The heady days of pony fun in the 1970s

I have still got my cork lined hat, not in use I hasten to add!

Really miss the freedom of those days, bareback and head collars to jump, riding alone the canal banks, jumping park benches, once with a lad lying on it for a bet!!!

Spending all day at the yard, no mobile phones, if you got hungry and had some money you rode to the local shop for a pie heated up in the latest gadget a microwave oven, if you didnt have any money you made do with pony nuts:eek: I am still alive...........just!
 
Wearing a hat but tucking the chin strap up over the top. Jumping the little gullies on the verges. Friend and I both on my mare to the local shop, bareback in a homemade halter to get cakes and sweets. Going out on picnics for the whole day but only getting up to the top of the road before we ate our goodies and coming home again. Cowboys and Indians whay hay and who could forget water fights at the yard... and always picking my girls feet out when the tractor came round to dump the grain because of the the mega crush I had on the Farmers Son {sigh}
 
Haha loving this thread! Also did the bareback galloping up the field etc with no hat as I couldn't be bothered walking up the steep field. Hacking out for hours, falling off constantly, galloping the pony home as a 'punishment' for chucking me off in spectacular fashion! :eek: Sneaking up to the field at midnight (we were camping out) for some night time bare back hooning about without headcollar or tack! Hacking to my house and taking pony in the kitchen coz it was funny when my parents were out. Lots more probably! I was an 80's kid :)
 
My mam buying us some cork lined hats from the car boot sale. Hacking 5 miles to the local show, entering nearly every class then hack home. Riding off piste and ending up in a bog. In hot weather going for hacks to the river bareback and wearing shorts but no hat. Spending all day at the stables and eating a pot noodle sitting under my pony. Seeing how far I could get along the disused railway, it had to be done in canter to get back in time for tea.
I was an 80's, 90's kid
 
Heavy metal forks for mucking out that were impossible to handle aged 8ish!

To whoever mentioned the hats with string inside that adjusted I'm sure it was meant to be an extra 'impact' layer so the string snapped/stretched slowing the momentum of head to helmet lining/ground!
 
Riding my pony back to her field, about half a mile up a lane with no traffic, in a head collar but sometimes nothing - just used to hang onto a clump of mane and go.

The lane ran alongside a golf course and, if it was dusk and golf had finished for the day, I'd jump the fence and gallop up the pristine green instead! I dread to think of the damage we did! :eek::cool:
 
Spending hours making jumps in the field with anything we could find. Jumping bareback of course. Swimming the ponies down the river under a road bridge!!!
Galloping over what I now know are ancient and protected burial mounds but they were like riding a roller coaster so we loved it!
Jumping water troughs and dry stone walls and yes picnic benches!!
Oh yes and at my friends farm putting the ponies away for a rest and riding the cows!!!!!! No hats 'obviously' !
 
pistolpete said:
Stylo matchmaker rubber long boots no chaps! Took it in turns being first to ride naughty grey pony because we enjoyed his bucking fits!!
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Romika Turf rubber riding boots far pre date Stylos;) and Edwin an Evil Bay Pony who could Bronc like the Devil everthing was far more simple and pleasurable and People had proper jobs back then No Health & Safety Gestapo or Compliance Managers:D:D
I actually wish I had been Born 15 years sooner;)
 
Off all day with my older friend Alice (she was 12, I was 8) on our ponies on the Northumbrian moors.

Playing 'Knights and Ladies' where we galloped the ponies side by side (always bareback of course) and Alice would pull me off my pony and up behind her.

Circuses. We didn't have a school but in the open field we learnt to canter standing on our ponies' rumps, vault on from behind.

Doing 'The Courier of St Petersburg' where a tall rider (Alice in this case) cantered two ponies side by side, a foot on each back, and I, lying flat on my smaller pony's neck, galloped through the middle. We never did manage this!!!

Fording The North Tyne when it was running high - VERY scary.

Those were the days.......
 
I am really sad to see that the bulk of you wouldnt let your kids do all these wonderful things
Sad because the perceived dangers are way smaller now than they were then. The only risk that has increased is traffic. I did let my kids do these things 20 years ago but they were doing it on bikes not horses

I walked 6 miles each way across the fields to the stables when I was 11 to save the bus fare as it meant I could have two hours riding instead of one but that was in the 60's
 
I agree wind and rain, I used to gallop all over in just a head collar, however...... I really had to bite my tongue last night when I heard mini shouting ' mummy come and see me' OH had popped mini on her pony , in her PJs and they were trotting around bareback, pjs, not hat and him just holding onto the loop on his head collar !!!!!

