What were horses like in the 70's?

[Bossdog]

Just wondering if anyone here was involved with horses in the 60's & 70's? I am currently reading a really old copy of From Paddock to Saddle by Elwyn Hartley Edwards and it is jammed packed full of very useful and down to earth advice on starting young horses.

There is no fluffiness, it's just about having a no nonsense attitude, firm and fair, sensible tack and very few gadgets. So, how do the old type english trained horses compare to todays slightly molly coddled horses, I don't mean specifically but in general e.g. if you went to competitions, are todays horses as well behaved?

Reading this book has been really revealing, I have read loads of modern books but this one just makes so much more sense... it's not full of big colour pictures with a few bullet points at the side, just a few well placed relevant pictures.

Any opinions (for or against!) welcome!

Jules x

ETA: : When I say a really old book from the 70's, I don't mean everything from the 70's is old... sorry!!!

 

[lilym]

i'm not old enough to remember!! but the old boy at the yard is...horses were fitter back then, and everything hacked, to go to a show in a box was an absolute luxury, there wasn't so much traffic though and loads of local shows - i think horses were better behaved as people didn't have the disposable income to go and just buy a horse after 6 or so lessons, there was no parelli about then either, is it just me or has anyone else notice the amount of "project/problem" horses that have "been started parelli"???

 

[Shantor1]

Yes I'm from the very early 1970s era. I started my riding career as an 8 year old at a small riding stable on a farm: horses and ponies were kept in stalls, no such thing as loose boxes; straw was long and golden, hardly dusty (summers were long, dry and hot and sunny!!!!); nobody had indoor or outdoor arenas, only public schools or very rich people. The riding school we went to had a fenced corner of a field on a slight hill. You were taught to ride without stirrups on the old fashioned hunting saddle with serge linings! After 6 months you soon learnt to stick on anything rather than fall off on hard ground or into mud!

Horses and ponies were hacked to shows - hardly anyone had horse boxes; most average families and people had battered rice horse trailers, land rovers, and family saloon cars. 4 x 4s were not invented. I think horses were better behaved as they were not transported so much, we had to hack to most shows therefore our horses/ponies had to work very hard. I had my first beloved cob in 1977 and my friends and I had that many shows we had to choose where we went! (Sadly he was put down in March aged 36 RIP Shands (Shandy))We used to hack upto 5 miles to a show, did several gymkhana games, 5-7 rounds of clear round jumping, maybe some proper SJ, then hack home, often tired, dirty, with a shed load of rossettes but a great big cheesy grin on our faces. Looking back, I wouldn't have swapped my little cob for any top class show horse or pony of today - he gave me fun, confidence, and years of pleasure. He taught me a lot. I remember Elwyn Hartley Edwards and still have his stable management book that he wrote and refer to it now and again.

In 1979 my dad bought a Rice rear unload and would ferry me and my friends round to and from shows when he could imbetween working shifts as policeman. Even if he could only take us to a show and we'd hack back or vice versa. No-one gave a damn for insurance or health and safety regs then - we accepted the risks. Talk about ferrying loads of kids and ponies like Thelwell cartoons - he used to do 2-3 trips per show!

We didnt have all these fancy mixes, just plain crushed oats, barley, flaked maize. This diet suited our lifestyles then as they had to work hard i.e. hacking more than today. There were a lot more riding schools willing to take on young kids like myself to teach them how to ride and look after ordinary thelwell type ponies. The emphasis was on proper horsemanship and if you fell off, you were encouraged to get back on, accident reporting books were unknown.

Rugs were jute and wool blankets, with the dreadful green canvas new zealand rugs.

Comparing my riding days now, my current horse is 11 yo TB x ID sports horse. I clip him and rug him in winter but tend to keep him free of rugs in summer, unless a lot of flies.

I think people have a better understanding of horse psychology today and have access to instructors/behaviourists etc. Whereas in the 1960's and 1970s, many horses who had a problem were labelled dangerous and put down.

