The old way of doing things

jesstickle said:
I'm 27. Do I count as a younger one? I can make a wisp. See my previous comment about my mother and the strapping and you'll understand why :) :p
Click to expand...

I'm 27 too and I can make a wisp... isn't it still in the BHS Stage 1 exam? I did mine gaed 16 and I'm pretty sure it was then.
 
My kids will definitely learn to ride bareback and will DEFINITELY do Prince Philip Cup, best education ever.

I've been out of owning for a few years and have one again for the first time in a while - I feel like I know nothing! The amount of gadgets I see in the saddlers for which I cannot fathom a use... My non-horsey OH comes in the shop with me and says 'What's this?' and I have to admit that I have no idea!

My grooming kit still consists of a body brush, a dandy brush, a metal and plastic curry comb, a mane comb, a sweat scraper and a hoof pick, and that's it!
 
Lifting the horses bed first thing every morning so that the floor could dry out during the day.
Riding to hunt meets and shows even if they are a 2 - 3 hour ride away.
Trotting up-hill on the roads to get the horses fit for the huntingseason.
Going for 5 hour hacks.
Putting welds on the horses shoes to make them last longer when riding mainly on the roads
 
Well you are making me feel terribly lazy. I dont strap or wisp or even actually really do a "deep" clean! Mine live out so my excuse is the dirt keeps them warm !
 
Strapping ; just started to re-introduce on my TB, already showing signs of improved muscle tone and shiny shiny coat. And improving my fitness :rolleyes:

Getting off and walking the last part of the hack, or schooling etc i.e. never whipping the saddle straight off after dismounting. Something that was drilled into me as a kid, all to do with allowing the blood to flow back into the saddle area :)
 
I really want to make a joke right now about FDC banging her Fany, but that would be childish, right? :eek: :D

I'm 24 and I'm familiar with how to do most of this - I have been known to strap the horses (can you conjugate strapping like that? I've often wondered as it sounds odd), whisp, thatch, though I confess I don't do them all that regularly, if ever.

I do feed straights, hack miles to shows, ride bareback (lots :D), ride stirrup-less, use roadwork for fitness (I'd do hillwork too if we had any :rolleyes:), I own metal curry combs and have no idea what a flick brush is, never use spray saddle soap, and I regularly get asked if I've fallen off my horse when walking him back to my field after a long hack :D
 
JFTD said:
and I regularly get asked if I've fallen off my horse when walking him back to my field after a long hack :D
Click to expand...
LOL me too, in fact they don't even ask, they just assume it!
When I explained to two qualified RS instructors that a young horse needs to stretch out and relax muscles particularly when it is newly backed, I was put down as some sort of eccentric!

At another yard was "told off " for riding bareback [hard hat] as it is assumed that a saddle is essential for every occasion, I usually ride with a bridle on though, otherwise we would be stopping at every tuft of grass!
PS it turns out I have been strapping for years, I thought it was called grooming!
 
Last edited:
darkhorse123 said:
ty for explaining - sounds horrific! Why did people do this? What was it supposed to help with?

Sorry - that sounds rude but im genuineley interested :)
Click to expand...
In ye olden days there were no sophisticated and tested wormers like Ivermectin, [humans were regularly given castor oil], I think that the physic contained all sorts of mildly poisonous ingredients to flush out the system.
Remember that is is not so long ago [1960's] that you could buy all sorts of poisons from the pharmacy, and the saddlers or agricultural suppliers.
Strychnine to kill moles [cut a worm in half as bait], arsenic to make the coats of showing cattle shiny , Harvey's Aconite Powders kept my horse free of "coughing" [now known as COPD/RAO] I could buy red or blue blisters for splints, Colic drinks came in glass bottles, and most hunting yards had a few in the cupboard. There were lots of tiny coloured glass bottles with ridges [poison] and lost labels at the back of the cupboard.
 
