What tack was fashionable when you started riding?

Jute rugs with rollars, folded blanket underneath for extra warmth,New Zealand rugs,strings girths,plaited nylon reins,drop nosebands,organge coloured rubber reins which was the only colour you could get. Brown tack only,kimblewicks pelhams,standing martingale. Leather brushing boots with buckles, leather head collar. Beige johds or white or canary for best, pull on leather riding boots real sod to put on and even worse to pull off.Velvet cap with elastic strap, which if you were cool you never wore it under your chin.
 
I started riding in the mid 80's, I remember all the horses on the yard seemed to have jute rugs with old duvets fastened with sucingles.

I too had a hat with a horrible plastic chin strap that pinched. Had a Puffa jacket and thought I was the bees knees in it! Still have a pair of Loveson jods that I won in a trolley dash round Robinsons!
 
In the 50s & 60s jodhs were made from cream Bedford cord or beige cavalry twill - I had one pair, which I wore for PC rallies, gymkhanas & hunting along with a brown velvet hat with no strap. The rest of the time I rode in jeans, big jumpers knitted by my mum & no hat or gloves. I had a pair of brown jodhpur boots but wore gym shoes when competing in gymkhanas as it was easier to run in them in races where you had to lead your pony. Rich people had long rubber riding macs, the rest of us got wet. The only rugs our ponies wore were cotton summer sheets to travel to shows on the rare occasions we could afford to club together to hire a cattle wagon & driver to take us to shows beyond hacking distance - we all travelled in the back with our ponies & gang of friends who came along to help. I still have my 50 year old brown leather bridle, complete with drop noseband, plastic covered 2 tone blue browband & eggbut snaffle. The reins that went with it were brown plaited string, which you could knot to make it easier to ride one handed when competing in mounted games. I saved up for a PC saddle with a string girth, stirrup treads were unheard of. We all rode very long, except when jumping, to show we were gymkhana riders!!! Our ponies lived out all summer, we would ride them in from the field bareback with a rope halter. In winter they were stabled at night, drank water out of metal buckets, slept on straw beds which we mucked out with pitchforks, ate hay from rope nets. We also fed bran and oats delivered in half hundredweight jute bags - approx 25 kg - which were recycled in the summer for gymkhana sack races & musical mats. Some people fed chop, which was called provinder, or the new fangled Spillers pony cubes. The only other equipment we had were very basic grooming kits, made out of bristles with wooden handles & kept in drawstring bags. When I lost my pony in the 80s, after 25 very happy years together, it came as quite a shock to discover the price of all the gear I needed to buy for myself & my new young horse!
 
Blimey! This takes me back! Growing up in a horsey/farming family in the 60's I was right at the bottom of the heap, hand-me-downs were de rigeur; for me and the ponies! 'Good' stuff only came out for shows and even then it served several ponies.

Loose ring snaffles were the order of the day, you were posh if yours was an eggbut, a pelham if you needed brakes, nosebands were rare and saddles fit most ponies without any ill effects. I rode everything on a flapping saddlewith a linen lining and a numnah to make up the difference.

I remember being lifted on & off show ponies so nothing got dirty, then stripped to vest and pants immediately afterwards (good stuff came from Bart J Snowball in Newcastle). I bought myself a green quilted Husky jacket in my teens, which must have looked interesting with my trendy canary yellow jodhs! :D
 
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This was me back in the late 80's. Skull cap with chin strap, one of those white saddlecloth's that everyone had. Cottage Craft girth. Pelham. Black and whit bridle (haven't seen one of thos in years!). Wax jacket. Home made jumps and the poles so heavy that you couldn't lift them!

They were the good old days alright!
 
Little Squirrel said:
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This was me back in the late 80's. Skull cap with chin strap, one of those white saddlecloth's that everyone had. Cottage Craft girth. Pelham. Black and whit bridle (haven't seen one of thos in years!). Wax jacket. Home made jumps and the poles so heavy that you couldn't lift them!

They were the good old days alright!
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Sorry the first upload of picture didn't work!
 
I began riding in the mid 1960s & got my own pony in the early 1970s.
I had a bridle with plaited leather reins, a nickle eggbutt snaffle & cavesson noseband. Later I got a drop noseband & running martingale on advice at a Pony Club Rally. Had both velvet & plastic coloured browbands, velvet for shows & plastic for every day & a yellow nylon string girth. When I first got the pony he came with an Indian or Chinese saddle which fitted very badly & had to be replaced. Leather headcollar with his name on a brass plate, he chewed through the noseband & ended up with a red nylon one. Tarred rope halters, nylon bandages in bright colours& cotton coloured numnahs.
We also had those bit guards for the lips in orange rubber, rubber stoppers for the martingale, rubber knee boots for me that made my legs sweaty & were hard to get off. Black velvet riding hat with elastic strap, string gloves, rubber tread on stirrups. The DC's young kids had stirrups with a rubber bit that was supposed to come off if they fell.
Dad wouldn't let me use a hay net as he heard of a racehorse that caught up in one & was fatally injured, we fed on the box floor, spiller's cubes, bran & chop made with that ghastly hard to operate cutter, a supplement called Malcodic that sent the pony wild with energy, rock salt that was hewn from a salt mine in Cheshire.
Beats all that pink & purple plastic eh?! We survived, pony survived, it was all great fun.
 