In summary, and from my many years experience, I think todays horses are expected to compete more for qualifications and national championships. The cost of competing is a lot more expensive (1977 = 30p for a clear round jumping vs 2008 £2.50!), horses have become more expensive, which means riders want better facilities = rise in cost, demand for more prize money etc. I think horses are more schooled than before so don't think there is a huge gap in how horses behave today to then. But at my age my memory is becoming cloudy!!

I remember I used to enjoy competing my horse for fun, as well as the satisfaction of a rossette or trophy. These days I feel under more pressure to do well which has created confidence issues with myself and my horse!!!

 

[Happytohack]

Yes I remember it well

I have piccies of me riding in 1962 aged 4. I bought my first horse in 1978 - he was an ID heavy hunter 16.2 and cost £800 which included his tack. Everything was ridden in a snaffle or pelham. Ponies were in a snaffle or kimblewick. We hacked to shows and to the farrier - no mobile farriers in those days. There were no mixes, just straights or grass nuts. Most people had Irish hunters or cobs, very, very few people rode TBs. We hacked for hours, but there wasn't much traffic in those days and everyone seemed to have more patience. The horses were all very well behaved, but they worked much more and weren't highly bred or highly strung. We all seemed to have a lot more fun then than now.

 

[merlinsquest]

Horses in the 70s were sounder, fitter and far less mollycoddled.

They were not made to school endlessly, something which I believe has a lot to do with all of the injuries etc that seem to plague horses thesedays.

They were not fed all the complex feeds that they are now, and were maybe more level headed because of this.

None that I knew lived in..... they all lived out and were rugged with heavy old canvas rugs, but didnt have breathing problems.

And they didnt have a vets bill that came to more than the price of a new car attached to them....... maybe because of all of the above reasons!!

 

[Bert&Maud]

I had my first pony in the mid-60s. My Mum had a horse and I caught the horse-mad bug from her! My ponies lived in the field and hacked to gymkhanas every weekend. The roads were much safer then, and also the risks in life were not drummed into us like they are now, so we never thought about any possible dangers - not just traffic but kids being out on their own etc. My Mums horses competed, hunted etc, and I can remember them being stabled all winter (we had adequate turnout but the trend was to keep working horses in), mind you New Zealand rugs were made of canvas lined with blanket and were pretty well impossible to lift when wet so I suspect that was a lot of the reason to keep them in the dry. Feeding was also much more limited, they had bran, oats, maize, barley, linseed and eventually Spillers brought out the revolutionary Horse and Pony Cubes, which launched a whole new range of possibilities for feeding! We also used to hack to the forge about 6 miles away. Mum was a founder member of the local riding club (Horsham & District!) and we used to have group lessons in the corner of someone's field, trotting in endless circles without stirrups. The simplicity of it all I look back on with happy memories, but I'm sure I get a lot more out of it these days. I wonder what you will all remember about the 2000s if someone posted a similar question in 2030?!

 

[mandy4727]

I got my first pony in 1977. She was a 13.2 dark bay mare named Heidi. My dad paid £250 for her with all her tack. It cos £5 to get a set of shoes on her and I fed her on pony nuts, bran and sugar beet. Sadly she was killed whilst I was riding her. It was 1979 before I got my next pony. She too had a green canvas new zealand rug - just the 1. And indoors a jute rug with a surcingle to hold it in place. No leg straps or cross surcingles. When it was really cold she had a blanket on folded to a point on her neck and then turned back with a sponge under the surcingle on it. As others have said we hacked to all the shows and did 3 or 4 rounds of clear round, then handy pony, some gymkhana games and then hacked about 5 miles home. The lovely white string girth was kept for shows and kept white with whitner that you made your pumps white with. She was ridden in an egbutt snaffle except winter when it was a kimblewick cos she was strong and we had no turnout or school to turn her out in. I had some posh rubber riding boots that were supposed to look like leather but didn't and were really more like long wellies!!! Everyone wore black jackets and hats, wasn't really different colours for different classes unless you were posh and got a burgundy one with a burgundy hat.

