What tack was fashionable when you started riding?

Numnahs, but never saddlecloths. Single jointed eggbut snaffles. Reins with white rubber grips. Cavessons with no flash fitting. Dual-coloured velvet browbands. Joddies/breeches only came in white, beige or black. All gloves were pimple palms. No plastic curry combs, only rubber. I was a 90s rider.
 
Pearlsasinger said:
In the 60's just about every horse wore a single jointed snaffle with a cavesson noseband. If they needed something stronger then a Pelham or kimblewick was used but these were definitely the exception rather than the rule. I do remember quite a lot of horses and ponies wearing martingales (both running and standing). Saddles were very basic as well.
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^^^^^ this, and string coolers and girths, everything was fed straights, elastic holding your hat on, making haynets out of baler twine, metal buckets and hacking jackets were worn regularly when riding.
Hacking to the smiddy for shoes for your pony, and getting change out of a tenner there was hardly any traffic on the roads as well
 
omg this thread is so making me smile oh to go back to those times oil drums for jumps branches balanced on old buckets and traffic cones riding bareback cause saddles were so hard fearless horses and riders who would hack for miles no such thing as sand schools just a dirt paddock with markers and maybe old shavings for a track kimberwicks and standing martingales dunlop wellys and a puffa body warmer thought you were the bees knees
 
The height of cool for cross country were those rugby tops with quarter colours on and a matching quartered silk. Petal OR boots in matching colours. Mane plaited with ribbons tied in in matching colours :o

Somewhere I still own the fleece I lusted over for years if anyone remembers them - it pulled over your head with a little zip, the main body was dark green but the shoulders were light purple and pink. Everyone had them round my way :D
 
Jute rugs thatched for cooling off, thatched stable bandages for drying legs, heavier than a truck New Zealand rugs, drop nosebands, snaffles, oil drums, saddles with shallow seats and no knee rolls, motor oil for hooves, toilet blue for white socks, no problem hacking well over an hour to get to a show, happy days!
 
blue eye said:
omg this thread is so making me smile oh to go back to those times oil drums for jumps branches balanced on old buckets and traffic cones riding bareback cause saddles were so hard fearless horses and riders who would hack for miles no such thing as sand schools just a dirt paddock with markers and maybe old shavings for a track kimberwicks and standing martingales dunlop wellys and a puffa body warmer thought you were the bees knees
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this is me to a tee....these days the kids at pony club are looking for a good surface in the areana.....they dont believe i took my b test(pony club)in a filed
.ps ..i have a kimblewick in my horses mouth and it iss great
 
elderlycoupleindevon said:
It was pretty basic in the 60s. Saddles were mostly half panel, a lot were serge lined (that's not the serge we know today, it was a material similar to calico) plain cavesson bridles, plaited nylon reins, single jointed snaffles (mostly nickel) and string girths.
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Don't forget the dreaded plastic browbands usually in yellow and black and nylon reins, these came in two versions, plaited which one knotted for extra jumping control (especially when attached to the Kimblewick/drop noseband/running martingale combo) or the white non-plaited ones which simply ripped ones hands to shreds, knotted or otherwise.
 
Cortez said:
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.
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And black tack for gypsies.
 
scrunchie said:
Just wondering.

When I started out in the late 80's/early 90's all the ponies seemed to be kitted out with drop nosebands. I haven't seen a drop noseband in use for years! It all seems to be flash nosebands nowadays.

So, just wondering, what was in fashion when you started riding?
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Neddy had a drop! I usually go no noseband though.

I honestly can't remember! My memory is very sketchy from those days. I can clearly remember saying my pony was like a bus, because he doesn't bend in the middle when he turns and I can remember being bolted with once...but that's about it!
 
Heehee!! I was talking to a friend about the 'good old days' recently, she has had horses for a few years, but has always had matchy matchy. The look on her face when I told her that we used to make halters, lead ropes and haynets out of baler twine was priceless! :D

My biggest walk of shame was when I was about 11 (1973ish) I had a pony that was all my own (not a family owned showing job) and I decided to take it to the local show (Heddon On the Wall flower show if anyone remembers it). I was adamant I would do it all myself and hack there with my friend. My great uncle, who was a heavy horse man, said he would help me plait etc., when I got there, resplendent in my school shirt and jodhs, I found the pony had an immaculately plaited main and tail, each one fastened with a neat loop of bailer twine! :eek: :o Lordy, she looked like the best turned out welsh shire I've ever seen! I spent the whole hack there pulling the plaits out and didn't have the heart to tell him I didn't enter the turnout class. I'm sure it scarred me for life! :D
 
I missed all this in my early riding days as I started riding Western, so heavy saddles (with removable roping horns) on folded blankets and bitless bridles were the most that we used until I had my first English pony..complete with rock hard flat saddle, pelham, running martingale (all came with her). I do miss tucking a stable kept horse into layers of blankets and jute rugs.

