What has changed over the years?

WelshD

WelshD

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I'm looking for a pony after 17 years of not having one

I went to buy some supplies today and discovered that hoof oil is no longer 'the thing' and a hoof moisturiser is standard nowadays

I also couldnt find an old fashioned browband style fly fringe - nets and fly fringes with a throat strap seem to be the thing to use

Nor could I find a headcollar with fully adjustable 'sliding' type buckles (as opposed to straps with holes in and 'proper' buckles)

There also seems to be a bewildering array of rugs with light, medium and heavy fillings!

I'm feeling hopelessly out of date, what else have people noticed change over the years?
 
I have a brow band style fly fringe that doesn't fit! It's a bit scruffy, but you can have it if you want it. It's only taking up room here...

For me, it has to be all the fancy new feeds and supplements - I remember the days of sugar beet you had to soak all day:D
 
I still DO soak sugar beet all day :eek:

Welsh D, I think it would be easier to say "What hasn't changed?"

Most changes have been for the better, materials for rugs, boots, clothing etc, technology has improved things greatly, but I think sometimes people get bogged down in it all and make life too awkward for themselves.

Hoof moisturiser?:) In my book that is called morning dew on the grass or mud around a water trough, for shiny party feet good old baby or vegetable oil does the job for me.

Horse keeping now is as easy, or as complicated, as you want it to be ;)

I go down the Medium weight turnout rug in a variety of sizes route. If they are hot rugs come off, if they are cold I bung another one on top! No one horse 'owns' anything specific, if they need it, and it fits, it is theirs for the duration :) I have three bridles that fit everything, two saddles ditto, two cotton sheets, a surcingle and some blankets and a pile of leather halters for maybe 10 or so horses.

I am slightly confused about your sliding buckles, I would probably know exactly what you mean as soon as I saw it, just can't picture it right now.
 
I know what you mean by sliding buckles and I have to say I hate them, proper buckles are much easier and more secure.
 
Enfys, I think OP means the type of buckle that goes up over a little bar, then back through to secure, I still have a couple of them.
A change for the worse is the amount of tack people feel the need to use
 
There seems to be be an increase in getting horses broken in getting broken in NOW who must jump big jumps and do dressage asap with as many gadgets as possible to get them there :(

patience and common sense seems to have been lost along the way.
 
Mine was a longer gap but here's what I've noticed.

Jodhpurs are now practically miraculous compared to the 80s. Oh and boots
Hats look really silly with all that padding, but might actually prevent you cracking your skull. Ditto back protectors - but they didn't even exist then.

The whole Internet thing - both a reassuring place to get support and a place to scare the bejesus out of yourself with other people's stories. :eek:

The amazing range if horse feeds and completely bonkers supplement market - inadequately regulated of course so full of pseudoscientific claptrap.

The increased range of tack choices and of course bling browbands. ;) And horse beauty products - mane and tail conditioner. Oh and horse glitter - you've got to love horse glitter. :o

Full livery where you don't even have to ride your horse. Actually that may already have existed but was soooo far out of my league.

Oh and importing Fresians from Holland :D That's the really good one.

Paula
 
We now have understanding and treatment for kissing spines and ulcers...not heard of that long ago.

We have better understanding of worming and different methods of control - worm count etc.

There now seem to be more trainers rather than instructors (BHS) so more options...if not more confusion.

More info available in the media - books, internet, forums etc

Rugs...does anyone remember the old jute rug and the weight of it when wet! Now most have something with a neck attached.

Shoeing - more options available - glue ons, barefoot, boa boots etc

Tack - Mickelams(sp?) WOW saddles, treeless saddles, H girths, flexible trees, flexible stirrups, hoops in reins, reins with elastic inserts, types of boots, bandages and overeach - new materials, mixed with elastic, breathable etc.

Clothing - new tech materials, styles and bling.

Hats!! Now helmets!!

Bling - on anything you want - even on saddles

3.5 side loading lorries

Internet shopping - no longer limited to your local tack shop that was packed to the roof with saddles, Barber and Puffa jackets. I love the smell of those shops :)

Colour...you can get most things in whatever colour you want - purple metal stirrups, all colours for bridles...you can matchy matchy just about anything.

Choice. It used to be whatever your local tack shop had (as internet above)

And I suppose the biggest change to enable all of the above is the internet.