 

[Tia]

I had ponies in the 70's and many friends who also had ponies then. We were tearaways when it came to our ponies. We hacked for miles and miles over any and all terrains. Horses were expected to go wherever you told them - and they did! We could ride right through the middle of very busy towns and would never ever have expected our horses to react to anything! And they didn't. We used to go to the sweetie shops and tie the horses outside with their leather reins, still attached to their bits - they just stood there and waited till we were finished; cars zipping by them and people walking along the pavement would come over and pat them.

Life with horses, back then, was completely no-nonsense. The people whom I knew who were lucky enough to have horses did not molly-coddle them; yes they liked them but if they didn't do the job then they were sold. If they caused any nonsense, they were sold. Mind you, all of my friends were like me and kept their ponies for years. Mind our ponies were quite naughty too, but that was how we liked it.

 

[Smash]

[ QUOTE ]
I wonder what you will all remember about the 2000s if someone posted a similar question in 2030?!

[/ QUOTE ]

The time we didn't have to ride in full body armour?

 

[dozzie]

Ponies were expected to do everything...except dressage! That hadnt been invented over here!

They hacked jumped, did gymkhana and showing. We hacked to shows with our sarnies in our pockets.

Food was straights. tack was GP saddles only with serge lining. Spring tree saddles were the latest thing. Most saddles were rigid trees. Bits were either snaffle, pelham or kimblewick.

Most ponies and horses were good all rounders. Horses needed to be good in traffic where i lived. Breeding/potential wasnt as important as temperament.

I think we had a lot more fun with our ponies than kids today. We were allowed to play with them and have fun with them in a way that many children dont experience. Bareback riding was fun and a challenge rather than a health and safety issue.

 

[dsophiea]

this is an interesting post, i wasnt born untill 20years later but you have described it just as my mum has. it must have been so much fun back then, we certainly have created our own problems with the animals, i think mixing the modern with the old would be quite interesting, the facilities we have these days are fantastic but without the worry of insurance would be so much better.

everytime my mum needs to use her riding hat, im always moaning at her to fasten up the chin strap (insurance, safety etc) and i always get the same old answer 'we never used to have them' and yet the death rate around horses has risen so much yet the safety side of it is supposed to be so much better!

 

[PeterNatt]

Yes I had a horse in London in the 70's.

We used to hack to the local shows and go show jumping on Monday evenings to a local equestrian centre with an indoor arena.

The yard we kept our horses at was ramshackled but the atmosphere was great fun with a party in the club room once a month.

Our yard had a complete range of people from very wealthy ones to those that spent some of their time at Her Majesty's Pleasure.

We used (about 6 - 8 of us) to take the horses on holidays to places like the Quantocks in Somerset and stay down there for a week or two.

Horses where fed on bran, crushed barley and a few pony nuts with some sugar beat. Straw beds and hay.

We used to hack out on the London roads every day which kept the horses sane and fit. We hacked the horses so much that their shoes had to have welds on them to make them last longer that 2 weeks. At weekends we would go out for day rides and ride out to Hampstead Heath, Hyde Park, South Mimms Woods, Bricket Woods and Trent Park. Sometimes we would hire a large horse box and driver from Rodgers (their lorry was used in the film - International Velvet) and go to Ashridge Forest, Stockenchurch, Hatfield Forest or Epping Forest.

We also had the advantage of learning our stable management and horse care from people that had had many years of hands on experience of looking after horses.

Many riders did not wear hats and if they did they where not crash hats.

It was very rare to find a horse older than 15 in those days. Veterinary care has improved dramatically. I still have the same vet!

We had a lot of fun and full Livery which included tacking up the horse for you cost £7.50 per week.

 

[LCobby]

[ QUOTE ]
Ponies were expected to do everything...except dressage! That hadnt been invented over here!


[/ QUOTE ]
We did dressage at Pony Club , and Prix Caprilli in the early 1960's The ya d where I had my pony did have an indoor school, built in anold aircraft hanger. A big wooden bodied lorry took everyoen huntint, pony club camp and shows. A farrier did visit, as it was a big yard.
In the 70's we towed a trailer with a big old Volvo car.
NZ rugs were canvas, stable rugs were best wool in day a blanket and jute at night.