Eggbutt snaffle and a dropped noseband. String girth that had to be bleached before a show. I remember having a new jumping saddle and it was bright orange.:eek::rolleyes: No mention was made of it being non-matching, but you could rub it with banana skins to darken it. I don't think we did.
 
I still have a lot of the stuff - I don't really ride now, only have a few broodmares and their youngstock; living 300 miles away most of the time doesn't help. in fact it is only recently, since I started helping a friend down here with her youngsters, that I have become aware of the 'latest fashion' climate that now seems to be prevalent. My last few trips to Olympia have certainly been an eye opener!

Thing is, we never came to any harm, some of us did quite well in fact. I think that a lot of my 'good' stuff would still hold its own today, for quality, if not ease of use.
 
When I first started riding (late 70's/early 80s) fashion didn't come into it, you just used what was available. Most things horse related things were expensive, there were no cheap ranges, just new or second hand. Leather was of a much better quality and natural tan coloured rather than coated in polishes and dyes. You had to oil it to darken it and the older it got, the darker it became. Most people had cavessons or drops, some had grakles (proper English ones, not these Mexican things that go right up to the eyes), flashes were rare. Reins were plain or plaited nylon (indestructable), only racehorses had rubber reins and these only came in orange. Girths were nylon string (you could match the colour to your nylon reins) lampwick or leather. Numnahs weren't that common (I remember being told 'if the saddle fits you don't need a numnah!') and nor were boots and bandages, but rubber pull on over-reach boots were for jumping. There were a lot more standing martingales about too. Bits were snaffles (nearly always single jointed), kimblewicks, pelhams and the occassional Cheltenhan gag.

In the late 80s/early 90s, tack did become a fashion accessory, black leather was in, as were flashes, and boots for everything, inc flappy over-reach boots (yes, I had some!), rubber reins were in and available in different colours (I had white ones :eek: ). Cottage Craft girths were in, leather ones were out, numnahs and saddle cloths were on every saddle with much more choice re. colours. IIRC, the Dutch gag didn't make an appearance until the early ninties.

I thought I looked great at the time (early teens) but looking back, it was all a bit tacky (no pun intended! :D )
 
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Wow what s great thread!

I'm a mid 80's/ 90's. Muckers were the cool footwear. I had all my riding lessons in them ! Striped rugby shirts - xc shirts, Harry hall coats, I had a velvet hat with harness over the top then - wow- had a skull for my 9 th birthday with silk! First pony hat blue bit guards, white reins, red white blue velvet browband, red martingale stops- yuck! Yard had a tack shop so all pocket money went there! Red string sweat rug, world beater rugs. I had a happy mouth bit- waited ages for it to come cus they were new. Oh and green jods just launched- Caldene i think? Then moved to a hunting yard with 2 nd pony where it was strictly black, brown or white for best. I still prefer this now.

I stil have some of my mums tack from the 60's. She had a made to measure orange saddle beautifully made by a saddler that lived next door to them and still lives balanced on the back of the rocking horse at their house, nickel bits, a massive girth- pony was 13.2hh exmoor as wide as he was tall! Hat with no straps but lots of dents! leg bandages, I used one of her flat nose ands on my show bridle a few years ago. Beautifully made proper cavesson.

Feed wise I fed 1st pony pasture mix which still brings back memories when I smell it. 14.2hh being on hunt yard was fed oats n sugar beet! Boiled barley if needed, boiled in a burco boiler!!I can still remember pony club dc asking me what I fed and after saying oats n sugar beet she replied "not at camp you wont". I was also reprimanded at pc for having a silver clencher browband in the dressage test! I had dreadful squeaky aigle rubber boots til I got a waitressing job for leather ones.

Days off school to do gates out hunting when I was 12, 13 and 14 :-)
 
I had everything red and blue on my gymkhana pony. Red plaited reins, red bit guards, red and blue browband and of course red and blue flappy Westropp over reach boots. No boots but red bandages with blue electic tape! Looked a right state!!
 
Had a proper stable rug 2nd hand out of newspaper classifieds- thought we were dead posh! Even the hunters just had Jutes and newmarket blankets. They had gorgeous Newmarket woollen rugs to travel in. I used to crave one! I wonder where they went to?
 
Jute rugs with newmarket blanket (I still have my blanket, will probably never use again but cant just throw it away :( )

String sweat rugs

Mucker boots and long wax jacket for riding in thought I was super cool though the jacket always got stuck behind the saddle when I went to jump off ...

