The old way of doing things

JessandCharlie said:
I strap, but have no idea about wisping, could someone explain please? :o

J&C
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Get some hay and make a wisp ( I'm sure you can find this on the internet somewhere) dampen it, stamp on it and then begin wisping.

Hold it in your hand and bring it down with a bang on the large muscles of the neck and bottom, then pull it in the direction of the coat and repeat ad nauseum. It is a kind of massage to develop muscle tone.


Do I get points for knowing all this stuff at my tender age? Surely I do!
 
Getting off your horse and leading it the last mile home after a day's hunting or gymkhana.
Not done now as anything more than a mile warrants a horsebox or trailer ride!

Riding bareback a lt as it saved cleaning saddles.

Learning to ride was fun! Falling off was part and parcel of learning and thoughts of it being someone else's fault never crossed your mind.

Playing gymkhana games - taught you good eye/hand co-ordination, balance and was jolly good for the ponies.

Being taught the military way, lots of shouting and riding without stirrups.
 
Being taught the military way, lots of shouting and riding without stirrups.


^^^^^^ This is how I learned. Plenty of that with lots of drill work. I loved it. It meant that you got more out of a group lesson than a private one.
 
jesstickle said:
Strapping in our house means a proper groom. As in take your body brush, press hard, do three strokes on the horses coat, drag metal curry comb over brush, repeat. Keep going for anything between forty minutes and an hour! You arms will be like jelly, you will sweat, you will be red in the face but your horse will love it and will look great. Don't just tickle him with the brush though or they'll be hell to pay (in our house at least) you really have to lean into it!!

You could finish by wisping if you wanted.
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I was beginning to wonder if metal curry combs were an endangered species these days... the standard grooming "kit" you can buy as a set seems now to have a "flick brush" (what's that when it's at home?), the usual dandy, body etc but never a metal curry comb. What are you supposed to clean the body brush with?

When I was a working pupil at a riding school where the osses were stabled, (no turnout) they were properly body brushed like JessTickle does, every day. We used to make patterns on the floor with the stuff that we banged out of the curry combs . Lovely shiny coats. Good for our old arm muscles too!
 
Foxhunter49 said:
Getting off your horse and leading it the last mile home after a day's hunting or gymkhana.
Not done now as anything more than a mile warrants a horsebox or trailer ride!

Riding bareback a lt as it saved cleaning saddles.

Learning to ride was fun! Falling off was part and parcel of learning and thoughts of it being someone else's fault never crossed your mind.

Playing gymkhana games - taught you good eye/hand co-ordination, balance and was jolly good for the ponies.

Being taught the military way, lots of shouting and riding without stirrups.
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All of those! Especially the bareback and the walking your pony! My daughter is a fairly good rider but has never ridden bareback! I used to love it.

I was taught if you fell off the first thing you asked, after you found out the horse was ok, was "what did I do wrong?" None of this beating the ***** out of the pony!

FDC
 
OldNag, I must admit I do have a flicky brush. But I also have a metal curry comb and I do use it. I don't manage to do an hour though. My arms won't take it! Much to my mother's disgust!
 
O and the one my mother really, really drilled in to me

It is NEVER, EVER your ponies fault. It is always the riders fault. And not in the making excuses way, in the way that you were stupid and misread the situation and that lead to the problem way.
 
I didn't realise metal curry combs were an endangered species?! I'm obviously not very trendy!
Agree with the wisping (I'm 24 and know how to make a wisp - haven't made one for years though!), and the road work to get the horses fit. My grandad used to be a racehorse trainer in the 60s, and he taught me everything I know. He's 81 and will be helping me to break in my youngster in the spring - he's a treasure trove of good advice! x
 
Fany Du Champ said:
Took me a while to work out you were talking about banging, but tbh I think strapping a horse sounds so much better than banging a horse so we use that from now on! Oh and yes I occasionally do it with my lad.
FDC
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jesstickle said:
Strapping in our house means a proper groom. As in take your body brush, press hard, do three strokes on the horses coat, drag metal curry comb over brush, repeat. Keep going for anything between forty minutes and an hour! You arms will be like jelly, you will sweat, you will be red in the face but your horse will love it and will look great. Don't just tickle him with the brush though or they'll be hell to pay (in our house at least) you really have to lean into it!!