Show horses and show jumpers were tunred away in October, Hunters turned away in April, till end of July.
The horses themselves had manners.
Show horses were fit and much leaner than today
County Shows were just as busy, but horses not spooky.
Horsewear was navy, black or brown, no pink to be seen!

Elwyn Hartley Edwards was a brilliant horseman and excellent speaker and writer.

 

[Goya]

I had my first pony in 1965. (yes I am that old! No comments please!!!!) I just had a rented field and I could use the stable at the local pub which was just over the road from where I lived for emergencies only and occasionally for the night before a show.The field was about 2 miles away and I used to bike there with my saddle over the handlebars. No transport so I hacked to any show, with my duffle bag on my back containing my food and drink and brushes etc for the pony I did all the gymkhana games etc. I even used to hack to go hunting, hunt all day and then hack home. Often my Dad would have to come out in his car to look for me at the end of the day as it was getting dark and follow me home with the headlights on me so I could be seen. I could go on for ever.
Happy Days of fun and no pressures.

 

[basil99]

I had my first pony in the 60s - gosh its frightening to think its that long ago! I was lucky as my parents were farmers and my grandfather had worked horses. He got me a moorland type and put a saddle and bridle on it, shut the yard gate and made me ride around the yard until I was good enough to ride farther. As many of you have said the roads were quieter and I rode straight through small towns and no one complained about a few horse droppings! Ponies were much less well bred and more cobby types. I think they were probably much more honest and you didn`t hear of so many foot and health problems. I do remember going to endless gymkhanas and never winning anything but just enjoying the buzz of being there. We were fortunate as a local chap with a cattle lorry used to take us and we all paid something for the fuel. I cannot tell you what joy it gave me to win a rosette it was such an event. It was very much the minority with well bred animals, I think a lot of people had no idea how their horses/ponies were bred. I have many happy memories of these days and in some ways think that selective breeding has brought a host of problems.

 

[Spot_the_Risk]

Sounds bliss, shades of Pullein-Thompson in these posts. I didn't have a pony until I was an adult, but in the early 80's I was lucky enough to have a few riding holidays in Cornwall, which were pretty carefree. I'd been riding on and off for six years before my first riding holiday, and had never been out of trot at the local poxy riding school! On that first holiday, I cantered and galloped on the first night, and stayed on whilst there was carnage, at least half the riders fell off and one went to hospital and never came back on holiday, jumped little cross country jumps as a course, rode bareback to the river and used it as a pony bath, rode over fields we shouldn't have done, broke into private estates to marvel at the houses, and generally had loads of fun, with as little adult intervention as possible. We all fell of loads, and no one worried about it. Just remembered, we were all taken out one evening, to the local golf and country club to play pool etc - the transport? The cattle truck! About a dozen young teenagers strap hanging in the dark - great fun!

 

[wowser]

ponies were better behaved, we rode to shows, rode all day, no fancy feed or rugs shoes £5.00 a set, you had to be in the first 4 to win a rosette, tied up outside sweet shops, just standard leather tack no back protecters, people didnt have loads of gear that never gets used, ponies kept on farms no fancy trainings areas just marked out in a field. people were happy with what they had. built cross country jumps in woods canterd on verges, horses were healthier, stable and field rents were about £3.50 a week, feed bags were bigger sugar beat bags huge £3.00, loads of gymkhana games, chase-me- charlie. jumps were bigger, sheep dip to keep flies away.
life was good. i love this post!!

 

[help1]

It was the late 70s for me and all of the above bring back memories - feeding straights, you knew exactly what your poy ate and ajusted accordingly. Our ponies were hunted off grass just in at night with a jute rug - away during the week and my dad used to oat them up for the weekends! You were lucky and a bit special if you had a trace clip, ponies were hardy and had to cope with what you threw at them, lots of bareback riding with headcollars, jumping anything that seemed jumpable including nice garden hedges.
Shows although competitve seemed more friendly - perhaps because things were much more local although we did have tyrant pony club instructors.......who put the fear of god into you.

 

[nona1]

I started riding in the early 70s although I didn't get my own pony till mid 80s.

