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

I think...

General knowledge and understanding has improved. As well as technology to deal with/ cure problems.

Natural horseman ship has definitely took off as a good thing :)

But I hate these 'fashions' of gadgets because everyone else had them. Such as grackles, breast plates, spurs and so on.

Oh and just the general price of things has gone so high! Like a t-shirt from a tack shop costs nearly £50, whyyy.
 
Last edited:
Agree with so many of these, som e are a real trip down memory lane.

My biggest bad point these days, like may of you, is how many horse owners lack even basic knowledge, especially when the biggest good point nowadays for me, is the easy access we have to lectures, demos, workshops and training that didn't exist when i was young. SO how can we have so many chances to gain knowledge and so few bother?
 
Hunter wellies used to last years, now they don't last two months!

The evening ritual of folding blankets under a jute rug is long gone, popping today's modern duvet rugs on just doesn't give the same sense of satisfaction! http://www.pinterest.com/fridayfoxltd/how-to-fold-a-witney-horse-blanket/

Exercise blankets were made of wool, still have a witney rug going strong after 25 years of use, and you can get the hairs off it unlike today's fleece rugs.

Nobody wore hi-viz, now I would never go out on the roads without it.
 
Last edited:
Which brings me back to the fleece rugs, have been trying in vain to remove white hairs from a black fleece rug today. Whoever thought that modern fleece fabric would make good rugs needs to be hung up!! Made a vow to buy a nice wool day rug when I can afford it!!
 
Notimetoride said:
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
Click to expand...

Ha ha I am the cavaletti queen! Kids and ponies are expected to do it and they had better not touch a pole! Can't believe more people don't practise it these days its so good for building muscle and balance for both horse and rider especially for young horses as a precursor to learning to jump.
 
EventingMum said:
Because they can roll when kicked or hit and get tangled with the horse's legs thus causing an accident.
Click to expand...

Not really an issue with the lovely lightweight plastic poles and pole pods which make them stable and easily adjustable just like modern jumps. Me and my kids practise cavelletti often, brilliant fun!
 
Oh god spurs! Used to be for professionals (ie those seen on TV) and people with "terrible reputations". Now seen at a pony club near you. Astonishing! My mother would've scalped me!
 
lhotse said:
Hunter wellies used to last years, now they don't last two months!
Click to expand...

I had a pair of original, hand made from pure latex rubber, in Scotland, green Hunter wellies and they lasted 15 years. In that time I rode in them walked miles in them, gardened in them, everything. I was gutted when they eventually died. I bought another pair, made of crap in China - they lasted 2 months before splitting. I sent them back and will never buy another pair of Hunters again (my 7quid Lidl wellies are now 2 years old and have only just split). New hunter wellies.. VERY BAAAAD!!!

Roundpens - Awesome things. Only weird wanna-be cowboy types used round pens when I was younger. I think they're invaluable in starting out youngsters, 'wild' ponies, introduce a horse to lungeing and the place to sort out any dominance issues. Hats off to the weirdy cowboy types for introducing them to the UK
 
Only very expensive horses went to hospital - it was unheard of when I was young. Partly I suppose because there was far less veterinary knowledge, and even fewer hospitals. Even x-rays were seen as unusual. Horses with undiagnosed lameness were either turned away for some 'Dr Green' or were put down, with no-one any the wiser as to the cause. (I'm talking about the sixties and seventies). Colic was a death sentence if the horse showed no sign of recovery.
Feeding was more straightforward, with 'straight' feed that you could mix as you fancied. My ponies/horses used to exist on oats, bran, flaked maize, chaff, hay and grass. They never had supplements as they are known now, except for a salt lick and seven seas cod liver oil. I never had a horse of my own with colic or laminitis. I often wonder if the over sugared feeds of today, plus extensive use of supplements, contribute to what seems to me to be an alarming rise in laminitis.
I think equines are excessively rugged now. How can a native pony in a full winter coat possibly need a rug as well?
I used to fit all my own saddles without problems. I worked in yards where there was a saddle for every rider, rather than every horse.
 
