What changes have you seen in the horse world since you started

Hemp headcollars and hacking to the turnout down busy roads bareback to take the ponies back out. Going to catch them the following day. Must have done wonders for my seat.

Going to gymkhanas, not horse shows.

Admiring Richard Meade and Princess Ann and longing to go to Badminton to meet them, and wanting to be an eventer. My dad took me to see the jump known as Luckington Lane, which actually adjoined a road and I was just so thrilled!

Looking longingly at the Caldene brochure that I got sent to home and being chuffed when mum bought me a pair of Caldene breeches and a bright yellow nylon 'riding sweater; and matching yellow string gloves which got soaked in winter.

Bridles with no noseband and just snaffle bits. No martingales and no other bits used whatsoever and just getting on with it. If you had a strong horse or a puller, you just pulled back. No boots, but the bell boots for over-reach I do remember using, but these you had to stretch on, there was no velcro fastening and god help you if you rode a fidgter.

Those velvet caps with elastic around them. Used to stick mine around the back and thought I looked stylish!

Magazines like Pony and Light Horse and obsessing with your friends over who was the most horsey.

My Friend Flicka, Phantom Horse, Black Beauty and the Jill books - happy days.
 
hacking 15 miles to catch the transport to an inter PC One day event and loading the horse at night to save having to load him in the morning as he was a pain so he spent the night on the lorry. stopping every mile as gremlins lurked behind each mile stone, so he would spin and head for home
Backing the dealers ponies so we could play with them everything from tiny ponies to ex racehorses most of them ridden and jumped bareback as the saddles were too long on their backs. Riding side saddle on the horses after we found an old barn full of vintage side saddles bet they would be worth a fortune if they had not been allowed to get rotten and mouldy. hacking for hours through the forestry commission and galloping round tracks like roller coasters. Playing silly games like who can jump over their own height
 
Traffic!

I could hack our first horse - a cob gelding, along the bus route during the school holidays and see the bus, in both directions, a couple of cars and a tractor transporter, with maybe the dustbin wagon on certain days and that would be it. Admittedly he took absolutely no notice of traffic, so there are no scary moments to remember but we used to canter along the grass verge, which is no longer maintained to the same standard and has rubbish hidden in the undergrowth and never saw a car, because in those days the households which did have a car only had one and the main breadwinner would have taken it to work and parked it there for the day.
 
Nessa4 said:
The ground was softer when you fell off.
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This i very true - also somebody keeps lowering it![/QUOTE]

Maybe it's been compacted over the years and so it has become lower and harder? :D

Leading 4 ponies along the road at 7am on a dark winter morning - and knowing you wouldn't see an adult on the RS yard til the first lesson started
 
Hacking the starters's horse to Hamilton Races. ........cantering on the wide grass verge of what is now the M8.
We used to canter the plough horses alongside the canal, of course we were told we had to walk them home, so we had rope halters.
Only posh girls had their own horse, one got a black pony [Darkie] for her Christmas, we had to hide him for a week and took him down to her house on Christmas morning, he had a big pink bow on his forelock.
Going to shows we went in a cattle wagon, we travelled in the back and when we got to the show we had to lift our legs up to avoid paying for entry.
 
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Mr Proctor, the blacksmith [not farrier] had the DT;s [I think] and needed a shot of whisky in a cup of tea before he started, the cup was bone china as mugs had not yet been invented. He never pricked a horse.
 
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Loads has changed.

Worming people seem to worm more and do egg counts. When I was a child my pony was wormed with a powder and not very often there was no worming programs.

Feeds huge range of feeds and marketing now very commercial.

Rugs great choice and more comfy for horses

Grazing muzzles and more fat horses who have issues with grass. I don't remember horses and ponies getting so fat so easily - don't always think it was related to levels of work possibly with more choice of feeds and rugs they are better fed and warmer and more yards have rye grass - that more horses seems to struggle with weight and grass intolerance.

Traffic more of it and faster.