My first riding lessons were with a teenager down the road who used to borrow a pony and charge my mum 70p an hour. I then went to a riding school which was based on a common and had no grazing, so the horses were tethered overnight on the common, mostly using bits of old car seat-belt as their collars. There were a couple of horses they used to just turn loose! They had goldfish swimming round in the yard horse-trough. After a year or so the instructor left and wasn't replaced so after that you would just hire a horse/pony for an hour and go off and do your own thing unaccompanied. Riding over a common, through the woods, and round the roads by my self at 9 years old. Didn't seem odd to anyone at the time.

Less worry about health and safety stuff and we all seemed to survive. Bareback riding for a laugh, 'two up' (two on one pony) for a laugh, disappearing off all day hacking with a picnic with our parents just dropping us off at the stables in the morning, collecting us in the evening, and no idea of what we did in the middle!. (my first fags, cans of cider and snogging all happened at the stables and I know it used to amuse me that my parents thought we were all so 'wholesome' and 'into ponies rather than boys'. If only they knew...

Remember tying up pony outside sweet shop and chip shop as well!

Pretty much no-one had a 'breed' of pony or horse- they were mostly Heinz57s. TBs very unusual.

Tack - basic snaffles all round or pelham if something was especially strong. GP saddles. A very occasional martingale to be seen. No gadgets. No one I knew clipped/pulled manes/tails at all.

No-one had a trailer or box so we'd hack for miles to shows etc, which were all just for fun.

 

[hackneylass2]

Ooh I have enjoyed reading this thread!

I started riding in 1964 (aged 3) at what could only be very loosely be described as a hacking stable. No lessons, you just hired by the hour and took the horse or pony wherever! The 'yard girls' who worked for rides would lead beginners. My dad taught me, I rode mainly natives/native crosses.

I can remember at 13-15 years old becoming a weekend and holiday yard girl. The horses were all kept at grass in a field and on common land about 3 miles from the stables. We used to ride one, bareback, and lead one or two from stable to field and vise versa...along roads!

Everyone seemed to be able to ride bareback too, and not just staying on, they had decent seats, people seemed to be much more into having fun and not having all the lastest gear. The highlight of the year was the stubble burning/cutting, and our subsequent idiotic behaviour...I guess nowadays we would be in Saxos or Clios lol
Hacked to shows, horses all in snaffles, pelhams as noted, no fancy nosebands, mostly cavesson and the ocassional drop, and standing martingales were more common than running.

The introduction of two colour velvet browbands caused quite a stir, they were a must have! Those horrible bright coloured string girths...yuk! One thing I do remember is that coloureds..not the overo tobiano etc etc we have today, (back then they were either pie or skew) were looked down on quite a bit..how things have changed.

Most of the horse owners I knew had one horse (more than one was very rare) and worked very hard to keep them, we wern't exactly rich. I remember taking my horse into the city centre with a rulley full of empty dustbins...which the brewery would kindly fill with spent hops for free, and also going to a local woodyard to get big net bags of shavings...also free!

I guess overall, horses were expected to be all-rounders, very few purebreds where I was, and mainly not as neurotic. I think as other posters have said, this was due a great deal to the unfancy way in which they were broken, schooled, kept and ridden.

Damn happy days tho.

 

[toffeesmarty]

I didn't get my first horse until I was in my twenties either so all my childhood riding was at riding schools. I remember being terrified of the owner who could 'see' through walls and moan about everything. The highlight of my year was the once a year when it was my turn to have one of the ponies for a day to go to a show.
Yes, things seemed more relaxed in terms of safety but also more regimented too at the riding schools than now.
I remember one of my instructors had an elderly NF who she had ridden to school on everyday. When she'd got there she'd roll the stirrups up and he'd go back home on his own where her mum would meet him. Don't think that could happen today!

 

[JM07]

agree to all of the above....things were far less complicated...

horses/ponies had far less "stress" type of injuries, weren't schooled to the point of boredom, fed to insanity, imprisoned for days on end because "it's raining", over rugged to the point of cruelty, rarely had "behaviour" issues, ...were just horses and ponies really..

and Horse/Pony owners actually knew what they were talking about!!!