I had to remind myself that I had done far worse things :D
 
We were too poor for ponies in the 70's and the girls at school who had them were snobby and wouldn't speak to me let alone let me anywhere near their ponies but I did spend hours out in the countryside walking or cycling from quite a young age. I don't think my kids would have wanted to do that even if I had thought it was OK, which I probably wouldn't have!
ETA in the late 70's we moved to a rough council estate and playing outside there often involved gangs sometimes made up of many children whose age could range from 5 to 15, we were all quite feral! I would still more than likely be off on my own in the countryside though than be in a gang, they could get pretty naughty and I was too good and didn't want to get caught!
 
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Ooo, I forgot about riding to gymkhanas :)

I was born in the seventies, but was old enough in the 80's to do things :)

I remember the day me and my friends decided to hack to Skegness :D my parents told me it was not possible, but still packed me a lunch :D

They were right I don't think we got much further than 10 miles :D

The spunk of the young :D
 
Riding ponies on the 60's. No insurance, no equine dentist, no backman, no saddlefitter(usually no saddle), no rugs, no mixes or supplements, no horsebox, no mobile phones, no money, no worries. Although you do wonder how you and pony survived. And riding all day through miles and miles of remote mountain ares and no-one sending out an SOS in case you had been killed/abducted. Of course your pony lived out in all weathers, you just made sure they had plenty to eat. Many things have improved since those days but I do wonder if , overall, ponies were healthier and better off for being kept more naturally. And kids for that matter.
 
daughter's groom said:
Riding ponies on the 60's. No insurance, no equine dentist, no backman, no saddlefitter(usually no saddle), no rugs, no mixes or supplements, no horsebox, no mobile phones, no money, no worries. Although you do wonder how you and pony survived. And riding all day through miles and miles of remote mountain ares and no-one sending out an SOS in case you had been killed/abducted. Of course your pony lived out in all weathers, you just made sure they had plenty to eat. Many things have improved since those days but I do wonder if , overall, ponies were healthier and better off for being kept more naturally. And kids for that matter.
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No body protectors either! OR "safety stirrups", tho' if you were lucky you'd be wearing a riding hat (no professional fitters then, hat either stayed put if you fell off, or didn't).

My god how did we all survive?
 
im a 90's kid and a bit jealous :( was pony-less so cycled to the local riding school every weekend and spent hours pretending to 'work' when we were all just messing about on the muck heap! then lunch was a pot noodle!
 
This is mini tonight ,oMG

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Yes but look at that smile Good for you letting her live a little not advocating letting kids get hurt but a little risk taking is good for them
 
this was me back in the 70s, it was my first show. Spot the chinstrap on the velvet hat from Moss Bros no less. My granny knitted me the yellow polo neck, god knows why I thought that was right to wear and not a shirt & tie lol


and me again, this was 1980 or so, spot the hat with no strap and stylo boots. Hacking jacket was bought out an ad in H&H, you could actually wash it in the washing machine lol

 
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I think I was very lucky really, because although I grew up in the '90s and didn't have my own pony, my best friend's mum owned a livery yard. She was a very laid back lady who herself had grown up on a farm in the '70s, so she generally just left me and her daughter to it :D. We used to take the daughter's two ponies into the fields and ride for hours unsupervised, and the little on that I rode was a right devil who used to do a proper bucking bronco act as soon as you got him to canter. I fell off more times than I could count, but we were still left to our own devices! Lots of races, falling of, and mucking about bareback. We even used to take the ponies to the local graveyard and use it as a gallop track :eek:. It's not quite as bad as it sounds, as the graveyard itself was full and the church had purchased a long field to extend onto, so the graves were only at one end and we used to gallop about on the other bit (it was huge). Still makes me cringe when I remember it though!
 
Ah the memories :)
Galloping everywhere...riding through maize fields where you couldnt see over the top and galloping round the maze of tractor tracks.
Schooling on the football pitch.
Stealing horse from the field and riding bareback in headcollars round the village at night.
Hacking all day not caring if had to cross a dual carriageway.
Gymkhanas and proper shows.
Cantering ponies on the road as they were always bonkers!
Petal over reach boots.
Jumping people as fillers.
Being bolted and bucked daily...it made you tougher!
Stubble fields and jumping straw bales :)
 
I was thinking about this today. I remember when the big aim in life was to get the long rubber boots where the top part of the lining inside was leather - I have no idea why these were seen as 'more proper' than the ones with the lining all the way up.

I'm sure there is a reason why they were better but can't for the life of me imagine what it is!
 
String girths and jute rugs and the only available course mix to feed was called Main Ring Blue or something like that! Oh and adding a dollop of freshly boiled up linseed!
 
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