILL WIN!!!!!

 

[Angelbones]

Cripes! Well: string girths that you couldn't get clean without soaking them for days in Persil, grooming trays rather than boxes, velvet browbands on every pony, only beige joddies, no body protectors on kids, no straps on velvet hats, no such thing as chaps for kids, string gloves for everyone, no lumo gear, oh how I loved rugging up at night and folding back the underblanket and fixing it with the roller! Everything was standard colours - but I do love my coloured tub trugs now. We had a dandy brush and a body brush, a plastic curry comb and a metal hoof pick - none of this colour coordinated, goat hair, glittery, spray stuff malarky! Remember your trailer with jute stuff on the wooden ramps? Snap clips on things rather than trigger clips. No supplements - just a cold hosing for lami. Oh I could go on and on! Not so sure some of the new stuff is any better than the old stuff. Reinventing the wheel mostly.

 

[MotherOfChickens]

[ QUOTE ]


Showjumpers, eventers and show horses were roughed off in winter and hunters were roughed off in summer - fewer horses were expected to work all year round or wear shoes non-stop.

[/ QUOTE ]

and proper conditioning of legs were recognised after a lay off with lots of walking exercise.
horses werent kept 'fit' by riding for 25mins 3 times a week in an arena (not least because the normal horse owner generally didnt have access to one)
not every horse was 17.2h +

 

[SVMel]

Oh, and, when I started at 2 years old, they had a 'basket seat' on a felt pad. Think 3 sided wicker thing, you sat in and had a little seat belt across the front for safety. Never be allowed now lol!!!

 

[Mike007]

Battered old landrovers,and everyone was jealous of the proud owners of the first rangerovers.(HA HA till we all discovered what a pile of poo they really were)

 

[Fii]

Straw was the only bedding. It was straw or nothing and tough luck if your horse just ate it all

Sorry i disagree with this, 35 or more years ago my sister worked for a lady who bred arabs, and her horses were all bedded on shavings.
But i do remember the old canvas rugs, the next ones were called self righting, i think, am i right?
Oh and string girths!!

 

[nicky_jakey]

We didn't have hay nets - just put a couple of sections of hay into the metal 'hay grill' fixed in the stable!

 

[legaldancer]

The thin quilted jackets were 'Husky Jackets'. They're back in now- Joules do them, albeit more stylish versions.

My Stylo Matchmaker boots from 30 years ago are still on the go - very handy for leading my horse through a muddy field before riding. I also had a Jackatex show jacket - a cheap black wool one with a bright red lining. It's long gone!

In those days one wore old worn out clothes for riding & yard work, as jods only came in beige & often had leather strappings, so couldn't be washed too often & were saved for best. Now I have a whole load of casual riding tops, coats & various pairs of jods, some even match!

 

[1275gta]

Hacking to shows and to hunt meets.

String plaited reins and matching girth and furry numnah

Dad pitching bales onto the trailer one at a time with a pitch fork and then pitching them into the barn.

Emptying the much heap with my old pony (this is only 30 years ago but we didn't have a tractor)

Tan jodphur boots, cream jods, blue jacket, white shirt and Tie.

String sweat rugs with a sirthsingle.

Bareback jumpings, chase me charlie, rotting races and pony racing at one local show.

Jumping classes were £2.00 to enter and prize money was £7.00 for first

 

[cptrayes]

Oh yes! TRAILERS! My friend had the first lorry in our 60 horse livery yard. It was a converted delivery lorry - basically someone just threw a ramp on the back and some flimsy plywood partitions. Living!? Don't be so soft

 

[FanyDuChamp]

"Hacking to shows and to hunt meets."
Thought it was only me!


Oh and the smell of boiling linseed!

 

[dozzie]

I still have a canvas rug and used it this winter!

I think I have more in an old freezer i cant get to due to junk! They make great tarpaulins for small stacks of hay in a field!

Grooming kit consisted of a bodybrush, dandybrush, metal curry comb, hoof pick, sponges and stable rubber and fitted into a small box!

You got a shine on your horse through elbow grease not feeding additives.

And does anyone remember yorkshire boots?

 

[Mike007]

The great hay shortage of 1973,hay at£3.00 per bale.AAAAAAAARGH

 

[freyaandrogue]

i still use a canvas rug and a 100 year old whitney blanket that belonged to my great grandmother and was used on her shire horses! he has a canvas turnout because he doesn't appreciate his rugs and likes to rip them when he gets bored, the canvas one is a bit tougher for him to rip

also still hack to local shows and pony club, and jump bareback, can do scissors and round the world too!
have to say though it is defiantly going out the window!

 

[Izzwizz]

I helped at a riding school where the horses trotted on the roads reguarly. A few I know frown upon doing that but I do remember there being no lames horses in those days. Horse I looked after there had a blue string girth, blue headcollar and I made her a blue furry numnah with material from the market. Also made her a coloured velvet browband in blue and red.