Livery yards - I kept my pony at home and so did all my friends that had horses {we did live in a very rural area and land was not as expensive as it is now} I did not know livery yards existed people kept horses at home or on farms. Most farms did not have schools.

Stress I think people seem more stressed trying to combine keeping a horse on livery, working long hours and trying to keep a horse on a budget. Moaning possibly the popularity of the internet has given people a place to moan about other people more or that their circumstances are not perfect.
 
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Helmets!! someone mentioned helmets, I look at my fat, sofa-lined Gatehouse jockey skull and wonder how on earth we trusted our brains to those velvet covered half-ping-pong balls of yon. Helmet technology has certainly moved on - massively good thing!

over reach boots. At some point in human evolution some genius decided to cut down one side of a pull-on over reach boot and add some velcro, whoever you were - I salute you

Green oil - smelled wonderful, can you still buy it? whether I use it or just sit and sniff it I'd love to see a bottle of that again

Bits... just how many are there available now??? about as many kettles as there are in the Argos catalogue! - bad thing surely, its all gone to crazytown with how technical its become, when good old fashoined groundwork and schooling and time! ought to address the issues that some people seem to think a new, gold plated, copper cored, all singin' all dancin' mouth sculpture will solve (instantly).

Natural horsemanship.. two edged sword methinks. Its a buzzphraze that seems to be fashionable to use but not everyone using it truly understand the core principle. Good thing that people are not thinking of their horses as organic motorbikes or as I have heard described at horse sales 'nice machine' or 'gentleman's hunting tool' but truly the only natural approach is leaving them be on a great plain somewhere in Mongolia, so a compromise is required and you can acquire knowledge but like common sense, you cant teach 'horse sense' - but on the whole if we gain a better awareness of our horses as sentient beings then thats good good good.

ebay - flippin' brilliant!!

the internet - no longer do I have to consult my TV vet book over horse health issues - with its black and white photos (including the ikky ones of bot fly maggots and castration) I can Google it - good!

boots - person boots... no more unlined rubber riding boots or dealer boots, so many nice, cosy, dry boots to choose from - good!
 
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Green oil, thought that was in a red can?
Velcro ............ that came in fairly recently, all boots were leather with straps and buckles, just like jodhpur boots.
TV vet book, I was so sad when I had to bin it, it just got out dated.
I bought my very own hat when I was 21 ....... after falling on Ayr beach, stupid horse refused to jump over a log.
 
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Some things have completely reversed ,and it seems the horses are better for it too. If 40 years ago ,someone had come up to a racehorse ,just after a race ,with a bucket of water . he would probably have been tackled to the ground ,as "a nutter trying to kill the horse".Now we understand that horses benefit from this and far from killing them , it reduces their distress. We still know so little about so many things equine.
 
Mike007 said:
Some things have completely reversed ,and it seems the horses are better for it too. If 40 years ago ,someone had come up to a racehorse ,just after a race ,with a bucket of water . he would probably have been tackled to the ground ,as "a nutter trying to kill the horse".Now we understand that horses benefit from this and far from killing them , it reduces their distress. We still know so little about so many things equine.
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I think you will find it is also to cool them down quickly, and they have been doing it in N America for years, it does lower heart rate quickly and is used on endurance horses at the vetgates, the water is "sloshed" on the neck.
 
All of the above! My memory may be be blurred by 60+ years of riding/owning horses/ponies, but it seems that the main change is relatively novice people not having the humility to accept their lack of equine knowledge. This can lead to the horses suffering, when it could be avoided.
Horses have always, and continue to,suffer from human ignorance and arrogance. I find it sad, with so many avenues to knowledge, that it continues.
 
Good; the amount and quality of equine and human clothing.
Not so good, legs: human and equine. The amount of problems you see, at all levels from PC up because riders don't appear to know what their legs were put there for. As for horses, it seems they are all at risk of their hooves falling off if not booted up for every single activity, even grazing!
I do have a serious addiction to blingy browbands though.
 