You could finish by wisping if you wanted.
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I meant strapping in the banging sense of the word - but it's part of a process anyway! This is what I do

  • Take one clean,dry horse (remove mud and other filth with your weapon of choice if necessary)
  • Strap(or bang, or wisp - whatever you want to call it) first to get the blood flowing. Make sure that you keep it rhythmical, and miss out the odd bang to check the horse is flinching nicely;)
  • Rubber currycomb firmly in circles, flicking the scurf off with a flicky brush
  • Wipe over with an old towel.
  • Take a clean dense body brush, teatowel and metal curry comb and groom vigorously until horse is clean down to the skin. Brush firmly in a sweeping hal moon shape against the lay of the hair, then flick off the dirt that comes to the surface with the teatowel. metal curry comb as required
  • Wipe over with a towel. Summer sheet on, and top rug if needed
  • Brush mane and dampen on correct side
  • Remove bedding from tail,finger comb if required (I don't touch tails personally)
  • Wipe dock, eyes and nose - I used to use different sponges, but am now a baby wipe convert
  • Oil feet
  • Issue stern instructions to horse that moving, slobbering, rubbing, smearing and rolling will not be tolerated.
  • Have a little lie down in the haybarn
 
Laura C should beat me. She is three years my junior and knows this stuff too! There is a lot to be said for my old fashioned Mumbles :)
 
I used to love a good strapping on my old little TB...till I was b*llocked to within an inch of my life by the back man we had back then for it....
 
I think I might be a bit old fashioned :p

I love thick deep straw beds.

Prefer hay to haylage

I will thatch a horse to dry him off

And I keep all the baling twine off hay and straw to make my own haynets :D
 
Foxhunter49 said:
Getting off your horse and leading it the last mile home after a day's hunting or gymkhana.
Not done now as anything more than a mile warrants a horsebox or trailer ride!

Riding bareback a lt as it saved cleaning saddles.

Learning to ride was fun! Falling off was part and parcel of learning and thoughts of it being someone else's fault never crossed your mind.

Playing gymkhana games - taught you good eye/hand co-ordination, balance and was jolly good for the ponies.

Being taught the military way, lots of shouting and riding without stirrups.
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oh dear I must be old! ;)
I hack everywhere and know many people my age (17) that do! I have hacked 10 miles to hunting, left pony in field overnight, ridden back the net day, rode 6 miles last Sunday to a meet then walked and lead the last 5 miles back in the pitch black, all for a good day!
There are definitely still those amongst us out there that do this sort of thing! In fact it is the adults that are always telling us it is a bad idea....
 
Jess and Charlie - strapping/banging can do some damage if done incorrectly. There are only certain places on the horse where it is 'safe' to strap them. Imagine how it would feel to have a firm deep tissue massage on a tender or bony area! x
 
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!
 
Strapping - 20 strokes of the brush on each part of the body, cleaning the brush on a real metal curry comb after each stroke. Then wiping over the horse with a linen stable rubber folded and damped to remove any last dust.

Making a whisp with plaited hay and baling string.

Steady hound jog for an hour a day on the road to harden up legs and get horse fit

Feeding straights

Bandaging with real stockinette bandages

Cleaning tack with water and a bar of glycerine saddle soap

Turning the horse out in a field full of grass, at least five acres of it and watch them have a burn around before stopping and getting their heads down - non of this grass is not good for them, can't stand electric fencing and turning out in pocket handkerchief sized fields.

Riding in the rain.

Deep straw beds with thick tall banks.
 
jesstickle said:
O and the one my mother really, really drilled in to me

It is NEVER, EVER your ponies fault. It is always the riders fault. And not in the making excuses way, in the way that you were stupid and misread the situation and that lead to the problem way.
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Exactly what I had drummed into me, God help you if you made an excuse!
FDC
 
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....
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YES definitely the best thing for a one horse owner is the spray on tack cleaner, spray on sponge off, lasts as long as my bar of saddle soap which always ends up in a bucket of water or unused due to all that faff for a two minute job.
 
Except that saddle soap is actually a poor cleanser, a poor conditioner, the wrong ph and causes grease jockeys...old leather was better tanned and survived despite its treatment. Warm water, a good old fashioned woven dishcloth and some elbow grease! Then a very light coating of conditioner if needed.

Agreed on the deep straw beds - nothing looks, smells or works better. Then of course I like good old fashioned leather saddles on wooden trees :D
 
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