I hankered after a dressage saddle and finally picked up one of the very first synthetic dressage saddles that seemed to fit every horse I put it on, the only other place you would see a dressage saddle then was on the backs of very serious competition horses (owned by the kind of people who could actually afford long leather boots instead of rubber ones!)
 
Polypads had only just come out and everyone on my yard had one in various colours...one woman went from having one thin numnah to having 2 Polypads under her saddle!!

Also string girths seemed to be popular???

Heavy green NZ rugs which when wet took two people to lift!!

In fairness it wasn't the tack, it was the fashion which makes me shudder...beige/cream jodhpurs and brown jodhpur boots with the thick black elastic down the sides which you could never get on or off your feet and a green quilted body warmer type thing...yuck
 
In the 60's - A basic bridle with Cavesson noseband and an eggbutt snaffle - more often made of nickle - stainless steel bits were then very expensive and not often seen.
Leather was London Tan. It oiled up to the most beautiful colour. Fulmer snaffles and a drop noseband was also very popular.

Saddles were very basic, mostly hunting type saddles that caused your legs to go far forward - but you didn't fall off! They were worn with no saddle blankets/Numnahs, linings of saddles were either leather, linen or serge (wool). We rarely had problems fitting them. If you had a numnah it was made of sheepskin and only used when you went hunting.

Girths were either lampwick and you had two of them or leather, threefold or Balding.

Shows ponies wore a sharks tooth two coloured velvet browband. Everything else wore a bridle with a cavesson, novices shown in a snaffle, open in a double.

We had fun in the late 60's with coloured nylon string girths, plaited string reins and matching sharkstooth browband - covered in plastic. Mine were all red.

Horses rarely wore boots except for lunging.

Headcollars were leather and your rope was made of hessien and often treated with tar - when they got wet they went horribly stiff.

I still don't use a numnah - far easier to clean the underside of my saddle than to convince my washing machine to fit in a saddle blanket.
 
To late to edit so adding,
Kids wore jodphurs with jodphur boots until the turned 17 then they went onto a hack and wore long boots. No such thing as johddy clips we had elastic sewn to the bottom of our jodhs and these went under our instep, jodhs also had a turn up at the ankle. And children DID NOT wear spurs! They were incorrect to wear with jodphur boots.

LAte 70's I remember buying my first new saddle a Turf and Travel Club saddle cost me 50 pounds. I saved up for it by giving Horsemastership classes to the kids from the riding school.
 
I do remember doing a x-country in petal boots, white rubber reins, quartered rugby shirt with matching silk poly pad numnah and the disgsuting back protector with nappy attachment!! I then put on the holey sweat rug to cool off and forgot to mention the woof boots on every leg!!
Pony club rallies were always done in hacking jackets and ties no sweatshirts and camp we dragged muck around in laundry baskets and slept in tattie sheds!!
 
marmalade76 said:
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!
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Lol, yours was a flashier model than mine; mine had concealed knee and thigh rolls and it was the first new saddle I had sat in that didn't need bedding in to be comfortable, usually new saddles were hard as a plank!

lizijj said:
Jute rugs thatched for cooling off, thatched stable bandages for drying legs, heavier than a truck New Zealand rugs, drop nosebands, snaffles, oil drums, saddles with shallow seats and no knee rolls, motor oil for hooves, toilet blue for white socks, no problem hacking well over an hour to get to a show, happy days!
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That's it to a T. Great days. :)

Doncella said:
And black tack for gypsies.
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That's why I still never like to see black tack, looks tatty to me however expensive it is!
 
Full cheeked snaffles or Dr Bristols if you couldn't stop. I remember saving up for my first "branded" saddle - an Eldonian Fitzwilliam. Hunters having three blankets, a jute rug and an anti-cast hooper roller with extra layers of foam or a folded stable rubber under it. Masta bringing out waxed ripstop cotton New Zealands - so much lighter than the canvas ones - with a fold of material anong the back seam to aid waterproofing. I remember the weight of all the rugs we used back then - especially when wet! (Took ages to dry too) The Lavenham Rug Company - I think the first to bring out shaped quited rugs, and their lovely quilted jackets - much better shaped than the Huskies!
 
Crikey I remember most of this!

My first pony had a nickel snaffle and a drop noseband. He had a light blue velvet browband - even though plastic ones were in fashion I hated them! My next horse had a kimblewick. I remember getting my first rubber reins, and my brakes improved overnight! They were always thick and orange for a long time.