All I can think of for now :)
 
Omg what hasn't changed!!

I look back to when we had my pony (which btw wasn't aaaalll that long ago ;) ) all I had was a string girth, brown sheepskin numnah, eggbutt snaffle, no noseband, beige jods and the hat with the little chin cup thing!

That was it... Im sure we didn't even own a rug! No colours, no bling, no saddlecloths. I bet my mum's glad now that she didn't have to buy me all that stuff!! .... Now I feel old :(
 
I think that feeding is one of the most major changes. 20 years ago I used to ride a well known endurance horse who was fed on oats, bran and molichop. When we were nearing a big race (100 miles) she used to get an egg and some garlic. Nowadays the choice is bewildering but I must concede that horses live longer and are ridden to a greater age.
 
Every other horse is coloured.

When I started coloured horses were common and for Gypsies. My Friend used to ridicule me for liking them.. now she has one!

Everyone seems to do dressage.
 
Feeds a massive array of feeds and mineral licks and basically supplements galore!

Even Hay can come in a variety of forms

Agree clothing is far superior than 40 years ago...not sure about rugging every animal though(pet hate of mine...warm mornings and days and horses with their nightime rugs on)

Kindness to a certain extent with some of the natural horsemanship but unfortunately in wrong hands many a ruined horse(far more than I remember and its not the horse but the owners etc).

Tons of new bits.

Horse healthcare is probably better than some NHS care too...chiropractors/scans/private insurances.

Worth looking at BHS Gold etc
 
I miss those old roko buckles on headcollars!

In my day you fed your pony a scoop of oats, a scoop of barley, a half a scoop of bran and a good dollop of sugar beet that had been soaked overnight, in the winter they'd get a double handful of pony nuts at lunchtime.

You had two rugs, a jute one with a felt style lining that weighed a ton -that was only used in the winter, and you stole a blanket off your bed if it got really cold, and a stiff green canvas New Zealand for when they were turned out -if it was raining.

Bridles had cavesson nosebands, bits were snaffles, kimblewicks, or pelhams. The occasional person had a running martingale. A saddle was a saddle. Girths were either yellow string, or white webbing - if you were posh you had a leather one.

Riding hats were lined with cork and might have a string of elastic that you put under your chin (more often it was shoved up over the peak), they were black velvet.

You fell off, you ran after your pony and got back on. If the pony bucked, reared, bolted or whatever you stuck on as best you could, or picked yourself up and ran after the pony.

ugh now I feel old!!
 
lol I feel really old too!

I still have my string girth and cork lined riding hat somewhere

As it turned out I didnt need a roko buckle headcollar anyway as apparently there isnt just foal slips and then pony headcollars there are now sizes in between - my new pony came with a 'shetland' sized headcollar which fits perfectly! I guess thats one change that is great lol

I remember well using bed blankets under rugs and having new zealand rugs heavier than me
 
Arizahn said:
I have a brow band style fly fringe that doesn't fit! It's a bit scruffy, but you can have it if you want it. It's only taking up room here...
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Thank you for that lovely offer but my husband managed to find one on ebay

He wants to call the pony ebay but thats another story!
 
My local feed merchants sell all the stuff you want, normal hoof oil, fly browbands, sliding buckle headcollars. Try looking in a feed merchants rather than tack shop :)

They also sell sisal haynets at 80p, much easier than making your own!
 
Cappuccino said:
You had two rugs, a jute one with a felt style lining that weighed a ton -that was only used in the winter, and you stole a blanket off your bed if it got really cold, and a stiff green canvas New Zealand for when they were turned out -if it was raining.

Bridles had cavesson nosebands, bits were snaffles, kimblewicks, or pelhams. The occasional person had a running martingale. A saddle was a saddle. Girths were either yellow string, or white webbing - if you were posh you had a leather one.

Riding hats were lined with cork and might have a string of elastic that you put under your chin (more often it was shoved up over the peak), they were black velvet.

You fell off, you ran after your pony and got back on. If the pony bucked, reared, bolted or whatever you stuck on as best you could, or picked yourself up and ran after the pony.

ugh now I feel old!!
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LOL, all the above other than the rugs - the only person I knew who clipped and rugged his horses was the owner of my old riding school, they were 'posh' :D.