2 things are better "these" days EDT's and Saddle Fitters...

 

[JaneMBE]

My sister and I learnt to ride at a local RS, ponies were tied up in a line in a stall, there were a few stables for liveries and a couple of paddocks, one with a circle cut round for teaching.
Don't recall any numnahs!
One mare was hogged all the time (evil chestnut mare who bit someone's finger off, but no call for compensation lol)
Ponies were just nothing breeds and had simple names (mr Smith, Mrs Smith)
We went 'hacking' nose to tail.
Don't think tack was checked for safety (one slipped underneath as I was cantering once!)

After that school we went to Wendover, a bigger posher yard with liveries at the rear, it was jackpot if you were allowed to go and see them!
They had a very large indoor school which we were taught in and at lunch time the ponies were turned out in there for a frolic, we sat and ate out lunch watching them.
We rode bareback for two miles to take to their field along the roads sometimes leading a pony, and came back crammed in a tatty landrover.

Last school was a rustic country place near Tring, the best place! Some horses were of particular breeding (I used to ride a liver chestnut Arab)
Ponies were chucked out in the field, horses were stabled. Jackie, a shetland, lived in a shed!
None had any issues or were poorly/lame, most just had oats and hay to eat. Simple but wonderful

 

[FinellaGlen]

I was taught to ride in the 70s by a lady who was a Colonel's daughter and very "old school" even back then. She had 3 horses, a TB, a QH/TB and a pony that I used to ride. The four other children who went there had their own pony but my parents had got rid of my pony because I was too young to look after it and they didn't have the time.

We used to ride in the top corner of a very sloping field. We did lots of jumping and most of the jumps were stone walls which I can't imagine were very safe. They were made of enormous solid stones and were all drop fences. I always remember falling off over one of them and landing on the lady's black labrador who had been snoozing the other side!

We also used to jump an upturned hayrack which seemed enormous to me at the time and if the horse had caught its foot in it I dread to think what would have happened. The lady was very keen on hunting and liked to take everyone out cubbing in the Autumn. My parents wouldn't let me go though

I used to go to her house on a Saturday morning and spend all day there and then do the same thing again on Sunday. We used to do lot of jobs for her - mucking out, grooming, tack cleaning etc but looking back I now wonder if we were more of a hindrance than a help?

 

[TicTac]

This is a good nostalgic post! My pony was kept on a dairy farm and lived out 24/7 with the cows. If we needed a stable in a emergency we had to muck out one of the cow stalls.

Hay was the stable diet but we also fed bran and boiled barley( which my mum dedicated an old saucepan for) and a seaweed supplement or cod liver oil. We also used to add boiled potatoe peelings to the feed as well.

I cycled 10 miles every day to tend to my pony rain or shine. Hacked for miles and miles as the traffic was so much less and virtually non existant on a sunday.

Riding clothes were tweed and beige and I actually owned a pair of jodhpurs with the sticky out sides! I could go on and on but alot has been covered allready!

 

[tibby]

My aunt had a riding school on grandfathers farm in the early sixties ( and still has). I was brought up with a welsh pony bought from Norwich cattle market as a six month old foal. My grandfather bought Jeni for me ( I was only a year old at the time) when the time came my aunt backed Jeni and she was used in the riding school, she taught hundreds of children to ride, I would ride bareback, just with a headcollar or rope I would fall off then climb back on again! ( I don't now as I don't bounce any more) The ponies then were not nappy, they might buck or be a bit sharp, but they seemed different to the ponies now. The horses and ponies lived out until mid October then the horses were clipped and rugged with jute rugs and heavy canvass new zealands, I remember the first quilted rug she bought it was a navy blue Lavenham with red binding how things have changed! Feed were straights until the Spillers cubes arrived, I can remember when the first bags of Allen and Page quiet mix appeared we all thought it was brilliant. Times change, some things were better in the sixties and seventies, but others are better now, I still have horses and use the old fashioned way of doing things when appropriate and good deal of commonsense. Horses in the sixties and seventies were kept differently, I think this was because there were still a few " working horses" on the farms, and the old horsemen hadn't died out, sorry to ramble on!