Last edited:
I prefer bandages to boots, love a big straw bed (Nothing better!) use a net/holed old style anti sweat rug (there great!), and I strap my horses everyday - they do look good!!!. I also ride to alot of the local shows (have no transport, plus my horse gets a good warm up before we get to the show and is ready to do whatever!),I ride in whatever weather. I even know how to put on rugs / exercise sheets the old way aswel, lol.

I think its good to revert to the old ways sometimes, I think you get alot better results, I'm only 25, but where I learnt to ride as a child everything was done the old way.
 
Last edited:
MrsD123 said:
At another yard was "told off " for riding bareback [hard hat] as it is assumed that a saddle is essential for every occasion, I usually ride with a bridle on though, otherwise we would be stopping at every tuft of grass!
PS it turns out I have been strapping for years, I thought it was called grooming!
Click to expand...

I believe in the "triad of health and safety". The hat, the bridle, the saddle.

I consider it a "normal day" if I have achieved one of three (usually hat). I consider it a "good" day if I have achieved two (usually hat and bridle).

To achieve three, it really has to be a show day :o :D
 
We have an older generation teacher at the local pony club who is just great. My son was having a jumping lesson with a group who she decided werent listening to their ponies, she set up a line of eight jumps down the side of the school and took away their stirrups. She didnt see any improvement so she took away their reins, then they had to hold their arms out and close thier eyes. It was brilliant, really made them feel what they were doing and I didnt hear any parents complaining.
My kids do PPC and regularly ride without their saddles, I always encourage them to cool them down with no saddle. My lad jumped 3 foot 5 bareback during the summer with his 13 hh pony so he must be learning something !!
 
JFTD said:
I really want to make a joke right now about FDC banging her Fany, but that would be childish, right? :eek: :D

I'm 24 and I'm familiar with how to do most of this - I have been known to strap the horses (can you conjugate strapping like that? I've often wondered as it sounds odd), whisp, thatch, though I confess I don't do them all that regularly, if ever.

I do feed straights, hack miles to shows, ride bareback (lots :D), ride stirrup-less, use roadwork for fitness (I'd do hillwork too if we had any :rolleyes:), I own metal curry combs and have no idea what a flick brush is, never use spray saddle soap, and I regularly get asked if I've fallen off my horse when walking him back to my field after a long hack :D
Click to expand...

Lol, I have never banged my Fany yet! :rolleyes: But may do so eventually. :p:eek::D
FDC
 
Well, I have loved every second reading those! Who remembers jeyes fluid? Throw the deep straw bed back, sweep the floor spotless, splash of jeyes on the stinky wee and rinse and brush off. Joy!! My OH and I were discussing the "old way" last night when I mentioned mucksacks. And....at our yard there wasn't a toilet. 50 years later still no toilet not even a portalooooo. We all learned to deal with those needs alfresco. Metal curry combs fab, not to be used on the horses though. Also night rugs made of woollen melton cloth and a surcingle. Those were the days and don't you dare smack that horse! :)
 
Pearlsasinger said:
Will some-one please tell me - what is a flicky brush? I read about this on here one day recently and thought, "They must mean a body-brush" - obviously not!

I certainly know about strapping, metal curry-combs, and thatching though. And I remember riding RS ponies bare-back to their grazing, about a mile and a half along the road, after an lesson involving mush trotting (& jumping) without stirrups. I'm sure H&S wouldn't allow THAT now!
Click to expand...

Pearlsasinger Were you in W Yorks at the time? Must have been the same RS I went to. Hacking 5+ miles to a show with two in hand as well as the ridden one. Sticking like glue over big xc fences because there were no skull caps or body protectors.
Learning how to strap and build the muck heap correctly. Also muck heaps smelt differently then probably because we fed straights.
 
Follychoppins said:
at our yard there wasn't a toilet. 50 years later still no toilet not even a portalooooo. We all learned to deal with those needs alfresco. Metal curry combs fab...
Click to expand...