Horse shoes: rollback to 1960, shoes were made by the blacksmith out of thick steel for longevity on roads, only hunters and show jumpers had nice [lightweight] machine made shoes which were relatively expensive.
We used to make our own racing plates [1980], saved a lot of money and they were easy to fit cold, we did not have portable forges then.
 
What's changed in the 49 years I've been involved with horses.

Browbands have gone from discreet sharks tooth in velvet to hideous tarty looking with rosettes that look like indicators!

Saddle blankets and poorly fitting saddles, people use so many under their saddle it no longer can sit still in the right place, we rarely had problems fitting saddles when we used no saddle blankets.

I loved the wool lined jute rugs, they kept the horse warm withou over heating, they also kept the horses coat shiny.
Modern rugs, though cheap tend to chafe the ends of the hairs leaving dull areas, this is generally when it has a synthetic liner.

Hate the obsession people now have with covering their horse, they don't melt!

The obsession with feeding every supplement available, many fed without finding out if the horse actually needs supplementing

Up themselves barefoot trimmers who knock the knowledge of a qualified farrier after having a few months correspondence training.

Love that clothing is so easy to get in so many sizes and fabulous colours, I remember buying my first pair of navy Jodhs.

Hate the commercial feeds because the manufacturers are not genuine in their testing of products for the purpose intended, when you see Maize in a cool feed mix you have to wonder about their integrity.

Love Haylage and similar products

Love tools for the job, after years of mucking out shaving boxes with a leaf rake, bucket and my hands or a very heavy potato fork, the introduction of plastic shavings fork was the best thing since sliced bread.

Sad that the quality of saddlery in general has dropped so much. Though it does mean that it is more affordable.

I remember all dressage horses started life in a Fulmer and drop noseband, and when the flash noseband became popular along with a German Hollow mouth snaffle.
 
Tnavas I dislike the huge rosettes on velvet browbands too. I still seek out the old style ones without the rosettes. I even have one of those ancient ones with the sharks tooth design done in plastic tape.
 
Bad things, Far too much rugging nowadays.Far too many brands and types of horse feed. No one seems to feed bran mashes any more. Everyone seems to think their horse needs the dentist or back person [ most dont]. We've become obsessed with supplements.
Horses are boxed or trailered everywhere.
Goodthings
portable forges so hot shoeing can take place at the yard.
Better knowledge of things like laminitis being caused by hormonal/pituitary gland issues. Research into grass sickness. More choice of tack, I love synthetic saddles :-) and coloured numnahs are available now too:-)
 
Much more open-mindedness in approaches and methods of horsemanship which consider the horse more than was the case when I started riding as a 5 year old. No horses with docked tails - I rode a dock-tailed cob as a child.

The huge drawback for me today is traffic when hacking. Many drivers today just have no idea of how to approach and pass horses safely - it terrifies me! As a child and teenager I hacked for miles on all classes of road and I'm sure drivers were more considerate.
 
I've only been riding 10 years, and all of it fairly recently.

Biggest thing I've noticed is kids who leave arenas looking ready to throw a tantrum after not having got a clear round, and pushy parents who make it hard for everyone else to warm up and have to listen to the parent yelling at kid and telling them to smack pony on instead of give them a pat and think of taking things slower.

Might be something that's always been there, but I am more known for getting arguing with mum if I've had a fence or not had a good round and she brings up the 'now you won't place' argument - I enter competitions for fun, and whilst it's nice to win not placing isn't the end of the world and often it means I know where I went wrong and what I need to work on for next time!

I've also noticed an increase in fleece/polo wraps, not sure if it's an American thing being brought over or not. The same with more American style riding and jumping courses/competitions - again, not sure if it's good or not!
And the increase of people using tack/doing things without understanding why - so many times people will use the latest 'gadget' because everyone else does. Might be an outdated, irrelevant way of thinking but I won't touch any new gadget or do anything with my horse that I feel I don't know how to use or am not confident using it. No harm asking for help, a lot of these 'gadgets' do more harm than good, even in 'pro' hands.

There's been a lot of positives, most recently things like new veterinary developments, frangible pins, advances in horse transportation, amazing looking xc fences and fillers for jumping.

