What tack was fashionable when you started riding?

Cottage craft gear, string girths and seat savers (if you were really posh!). It's insane how when I was younger you'd never boast about your horse being in a stronger bit than a snaffle but now, especially where I am with young girls around the yard, it seems all the rage to have the biggest baddest bit!
 
When I started out, most people rode their horses, not keep them as big pets, which appears to be ever more popular.
Also, we enjoyed our horses for what they were, they didn't have to have 'potential'.

:rolleyes::D
 
Continental reins - they were THE thing to have in the 70s. Presumably originated in mainland europe and were so much better than plain leather reins which used to slip straight through your hands when wet. Nightmare with a strong pony.
 
I used to have a velvet hat, lined with cork that gave me a headache after 20 mins. It had an elastic strap that had to ha a knot tied in it as it stretched.
Lampwick or string girths and rubber reins only came in bright orange.
Leather brushing boots lined with rubber with lesther straps and buckles that took ages to get off after a days hunting in the mud
Yellow cotton string gloves that grew when they got wet and ridgid plastic /rubber riding boots, omg how did we survive.
My poor wimpy thin skinned tb lived out in a crappy canvas rug with a bit of blanket lining, strapped on with a tight surcingle, I don't know how he survived!!
 
Oh yes! I had a half panel serge lined saddle, very old, which my non horsey father decided to 'improve' with brown shoe polish and white canvas shoe cleaner. Result was I skidded off and all the white cleaner crumbled on to the ponies back! I also had the nice chin cup too, bought for me when the number of knots I tied in my elastic strap got too many as all the stretch had gone. I had a Jacatex hacking jacket, jods from Millets and strap& buckle jod boots which were always second hand. A yellow roll neck jumper & string gloves which started off yellow and turned white completed the perfect Marion Coakes look!

Plastic browband, nylon reins which gave you friction burns, my mum's linen tea cloth as a saddle cloth. A pair of nickel irons which got bent over my foot and had to be levered off and a nickel snaffle with flat rings that broke in the middle whilst out hacking. Lampwick girths which I scrubbed with Daz on a proper wash board. My first long boots were Stylo Matchmakers, which I purchased with my first full time job earnings. These i got fom A.E.Batchelor saddler in Epping

Ah! Nostalgia......
 
Clarendon boots for the people with money, woof wraps for the rest of us. Canvas and jute rugs with just leg straps so they were forever cockeyed, puffa jackets and polypad squares. Melton rug for best (actually those were fab, shame you never see them any more). Horrid rubber riding boots were all the rage to!
 
I so much wanted the hat with the chin thing. I had one with elastic that was adjusted be tying a knot in it. Lionel dunning wore the one with the cup thing and i always thought it looked funny as i don't think the other pros even had a strap. we usually had the elastic over the peak. elf and safety, where were you then? fashionable was coloured plastic browbands. didn't even use a noseband but most people had a cavesson or drop.
 
I remember so many of these!
For a combined 15th (1982) birthday and Xmas present, I got a Penwood saddle and a leather girth (think it was called a 'balding'). I was soooooooo posh! A few years later, I sold that horse to a friend, horse died in 2001 and the saddle was sold on (for more than it cost in the first place!) to another friend. It's still in great condition and daily use.
 
I starters riding at about 2 or 3 years old which wound have been very late 60s/early 70s so can't remember but when I was a teenager the German hollow mouth snaffle and grackle noseband with a running martingale were the "in vogue". My friend used to have a Newmarket wool quarter sheet on her clipped horse - I was very envious!!!! :o :o :o
 
Drop nosebands, coloured hat silks, fleece numnahs or polypads (numnahs were way more popular than saddlecloths back then), coloured cottage craft girths, coloured bit rings even if you didn't have a loose ring bit, multicoloured rubber reins (yuck!), chain/mirrored browbands, velvet or plastic coloured browbands (not just on showponies), magic gloves with big pimples.
 
In the 80s, I worse a navy quilted jacket with a cord collar.....they've just come into fashion now.
I remember buying a pair of BROWN jods - everything was beige up to then. And I wore Loveson Joddyboots, with square toes...... and cream string gloves.
 
At the riding school in the late 80s it was jute rugs and woollen blankets, held together with a surcingle as tight as a girth. One rich owner bought their horse a Polywarm. Wow!
Tack was always a cavesson with a single jointed snaffle and a running martingale to 'stop the clients yanking mouths if hand raised and provide a nackstrap to hold on to.
I did a lecture at a city farm and for nostalgia showed the blanket under a jute with a surcingle. Well the kids found this the most interesting part, and spent ages takin it in turns to get the fold back just right!
 
When I started riding it was mostly snaffle bridles, a few of the ponies that were pony racing had pelhams but most at the riding school were in snaffles. Not a martingale to be seen - even on the jumping ponies. No drop nosebands - all were in cavesons.

Saddles were flat, the old hunting type and low cantles, no knee rolls. Underside was mainly linen, only one or two had leather.
Girths were either leather or the old string sort.

Plain leather reins and to be 'posh' the odd pony had leather plaited reins. I remember someone buying a air of plaited nylon reins that were blue and they were not allowed to use them as it was considered incorrect.

No nylon halters, leather headcollars were kept for shows so all the halters were from plaited bailer twine (sisal) as were the ropes.

No numnahs or saddle cloths.
 