Really unfortunate lack of distinction between two (hopefully) unrelated issues there :eek:

Just what do you use your metal curry combs for? :D



FDC - I am relieved to hear you don't bang your Fany every weekend. Save it for special occasions :D
 
1970
Stable rugs were jute, lined with a warm grey wool cloth, if clipped, hunters and pointers had a full size Newmarket [striped] Witney, pure new wool blanket underneath.
No rugs had leg straps or belly straps, so you had a padded roller with double straps, in top yards these were made by the saddler and were leather, I had a jute one.
Rugs were constantly needing adjusted and of course day rugs were used to prevent them sweating.
After hunting they had an assortment of string rugs and straw on the back, the jute rugs were turned inside out to allow moisture to escape, the horses were then "set fair", fed a linseed and bran mash, the horses were all checked over at nine pm, water buckets topped up [one inch from top]. We were careful to make sure the water was not too cold. and might add some boiling water to take off the chill.
Stable bandages were grey rolls of woolen fabric with cloth tapes [pre-velcro] which had to be ironed flat before use, to prevent any damage to tendons.
1940-50s
As kids we used to go to a semi-derelict "Big House" where the stables were pre-war, all grooms and hunt servants horses had been in in stalls but they had coconut matting on the walls. The walls were painted with lime-wash [white] and bitumen [black shiny] every year
The grooms had a tiny tack room with an iron stove[wood], and an open fire[coal], all the saddles were linen or serge lined and were really heavy, particularly the side-saddle. The walls were lined with wood and had dozens of wooden saddle racks, a chest of drawer full of bits and an encyclopedia of horse ailments, illustrated and ghastly.
 
Last edited:
The vet book with grizzly bits is all too familiar! String girths white only boiling persil water in a tin bucket on top of the gas bottle. Buckets filled to within an inch of the top and you dare not spill it in transit. Raking and sweeping the yard until spotless, raking the hay barn every night. Standards really were standards back then. Bridles all had snaffle bits apart from the doubles, nose bands had to be undone, done up on the outside and be level, throat lashes crossed with the reins threaded through, bits wiped clean after every days riding. Saddles never put away with the girth attached, numnahs what a rare sight. Saddles seemed to fit so much better in those days and many had serge bottoms too! How much more can we all add? I love this thread :)
 
Suziq77 said:
Eh? What's the new way to do it? Am I missing a trick or is there yet another shortcut that gets "almost" the same results....
Click to expand...

There was Ko-cho-line - pink vaseline type stuff, A bar of Belvoir Glycerine, tins of Saddle soap (cheap and the school bought it in massive tins - rather gloopy stuff, sticky and got in all the holes) and a can of Neatsfoot oil.

No mixes of beeswax and avocado oils, leather dressings, leather creams spray on cleaners etc.

A grooming kit consisted of
A Dandy Brush - with black willow bristles
A Body Brush - Leather backed with pure bristles
A metal Curry comb - for cleaning the body brush
A Hoof Pick
A Water brush - stiff white bristles - shorter than dandy brush bristles
2 Sponges
A can of hoof oil and a hoof oil brush
A linen Stable Rubber - usually white with 'Stable Rubber' woven in red on it.
A wooden bucket to keep it all in.

When you wormed the horse you generally gave it a week off to recover
 
Last edited:
Drenching a colicky horse involved a strong headcollar, a long rope, an overhead beam a large bottle and some rubber tubeing if you had some. Either a tall person or a box to stand on.

Rope was thrown over the beam and the horses head pulled up so that the person with the bottle could pour the gucky stuff down the horses throat.

Treatment aptly named as you generally got drenched in the stuff.

No such things as flicky brushes, or face brushes - that was the body brushes job! No rubber or plastic curry combs, the metal curry removed loose winter hair and mud from fleshy areas.

The dandy brush was never used on legs below knees and hocks, face or manes and tail.

We skipped out beds into a heavy rubber skip, and picked out feet directly into the skip.

The rugs were put on in this order - someone asked what we did - Blanket on and fold back the corners to form a triangle. Place rug over top, fold over the end of the triangle. place the padded roller or anti cast roller over the folded back blanket, do up roller. Do up the front buckle - job done.

A bolus was a mix of drugs in a thick treacle base that was placed on the back of the tongue with a wooden spatula.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top