I am really enjoying this thread on a bright autumnal afternoon, prior to going to check on the horses, enjoying a bit of late sun. I remember cavaletti as well, spent hours being drilled over and over them by riding school instructor. They were invariably painted white and very, very heavy to shift around, which we invariably and to do prior to our lessons, and those of others.

I also remember mixing up feeds for each horse individually with straights. Personally I have always been no nonsense for feeds - they get fed nuts or chaff now, and most of the time the cheapest. No cereal mixes or posh stuff for our horses. I have to be honest I do find it so funny that people get so precious that their horse must be fed the most expensive type of feed going because its a warmblood or a TB - most of the time they dont bloody well need it, its what makes the owner feel better. When I was younger, they got fed whatever was available. All mine get are pony nuts or chaff, one of them events at Novice on just two small feeds of nuts a day and good grass and hay - far too much faff as far as I am concerned going on now. What about bran mash? I remember the riding school horses getting this warm. I havent heard of anyone else doing it apart from a couple of years ago when my horse had a dose of colic and the YO made him up a bran mash to settle his tummy.

Supplements - all I ever remember anyone using was oil for a shiny coat. Now its a supplement for everything and its not necessary. On my last yard we were all encouraged to have 'supplement pots'. as yard manager was fanatical about using them. We all had to mix up whatever we used and keep them in pots for once a day and the yard staff would feed them to them. What a load of old rubbish and such a waste of money. Unless its needed for a medical condition etc (I feed mine Synequin, as recommended by my vet as he has arthritis and its fab), then why waste your money, good old doctor green and good hay is the best supplement in my opinion.

Bits - I remember just using a good old fashioned eggbutt snaffle, loose ring snaffle or a pelham. Bits today look like instruments of torture. My horse is either ridden in a loose ring snaffle for hacking or a pelham for going out for a gallop or when he was hunting. Mini TX's is in a loose ring snaffle at all times.

Goodness, I didnt realise just how old fashioned my views are on horses. I dont like lots of unnecessary stuff on horses either, like martingales, boots etc. I do like a nice smart breastplate, but thats because mine is hogged and its a good handle to grab, as even at 21 he gets jiggy. Both of ours just get ridden in a bridle and saddle, nothing else, apart from when eventing, when the five point breastplate, plus boots get used.

One change I do welcome is the advance in vetinerary science. My horse now looks and acts 10 years younger after a course of cartrofen injections, hylauronic acid injections and a tildrin drip after arthritis was diagnosed, plus daily Synequin. He has gone from a diagnosis of retirement or worse to being rideable again. Also, if steriod injections were not available, our mare would have been retired after she bust both her front DDFT, and now she is happily out eventing.
 
OldNag said:
Cavaletti have gone right out of fashion haven't they. (Being really pedantic, it's cavaletto singular, cavaletti plural). I don't know why?
Click to expand...

Because they are regarded as dangerous - they don't knock down but if you hit them hard they roll forward and trip the horse up - also they were EXTREMELY painful to land on if you fell off!!
 
Good changes

Skull caps are no longer viewed as weird
Hi Viz for horse and rider is common place
Better understanding of horses as herd and flight animals (so better consideration of their needs)
Stretch jodphurs
Lightweight materials for rugs

Bad changes in my view

Over rugging
Too many gadgets, fancy bits and nosebands (rather than deal with the root cause)
Too many horses too cheaply available (so a vicious circle of uneducated owners with insufficient knowledge/capability causing more problem horses)
Stable management no longer taught as an integral part of lessons in most idling schools
 
Stopped riding aged 14. Now nearly 29.