I know not tack but it just reminded me that only supplements you could get was seaweed, mint and garlic ..

and now depressed me that Hay was only £1.25 a bale - Straw £ 0.50 and a set of shoes £ 28.00 for refit, £32.00 for new
 
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ebonyallen said:
Jute rugs with rollars, folded blanket underneath for extra warmth,New Zealand rugs,strings girths,plaited nylon reins,drop nosebands,organge coloured rubber reins which was the only colour you could get. Brown tack only,kimblewicks pelhams,standing martingale. Leather brushing boots with buckles, leather head collar. Beige johds or white or canary for best, pull on leather riding boots real sod to put on and even worse to pull off.Velvet cap with elastic strap, which if you were cool you never wore it under your chin.
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I remember all these.....the folding blankets under the rugs, all held together with a surcingle. And the orange rubber reins with matching biscuits. Oh and when the jockey skull caps first came out, they were white!! Looked like you had an egg on your head!!
 
orbie said:
Jute rugs with newmarket blanket (I still have my blanket, will probably never use again but cant just throw it away :( )

String sweat rugs

Mucker boots and long wax jacket for riding in thought I was super cool though the jacket always got stuck behind the saddle when I went to jump off ...

I know not tack but it just reminded me that only supplements you could get was seaweed, mint and garlic ..

and now depressed me that Hay was only £1.25 a bale - Straw £ 0.50 and a set of shoes £ 28.00 for refit, £32.00 for new
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Oh my, am showing me age here, but I can remember when it was possible to get a full set of shoes for less than twenty quid.
 
Full set of shoes for under twenty quid? You're a young'un make no mistake. They were £3.00 a set when I got my first horse in 1972!

When I started riding in the '60's there was no such thing as spring tree saddles, knee rolls, or thigh rolls, girths were balding, string or leather. All ponies at the riding stables had cavesson bridles, eggbut snaffles and a standing martingale. I was terrified the first time I rode a horse with double reins and no martingale at another stable! Rope halters for everyone, leather headcollars for the wealthy horse owners.

In 1972 it was still jute haynets, which weighed nearly as much as the hay they contained; jute night rugs (my horse positively refused to step outside her stable wearing hers!), woollen day rugs and horrible stiff green canvas NZ rugs that fitted and rubbed where they touched with chrome leather straps that got all greasy when wet.

Coloured accessories available in red or blue in 1972, what joy! Velvet browbands instead of plastic tape ones - so pretty!
 
I started riding in the 80s, but I don't remember much of that. In the 90s when I had my first part loan pony and loads of lessons, I remember orange rubber reins, matching orange bit bumpers and orange martingale stops (wether there was a martingale to stop or not!) When someone turned up with BLUE rubber parts, we thought they were SOOO posh!!

There were only eggbutt snaffles, kimblewicks and pelhams, and we were in awe of any rider who turned up with a horse in either of the latter two.

It took two of us to lift the New Zealand rug for 'my' 13hh pony, no wonder he always tried to boot us when we fastened it up! (admittedly, it was probably out of date even then!)

I had squeaky, rubber riding boots (yes, I was that kid in long boots!) until I got my part-loan pony, then they were put away for best and I rode in converse trainer-boots!:eek: I had a hat with one of those chin-cups that was NEVER on my chin (round my neck, in my mouth, up the side of my face, on the floor in bits!)


Sometimes I wish life was like those old black and white pics I remember from the riding books of my youth - every horse in a wide cavesson noseband and egbutt snaffle, every rider in a tweed jacket, shirt and tie - even if they were having a lesson at home. Not sure what era they were meant to be from, but I'd love to have an excuse to dress up in my posh boots, shirt and tie everyday!
 
Irishbabygirl- dc was a right battle axe! She made me turn a silver clencher browband inside out for a dressage comp - wtf?? Like its going to dazzle the judges or something lol. Pony did well on sb and oats! Lots of fizz not much fat ! Perfect for camp ;-)
 
Maesfen said:
In the 60s I was able to buy a proper GP saddle, knee rolls and all from Pennwood for £26 brand new, a smaller one would have been less; I know of several of these saddles still in use and they seemed to fit most horses.
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I've got one!!!

My YO bought it new in the 70s but had to give up riding by 1980, so it hadn't had much use. After years of borrowing it I managed to talk her into selling it to me and I still use it now. It's very comfortable and fit my short legs perfectly!

These pics are a few years old now, but here it is :-

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Flappy overreach boots which flipped up in the air at just the point they were needed most!
Ear covers
String sweat sheets
Jute rugs
Canvas New Zealand Rugs (with rollers - the ones with the leg straps only were dead fancy!)
Those funny polystyrene back protectors with a bit of hard plastic up the spine.
 
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