Anybody remember the yellow string gloves?
 
Poultices were bran and kaolin held on with hessian cut from a feed sack and an old tail bandage.

Clips were trace, blanket or hunter.

Plaits were always sewn in.

A horse/pony was over the hill at 15. No one would ever buy one that was over 15.

Gloves were string or if you were well off, leather.

Travel bandages with big sheets of gamgee rather than boots.

Synthetic tack- remember the first Wintec saddles that came out in a variety of colours.

Professional rug wash? Ours were laid out in the yard, hosed down with a hosepipe and yard brush, sprinkled with washing powder and rinsed off.

Whips had straps that went round your wrist so you didn't drop them.

My cap for hunting when I was in the Pony Club was £2 for a saturday, £1 mid week. Subscription was £60. I miss those days! :)

Thought of another!

Grass reins were bits of baler twine- no nice leather daisy reins like you can get now.
 
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Health and Safety has changed the most for me :(

I used to vault onto my first pony in the field, with a leadrope around his neck and a good helmet of springy curls on my head (they've never left me)! I could ride him up onto the yard like this, even managing to maneuver the heavy gate without getting off. I was talking about this with a woman at my current livery yard only last week and I swear she nearly fainted with shock.

And I know riding hats are important and yada yada (I'm not trying to start a debate), but way back then I was invincible and riding in a stony, occasionally hard field on a pony with no tack wasn't the same as riding in an enclosed arena on soft sand with a saddle and bridle... Only then would I wear a hat! Go figure....
 
flirtygerty said:
Enfys, I think OP means the type of buckle that goes up over a little bar, then back through to secure, I still have a couple of them. Ah, Thankyou, on webbing halters? HATE those things, haven't seen them for years thankfully. I am a lazy one, all my halters have throat clips and just get slid on over the head, I don't know if they can be unbuckled anymore

A change for the worse is the amount of tack people feel the need to use
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... is that because it is so readily available, media influence or because horses are hotter to handle, trained worse, or just that riders are getting less capable and it is the easy option? Without all the array of kit available now, back in the days of yore, did we just get on with it, retrain, get better as a rider or sell the horse and move on to another one?
 
sarahann1 said:
There seems to be be an increase in getting horses broken in getting broken in NOW who must jump big jumps and do dressage asap with as many gadgets as possible to get them there :(

patience and common sense seems to have been lost along the way.
Click to expand...

Totally Agree!!!
 
Cappuccino - you are old - but not as old as me!
There were no nylon headcollars, only leather ones or the canvas type that Shires and cattle are shown in so we made halters and lead ropes out of plaited bailer twine, the old sisal type.
The only people who owned their own horses were farmers or very rich. Children learned at riding schools, rode many different types of ponies, did games at gymkhanas, which were hotly contested.Saddles were flat and hard, string girths, no rubber reins, very few ponies in anything but snaffles and Lead rein classes at shows the pony was lead by an adult on a horse.

Most learning was done on hacks and as you say, if you fell off you caught the pony and carried on - usually with a telling off from the instructor.

Mostly the only tears were those of frustration. Rides in the school were run along like those of the military.

Ponies did everything, they showed, jumped went cross country, hunted and lived out. Few were clipped and if they were it was just a belly clip and no rugs.

Children were encouraged to be members of the Pony Club and to take the test (no plus tests then, straight through, D,C.B,A. Being selected for a PC team was a big thing and not taken lightly.

Yes, things have changed a lot.
 
OP, I love the idea of calling the pony eBay!:D

I remember there being a far wider range of literature relating to horses - both factual and fiction! What happened to all those books and magazines? Is there still a pony magazine for kids? My niece (six) has caught the riding bug and it would be something for her to read...
 
You could buy cavesson bridles without a flash attached. You could buy drop nosebands. Riding school ponies weren't schoolmasters - they were evil little so and sos which you had to ride properly to stay on.
 
The biggest thing thats changed is the wonderful array of turnout rugs you get now, which means that i can have mine out 24/7 whatever the weather.

When I was a kid we HAD to stable our arabs in the winter in a deep litter straw bed, which was a nightmare to dig out in the spring.

From what I remember we only had canvas rugs which never stayed in place, and were so hard and stiff .... or a blanket kept on with a surcingle .. but I am going back 40 odd years :D
 
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