I have noticed a lot of people have no ring etiquette though! Especially pony riders and the often pushy parents who ignore running orders, hog warmup jumps, cut you off, canter round the warmup arena etc.
Even in my first lesson, I had left-to-left, riding a horses distance behind, no undertaking/overtaking others, always ask if it's okay to enter/leave/jump/canter if you're riding with someone else in the arena and walk on the outside track, leave the inside track clear for those at a faster pace explained to me, and hammered into me as I learnt.
also, there's a shocking absence in red ribbons on tails too!

Overall, I think there's both positives and negatives, and from the veterinary and care perspective the advances we have today really have changed horses lives - especially given the advances in treatment for long-term conditions.
 
my first horsey job was on a racing yard and we practiced 'quartering and strapping' as a daily part of the grooming routine. We were taught to make rope from hay and then make these into whisps which we strapped the horses with, there were a few leather ones knocking around the yard too which looked like very firm car de-mister pads. Does anyone still strap horses? (I suspect they might still do this in the Royal Mews). It was supposed to build muscle tone, I think it did on me more than them.
 
bling - bad thing (ugh! just my personal opinion!)

Gadgets (training aids) - bad thing... gadgets seem go through fads and crazes, there seem to be more now than ever. When I was young the Abbot-Davis balancing rein was the universal panacea, there have been the Pessoa thing and other similar bits of cats-cradle type macrame used for lungeing. Draw reins, bungee reins and all available over the counter by people (and kids) who have no real idea how to use them or what they are trying to achieve.

Barefoot - to choose not to shoe your horse is now, ok, acceptable and you are not a freak or a cheapskate - good thing

Big round bales - bad thing!! I am not feeding a herd of catte just one horse, I am not Atlas, my feed room is tiny... whatever happened to small bales of everything that a 12 year old kid can lift, that fell apart in slices and not like a giant roll of Andrex?

Shavings as bedding - well some might prefer them but I personally love straw, lovely golden yellow, easy to separate from the poo straw
 
Woolybear said:
Big round bales - bad thing!! I am not feeding a herd of catte just one horse, I am not Atlas, my feed room is tiny... whatever happened to small bales of everything that a 12 year old kid can lift, that fell apart in slices and not like a giant roll of Andrex?
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I will never be able to look at a haylage bale in the same way again!!!
 
Heres a word most youngsters wont have heard of . . . . . . cavaletti. I used to have gridwork lessons over a line of (bounce stride) cavalettis which dont knock down. They would be stacked up to make a bigger just (horrifying thought now). we use to ride over the line of cavalettis without stirrups and we also had to drop our reins and put our hands out to the sides whilst going over the line of 5 or 6 cavalettis. And my instructor would make us do rising trot without stirrups for AGES until we really hurt, then made us carry some more as we clearly werent fit enough. The AGONY ! However, not many of us fell off and developed very secure seats. Im not sure riding schools are allowed to do this any more which is a bit of a shame (apart from the stacked up cavalettis of course which seems pretty dangerous now)
It seems to me the horse world has gone a bit soft. I was brought up to ALWAYS to jobs first and then ride. SO i would muck out a full straw bed, put it up to air the floor, do all other jobs, then ride. Then come back and put the bed back down and put horse to bed. Now a days the youngster (and by this i mean teenager) rides whilst mum is doing the jobs, I see quite a few youngsters that dont know one end of a yard brush from the other (??) and just stand on the yard texting on their phone whilst mum is running around doing all the jobs.
And another new idea (though i know it isnt really new) is natural horsemanship. Dont get me wrong, im a huge fan, but 'back in the day' I had a difficult loader. My friend who was/is an extremely knowledgeable horsewoman took a broom and gave her a right old jab up the bum. Horse jumped up the ramp and never again did she refuse to load.
Positives are rugs, safety gear (though if we all had more secure seats fewer of us would fall off), affordability, different approaches to training such as natural horsemanship and harsh training methods (rollkur) being frowned upon
 
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