 

[Gingerwitch]

In my day if the blacksmith came out he would only cold shoe, so on a Saturday I used to have to take my horses to the local forge - about 7 miles away. I had 3 and it would take me all day - but the blacksmith always used to paint the horses hooves with some type of oil that made them jet black and smell lovely !.

These were the days when you would wear your horses shoes out in 3 weeks as we used to ride then ! - none of this 30 mins schooling - we would be out from 8am until 6pm and the horses used to be fed more in the summer than in the winter. We did not clip, we did not even have the jabs and if a horse managed to get to 12 - he was on a short list to be sent to the hunt !

The only tack shops i knew of were Lenord Neasham - really posh gents and ladies shop - and Barretts of Feckenham.

I loved the smell of bloom shampoo and there was very little choice in the shape or colour of numnahs. Excercise boots did not exist so it was bandages and gamagee.

Horses were fed oats, bran, maize and pony nuts.

And you had coloured string girths - uck and the gloves were horrid.

Oh and no one even batted an eye if you turned up to pony club or a show in a bedford TK horse box with no living or even partitions between the horses !

Oh and lorries used to stop and switch off their engines for you to walk past them - but then again you would probably only meet 20 vehicles a day

 

[Lexie81]

Candy striped Puffas- Wow i had forgotten about those! nad ones with printa of horses on them! I also had a waxed jacket which was very waterproof but went slimy when wet and stank to high heaven!

I remember thatching well, and what about wisping with straw plaited to make the wisp?!

Round the world, scissors etc - we used to do all that and I have taught my little girl how to do it! Used to love a good Chase me Charlie and Bucket Elimination-or was that just something my riding teacher made up?!

Riding with no girth to improve balance - i think health and safety would stop that now!!

 

[BevC]

Wow this takes me back, new zealand rugs, string girths and gloves, pony cubes, rugs with blankets underneath straw shoved under a rug on a sweating horse oh! and being made to get back on a horse if you had fallen off and to jump a jump before leaving the ring ah! the good old days before health and safety!

 

[cptrayes]

NO power steering in the Bedford TK either - I had a green one. It absolutely killed my shoulders turning that darned steering wheel. And no fail-safe brakes. You really could be driving along and suddenly lose your brakes. Modern lorries fail on and stop.

 

[Mike007]

And there was definately a better design of horse then. Must have been ,because they were easier to get on and it didnt hurt when you fell off.

 

[cptrayes]

Too right Mike007! The horses are bigger now and the ground is definitely harder.

Learning to ride by being taken out on a ride. Beginners walk and trot on the road being led by some teenage twit who was trying to earn a free ride. Then becoming the next generation teenage twit.....

 

[cronkmooar]

QR

Fiberglass velvet hats that had the thinest elastic strap on them that was worn round the peak!

Bit later on before hats had proper harnesses there were strange webbing harness contraptions that sat round the hat and had a big chin cup!

 

[alwaysbroke]

So many memories, those days without health and safety!

I still have my hat with detachable chin strap (well a plastic cup that fitted over your chin) the hat actually folds in 2 so dont know what good it would have done!

The canvess NZ rugs that leaked constantly re proofed with tent reproofer. Jute rugs with folded back blankets.

My Arab was a nightmare to clip, vet used to give me sedation to inject myself.

Hacking to the blacksmith, vets and shows.

Games at the local show, bending, musical hats, which later changed to musical cans, tins with the lids cut off! One person on pony, rcae up the field and drag a second person on the back to race back, chase me charlie with no height limit....

Jumping bareback in a head collar, sometimes with no hat.

Feeding straights, no addatives.

?Alectri, (cant spell it) for coughs

Dad mucking out for me while i rode before school in the winter.

Also Dad collecting black bin bags of shavings from the local saw mill in his beloved Ford Capri, he could fit 17 bags in, but they all had to be dusted before putting in his spotless car, cricky makes me realise how much he loves me.

Stylo matckmaker boots, Lovesonn quilted jacket, and the first pair of tight fitting stretch jeans in the area to ride in!

Could go on for ages........but very happy childhood memories

 

[kerilli]

[ QUOTE ]
NO power steering in the Bedford TK either - I had a green one. It absolutely killed my shoulders turning that darned steering wheel. And no fail-safe brakes. You really could be driving along and suddenly lose your brakes. Modern lorries fail on and stop.

[/ QUOTE ]

oh gosh yes, everyone else in the cab had to help pull the steering wheel round tight corners (i kid you not) for the YO who used to take us all to shows.
it was good practice, when the power steering failed in my Cargo i instantly recognised the heavy feeling and managed to force it round the corner without a problem!
candy-striped puffas, i had one of those, lived in it for about 10 years!
mike007, i'm right there with you on that one, for some reason falling off never hurt, the horses must have been magic.

 

[Mike007]

Your right about the ground being harder.

And yes I learnt from similar teenage twits working for a ride.Hacks around the park on a lead rein

)And even the snow was warmer.