I don't see many pony mad girls like I was. At 14 I had posters of John Whitaker and Milton on my wall and aged 9 I remember saying I wished I was getting a foal, not a baby sister (sorry little sis!)
I have recently bought pony magazine as I loved horse and pony magazine as a kid, and I was disappointed. I remember getting a plastic hoof pick as a free gift and 'picked out' my bike (ponys) hooves (tyres) with it! My bike was even called palamino with horses on it! I would also sit on my sisters back and use my hoof pick to pick out her hands and feet hahah!
The cost of lessons! I remember telling my dad I don't blame him for stopping my lessons! He could barely afford £10 a fortnight for an hours fortnightly lesson. I also found my recent lessons involved more work than I did as a kid!
And I can still get a pony for £400 if I wanted too! Many a time I said to my mum she can just press the £100 button on the cash machine 4 times and she can buy me a pony.....haha!
 
After seeing some of the stonking falls at Burghley and somehow horses getting up and trotting off apparently sound, I am very glad that the old days of giving them a quick jog up after a fall at top level and then carrying on are over.
 
I remember that there was a little old lady that used to run a 2nd tack shop from her garage! all of us helpers from the riding school used to go up there and buy bits and bobs for her!

you don't get anything like that these days!
 
Hmm. Well, I guess we're all influenced by what we learned from previous generations. My Mum (born 1927) was taught to ride and care for horses by her Dad (born 1896) who was a vet, and what they knew was thus passed onto me (born 1967).

When I was a kid, many adults I met had grown up knowing horses as work-partners and a means of transport.

Many of their former jobs meant they'd had contact with horses every day - the farriers, the loriners, the saddlers, the farmers - even (in my Grandad's case), the hackney carriage drivers in London. And so they had a great understanding of what you had to do to make sure your work-partner was able to keep on doing their share of the work ie how to keep them fit and in good health. Out of that grew knowledge, respect and more often than not, love. Of course, there were animal-hating scrotes then as now and I hope that one day they got their comeuppance.

And quite rightly, many practices which were seen as essential to keep a horse working would now be frowned upon (limited turnout or none in cities, hours of work with a dusty nose-bag for forage, tethered in open stalls all hours they weren't working, saddles fitting everything and nothing, bearing reins and too-heavy shoes on the driven horses) and veterinary care was nothing compared to today.

But I'm not at all sure that today is always better for them. Too many are kept them as overbred toys - over-rugged, over-fed, under-utilised and then passed on as 'bad' when the owner discovers that they've brought a Ferrari with a brain, touchy brakes and fine steering when they only want to nip to Tesco once a week.

The fantastically stoical (but street-wise) hairy Heinz 57s of my youth which taught you to ride while not allowing you to either a) take the pee or b) come to too much grief are now very rare. Are they just not pretty enough? or just not talented enough to take you from potato race to Pony Club D test to BE90? I don't know. We'd ride feeling like Kings and Queens on 13.3 brown hairballs, with pancake saddles polished and Brasso'd to a glossy shine, freshly washed string girths, garish, velvet homemade brow bands and any old brass or nickel Kimblewick we could find ... and numnahs made of foam and rubber with purple nylon homemade covers (loosely stitched at the wither so you could take them off to wash). I'd feel really smart in long black rubber riding boots, a white shirt, my school tie and grey cardigan and my velvet hat (with the ribbons stitched up) at the local gymkhana. Can you imagine how a child dressed and mounted like that would be welcomed at many a local PC show today?

But one thing hasn't changed. An old rogue of a dealer when I was little often said: 'There's only one guarantee with 'osses. They'll mek you look daft.' ;)
 
I've had horses for over 40 years and the changes I've seen are just too numerous to mention! Here's a few though:
Rugs as OP said were just a canvas NZ no cross surcingles, jus one front strap and leg straps and a jute rug and a 'string vest'!
Our ponies were fed on good quality broad flake bran and pony nuts only, don't think you can even get good quality bran any more?
Laminitis was virtually unheard of because, ponies were ridden for hours on end, not over rugged and not over fed!
Too many horse being kept as pets now for my liking, but hey who am I to judge?!
Kids were fearless in my day too, it just doesn't seem like that any more?
Shoeing was £12 for a full set with stud holes! Now I am really showing my age!
Vets were 'proper' vets and weren't out to make as much money as possible out of you, not like now. My vet back in the day was a realist, he would tell me straight if it wasn't worth spending any more money. He was vet to a very famous steeple chaser so I ALWAYS took his word as gospel.