 

[hollyandivy123]

well i am not old enough to think that for back but i started riding early 80's and one think i have thought about is the feed we have now, way to many types which adds for confusion

do you think that half the "problems" we have now with ponies/horses is due to the amount we feed. i always feed adlib hay and just chaff and vitamens not that i am a cheap skate but more to the fact that i don't see the point of pushing hard feed into a horse that work load doesn't require it. 30 min in school 1 hr hacking which is all i have time for at the moment this is fine if i was eventing it would be different. but i am suprised by how much other people at the yard feed and then complain that they are naughty!! back in the days when i was a kid, i can only remember one pony that got feed, everyone else got a hand full of grass nuts, but the ponies where fitter and there was less laminitus. i think so time people feed for "energy" when they just need to get the pony fitter
We also have the over ruggers now, but thats got another post

 

[TGM]

I was riding at riding schools during the '70s. The first one had no schools, apart from a big barn we rode in when the weather was really atrocious, but it was tiny compared to normal indoor schools and we weren't able to canter in there and had to avoid all the supporting pillars! Otherwise we had our lessons out in the fields.

Saddles were mainly serge lined and although there weren't many numnahs, the ponies all had saddlecloths made out of cut up blankets. Standard bridle seemed to have an eggbutt snaffle and drop noseband. We had to wear hats but they were those thin velvet ones with a bit of elastic under the chin! No-one of heard of body protectors in those days.

The ponies lived out and had stalls during the day in between rides, but the horses did have loose-boxes. The summer grazing was quite a way from the yard, so when the rides had finished the helpers used to ride the ponies bareback down the lane to their field.

There did seem to be a lot more local shows and most people hacked to them rather than having horseboxes. Definitely far less traffic than nowadays. Rugs were horrible - jute stable rugs which required rollers and heavy canvas NZs which seem to slip all the time.

If a horse was diagnosed with something like navicular, that was it, it was destroyed straightaway, rather than undergoing all the treatment and remedial work that it would get these days.

ETA: Just thought of another one - hunter trial courses actually resembled obstacles you would meet out hunting - hedges, log piles, streams etc., rather than including the strange fences you can see today - houses, aeroplanes, wooden fish etc!

 

[Spyda]

[ QUOTE ]
I had ponies in the 70's and many friends who also had ponies then. We were tearaways when it came to our ponies. We hacked for miles and miles over any and all terrains. Horses were expected to go wherever you told them - and they did! We could ride right through the middle of very busy towns and would never ever have expected our horses to react to anything! And they didn't. We used to go to the sweetie shops and tie the horses outside with their leather reins, still attached to their bits - they just stood there and waited till we were finished; cars zipping by them and people walking along the pavement would come over and pat them.


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Gosh this was so true of what I was up to as well! Remember having a thing for 'porky scratchings' at the time and was forever trotting down to the sweetie shop on Daisy, attaching her to the lamp post outside and nipping in for a restock! Cringe now at the thought of doing that.

I use to ride my ponies over the pedestrian walkway which [still] runs over the A40, at Hillingdon in Middlesex, too. And no, not the ones made for horses with high sides! Just one the regular low sided ones with low metal bars. I cringe thinking of the poor old ladies I must have terrified as I squeezed passed them on the bridge as I trotted across. Cringe, cringe... And the poops we probably left in our wake....

And one particularly embarrassing memory I have is of riding a very over excited Daisy, accompanied by a friend on her bicycle, along the hard shoulder of the A40 as we tried a new short cut to the Grand Union Canal tow path. Daisy crabbing sideways at a very collected canter and shying into the 'slow lane' - scaring the death out of any passing motorists no doubt. And of course, never occurred to me to wear a riding hat when out hacking. Only wore those horrible things for shows.

Gosh, if any of my four kids got up to a QUARTER of what I did when I was their age ------ I'D KILL 'EM!!!!

Oh, and New Zealand rugs back then. What a joy they were! Forever ending up around the animals legs or rubbing them raw at the chest. Ah, the joys

 

[Goya]

From the interest in this thread perhaps H & H should run a feature on it.