OMG it is starting to all come back to me! Half panel saddles (we use to bend the flaps back to try and make them look like full panel saddles with knee rolls) nasty plastic browbands in PC colours, nylon string girths, green Husky jackets. My mother had a very forward cut Top Tarni saddle - anyone remember them, nylon reins, velvet covered riding hats with elastic or nylon straps (which we used to put to the back of the hat or over the rim, it showed people what a good rider you were!!!!! :eek: :eek: :o :o :o :o
 
A sort of canvas girth that we would put whitener on for showing and elephant ear johds that were so tight behind the knee you couldn't bend. Beige riding macs that were superbly waterproof and covered half the horse as well.
 
Early seventies pony rider... String girths (recently started using them again), brown tack, flat saddlepad thingy with no tree because nothing else would fit little Thelwell pony, rubber bit rings, single jointed snaffle, continental reins (well, I am from the continent so no surprise there), felt saddle pads, string gloves (one pair, only for good), rubber boots... Ahhh the old days!
 
A pony at the yard I used to ride at has multicoloured rubber reins. I secretly want them and I still like the look of velvet browbands. I do remember the plastic ones though and thinking they were tacky at the time!

I remember string girths, and those hats with chin cups. My younger brother for some reason chewed his while riding.
:s
 
Standing martingales, no numnahs or pads, flat-ring single jointed nickle snaffles, flat, plain brown bridles, velvet plaited browbands (learned how to do this myself and was SOOO cool with all the different colour combinations). Brass clincher browbands were only for "carthorses", apparently.
 
When I started nickel bits and stirrups ,string girths , felt numahs velvet bound brow bands in two colours if posh plastic if not .plaited leather reins.
When I first started getting serious fulmer bits ,drop nosebands .
 
Canary yellow jodhpurs with the elastic strap on the bottom...no added lycra or any form of stretchy material included!!
Old style New Zeland rug that took 3 people to carry when wet...only came in green or blue with no shaping, easy to use buckles etc!
Brown jod boots which had the big black elastic bits on the side, took half an hour to put on and just as long to get off again :)
 
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Started riding in 1986. Choice of joddies were navy, black or beige. Waxed jackets or those padded quilted navy jackets. My first pair of long rubber boots were Stylo Starts which needed talcum powder to get them off!. White or cream string gloves that soon came unstitched at the fingertips with doing up girth buckles!. Skull cap with the chin cup which i used to chew on!! Silks that were colourful and had to be fastened with that piece of string that you tied in a bow above the peak, but theyd still fly off in the wind!!.Riding crops with that leather loop you were told to cut off or you may break your wrist if it gets caught on a branch!

My first pony sported a red fleecy numnah, red and navy velvet browband and a navy Cottage Craft girth. Snaffle bit, cavessen noseband with the fancy stitching, laced reins.Stirrups had no treads if i remember!!. Had a turquoise green NZ rug held on by a single surcingle made out of white rawhide leather!. His other rug was a red string cooler. And his diet was barley, a spoonful of salt and a glug of cod liver oil!!
Grooming kit had to match, so red box, red dandy, hoof pick, feed bucket etc. I guess people still do that nowadays!!
 
Ok, so not from when I started riding (er 7 years ago :o)
But my aunt rode in the 80s (before my time) and last summer I raided her attic.
I got lots or grooming supplies, stripy handles on dandy brushes, everything blue or red. Head collars and lead ropes included. I also got a pair of Harry Hall jods (which I'm wearing now) they're probably completely made from artificial materials and such and are navy (chord style) but they survive everything, dry really quick, haven't worn away to nothing etc, they may be a bit outdated (an probably 10 years older than me :p) but I love them!

All the things mentioned - string girths, the saddles, drop nose bands etc remind me of when I started riding and a friend had the most amazing collection in a spare stable, there were even wooden bits :D

Also, just showing how much of a "the pony club manual is the only way" kind of girl I am - I'm another one in the jod boots and clips for kids club. My friend and I always joke that in some ways we belong in the wrong time - we're all for snaffles, cavessons and cream/navy jods only :o
 
Yup, I remember a lot of these too - started riding mid 70's and finally got horse early 80's. Does anyone recall the Triple Crown rugs from I think mid-late 80's which were GoreTex, very light and could be left on in the stable! Unbridled excitement. I don't know what became of them as a brand tho?
 
I*HM said:
stripy handles on dandy brushes, everything blue or red.
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I remember the stripey handles on the wooden backed brushes, i think Cottage Craft did those????

If you wanted a cheaper option, Equerry did the plastic backed ones (can you remember the logo with the hat and riding crop?) with stripey handles!

If you were really feeling rich, those black leather backed body brushes with real hair were great! They came in about 3 sizes and cost about £10.
 
Spyda said:
Ahhhhh, those mega-thick brightly coloured fleece numnahs; coloured string girths; nylon plaited reins; drop-nosebands; eggbut snaffles and kimblewicks with roundings; standing martingales were a lot more common; brass browbands with brass circular thingys attached to each side; spring-tree saddles if you could afford one.... the list is endless :)
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My memories entirely. Riding hats with elastic under the chin too..
 
When I started riding in the late 70's at the age of 6/7 most ponies/horses were ridden in egg butt snaffles and cavason nosebands only. If the pony was strong it got a Kimblewick bit.

When I had my JA pony in the late 80's it was drop nosebands and petal overreach boots that made a right noise and lots of nice coloured brushing boots LOL.

Then I worked for Chris McGrann in the early 90's who stopped me or the horse wearing anything colourful - had to be either white or black and minimum tack...so went back to the egg butt snaffle and cavasson nosebands of the 70's LOL!!!

Now a days I still only tend to use black or white stuff as Chris drummed it in well, however might just invest in a nice emerald green numnah for my big chestnut boy, that will be a shock for me! ;-)
 
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