I remember getting my first blue new zealand rug - they'd alway been green before. We had jute rugs with blankets underneath - whitney if you were rich, if not you begged old blankets off relatives or charity shopped for them (nobody had duvets on their beds either at that point). I think I had owned my pony for three years before he was ever clipped or wore a rug, and that was because we were going hunting. Nobody would ever clip their own horse - you always got a pro to do it and they always looked perfect!

I hacked everywhere - to all shows. At pony club, out of 200 members, there were only a handful of boxes or trailers. I remember getting our first trailer when I got my second horse, so that both could be taken to shows. It was a huge heavy dark green rice.

Petal boots were a modern invention in my eyes. I never had any and hated them! I think I was born a purist! In fact very few horses wore boots at all.

Feed wise, it was spillers pony nuts and hot bran. For my TB that wouldn't keep weight on, we added barley and oats straights.

Despite keeping the horses where I keep mine now, nothing ever got sunburn, mudrash or sweet itch, whereas now all of them get one or the other. Horses seem a lot softer nowadays.
 
What a brilliant thread!

My first hat just had a piece of thin elastic to hold it on around my chin!

The over protective mothers of today would have fallen over in shock!

Also PUFFA was the only brand i ever remember seeing for horsey jackets!
 
1971, village nr Lincoln - Mr. Lyon, farrier would shoe horse (cold shod of course, no mobile forge) tied to a tree on the road side outside the field gate. Full set of shoes for 14.2hh pony, £9.
 
Honey08 said:
Crikey I remember most of this!

Despite keeping the horses where I keep mine now, nothing ever got sunburn, mudrash or sweet itch, whereas now all of them get one or the other. Horses seem a lot softer nowadays.
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I'm sure you're right.
Could devote a whole thread in its own right to the difference and why that is but some of my theories are the dilution of the native breeds so now they're mixed with anything which takes away some of the hardiness; the feeds and grass now used have so many chemicals in they can't be good for them; horses aren't allowed to be horses now so they can't get wet or cold so have no natural immunity; most wouldn't know hard work now because they're not conditioned to it as a norm; many are treated and pampered like pets instead of as horses; I'm not against 'love and affection per se but horses should be far stronger than they're allowed to be if you see what I mean.
The list goes on and on, sorry but feel free to add to them.
 
I agree though I am long out of the horse game. I had a pony in the early 70s before all the rugging, food fads & pampering. We kept him at grass & he never got sick. Then a policeman's daughter came on the yard & her petty PC Plod Dad insisted all the horses & ponies were brought in at night to deter thieves. They all coughed, even my pony & the more highly bred ones like theirs were really ill. Then the Caravan Club renting one of the fields, let all the ponies out on the road at night, thankfully none were hurt, but my greedy boy got colic from devouring all the vegetables in the local nursing home kitchen garden. Now that's a sign of the times in itself, all nursing homes get the veg frozen from Brakes Brothers now.
I actually did a lot of hacking bare headed & only wore my hat for Pony Club & shows. The irony of this is that years later I banged it getting out of a car & got a bleed needing surgery!
 
When I had my first pony he had a jute rug and blanket and a heavy canvas new zealand with the white leather surcingle. My tack was all brown. I had a velvet hat with an elastic strap. That was always worn over the fixed peak! I remember having stylo rubber boots that you had to wear with very long socks and then roll them down over the tops! I also had a puffa with pink stripes. Then black and white leather bridles came in :eek:
 
27 ish years ago I got my first proper riding boots. £7 approx and they were long black ones, not shiny like the Stylo ones but a dull mottled black and on top they had a spur picture in a circle. They obviously had to be far to wide at the top and you had to stick your crop down the boot to save you carrying it :)

I also had a Spillers canvas NZ rug that I was so proud of as it had cross surcingles where as all the others at the yard had 'round the middle' surcingles with a T-towel or sponge underneath to protect the withers.

You fed pony nuts, chaff that came in a hessian bag and sugar beet.

You didn't have the Back lady, Dentist, communicator etc you had the farrier from the village and you felt very special if you took your horse to the forge. The vet did everything else.

And reversable Puffa jackets where so cosmopolitan when the rest of us wore wax jackets, the rich ones wore barbours.
 
Maesfen said:
I'm sure you're right.
Could devote a whole thread in its own right to the difference and why that is but some of my theories are the dilution of the native breeds so now they're mixed with anything which takes away some of the hardiness; the feeds and grass now used have so many chemicals in they can't be good for them; horses aren't allowed to be horses now so they can't get wet or cold so have no natural immunity; most wouldn't know hard work now because they're not conditioned to it as a norm; many are treated and pampered like pets instead of as horses; I'm not against 'love and affection per se but horses should be far stronger than they're allowed to be if you see what I mean.
The list goes on and on, sorry but feel free to add to them.
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I agree with all that!
 
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