Could list lots more but would be here till next week!
 
Last edited:
Kezzabell2 said:
I remember that there was a little old lady that used to run a 2nd tack shop from her garage! all of us helpers from the riding school used to go up there and buy bits and bobs for her!

you don't get anything like that these days!
Click to expand...

Yep, we had someone like that around here. You didn't go to a tack shop if you wanted anything, you went to see Mrs Britton and she would order it in for you from the comfort of her kitchen!!
 
paisley said:
After seeing some of the stonking falls at Burghley and somehow horses getting up and trotting off apparently sound, I am very glad that the old days of giving them a quick jog up after a fall at top level and then carrying on are over.
Click to expand...

Just as well for the riders too. A while ago I saw an old Burghley viedo where somebody who was blatantly concussed carried on after a fall - horrible viewing (and ended in another fall)
 
Mrs B said:
But one thing hasn't changed. An old rogue of a dealer when I was little often said: 'There's only one guarantee with 'osses. They'll mek you look daft.' ;)
Click to expand...

Mine regularly make me look daft...they don't have to try hard, to be fair to them. I managed to misplace them this weekend. It is a far bigger field than I realised, and yes, the sheep trail is passable by horses. At full gallop, as it turns out. I'm impressed and horrified in equal measure!

This thread has brought back so many memories :)
 
My farrier came ever 8 weeks on the dot and did all the horses in the area in our garage he was there all day as he lived 60 miles away and I made him bacon butties and endless cups of tea as he worked away from 9am to 6 pm. a set of shoes made to measure no factory shoes available so he made them from bars of grooved iron charge was a pound a shoe and a pound for travel so £5 a set. He made me laugh so much I often burnt half a loaf trying to make toast.
Another huge change is the number of people keeping stallions a ridden horses who never get within sniffing distance of a mare the only stallions were the stud men who walked stallions around the region covering mares at various farms or posh stud farms where people took the mare and walked in and walked out the same day.
Lessons when I started 50 years ago were 25pence and hour or an old fashioned 5 bob I got 10 bob pocket money so would walk 6 mile across fields to save the bus fare and have two hours of riding instead
 
Last edited:
Having been around horses for 50 +yrs, I still have a Jute rug, one leather strap at the chest, not even stitched, just a leather strap going through leather bound slits, slightly shaped over the rump and it's just the weight that keeps it in place, 40 yrs old, still weatherproof and still used if needed for my woosy TB, but it has to be really cold before I use it.
My first pony cost £180, a years wage in those days, I now have four, the cheapest was £500 as a companion.
Big hate, seeing kids with a whip on kick on attitude, the worst offenders being pony clubbers.
Seeing so many horses/ponies wearing martingales or rugs regardless of temperatures
On the plus side, rugs are now easier to use, not so heavy, other options besides shoeing
 
Kezzabell2 said:
I remember that there was a little old lady that used to run a 2nd tack shop from her garage! all of us helpers from the riding school used to go up there and buy bits and bobs for her!

you don't get anything like that these days!
Click to expand...

Catlips is about as close as it can get. I love going there!
 
Plenty of changes, most of them already mentioned.

Going back to the good old days. I remember my grandad standing in our old higgledy piggledy kitchen, explaining where to stand when you brushed the hind quarters of a horse. He used a model made out of 3 runner beans to illustrate. I would have been about 11 at the time. He died when I was 19 and my mum and dad came to uni to tell me. I went about my day feeling rather numb until, in a lunchtime concert, this image flashed into my mind and I burst into tears and ran out of the auditorium. I'm getting teary recalling it now.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top