Twister- yes unfortunately your information is correct. Claridges was humanely destroyed this morning. He was severely colicing with a probable twist, and the vet’s opinion was that he would not survive surgery or even possibly the trip to the clinic in Raleigh. It was decided that it would be kinder not to put him through that trauma, as he was into his twenties.
Chanda
I’d forgotten about those, Bumpkin and Rusty. But they were indeed grand fun. Do you remember how folks would dress up? A lot of the teams would have themes … I was always jealous of the kids who got to dress up in their parents’ racing silks. There were also sooooooo many different – and fun! – classes at the Thanksgiving show that we were on horseback all day long. It’s a wonder the horses didn’t all go on strike.
And there was nothing like Santa Barbara in the rain and wind and FREEZING cold, was there? It seems like it was ALWAYS miserable! I’ll never forget one medal class I rode in a downpour; it was nighttime (how I LOVED night classes – I felt so “adult” and formal 
) and about a stride out from the first fence, the light right over it blew out. My grand horse never even hesitated; he took the last stride and we jumped, both of us figuring that that fence was out there someplace. We finished the course through sheets of rain and were both absolutely soaked; I could barely hang onto the reins. That is one of my most cherished ribbons – and it is STILL has the water stains on it.
I think Merry mentioned this already, but those were also the days when many of the A shows out here were held during the big county fairs. Indio, Del Mar, Fresno, Sacramento… Frankly, the A show riders of today don’t know what they’re missing. Nothing like being in a hack class at Indio, in front of a PACKED grandstand, and being bolted away with when a camel or ostrich poked its head over the ring wall right in front of your horse. Yes, a camel or ostrich! For you see, Indio in those days, being set in amid the date palms in the desert and all that, always had camel and ostrich races between the horse classes in the afternoons. One wonders what Rox Dene would have thought of THAT! 
[This message was edited by Beezer on Jan. 05, 2001 at 01:26 PM.]
In the 60s and early 70s:
You never saw horses with “color” in the show ring since hunters were expected to be Welsh (small ponies) Welsh/TB cross (large ponies) or Thoroughbreds and neither of those breeds came in colors like pinto, palomino, appaloosa, etc.
Hand gallop in every hack class I ever rode in. And you always jogged for soundness, even at the smallest shows.
Huge entries in the pony divisions. The first year my sister and I showed at Devon (no qualifying, you just entered and went)there were 72 large ponies. That led to a rule that if there were more than 50 entered, the division had to be split, which was great for us since we never had to show against each other at the A shows.
Speaking of which, shows were rated A,B,C and unrecognized. Even the biggest–Devon, MSG, Upperville, etc, were just plain A.
Does anyone else remember those wonderful long Island shows, North Shore (actually held on the shore, you could take your horse swimming in LI Sound if you wanted) and Piping Rock?
No qualifying for any shows anywhere, except MSG. The only year we showed there was '67 (last year in the old Garden, with the move the following year to the new Garden, the pony divisions were dropped.) You had to win one blue ribbon at an A show to qualify–though there were many fewer A shows then.
Lots of horses and ponies that weren’t “right up to size” in their divisions and nobody cared. Hot Shot Kid and Keswick were two top large ponies who both measured 13.2. Aldie Belle, a fantastic working hunter, jumped 4’ with Patty Heukeroth (sp?) and stood 15.1.
I love this topic!
my first breeches were canary yellow,corduroy with the button flap front. i refused to wear them until my mom showed me a picture of dave kelly wearing the same breeches! i thought they were girls. i rode in a “smith& werthington” saddle and off the rack boots that had enough room at the top for another leg. all this finery was ordered from kaufmans saddle shop in n.y. when i did show i wore the same cloths i wore for hunting. heavy black melton coat in august,yiks!
back then showing was for keeping the field hunters legged-up. now the two worlds rarely meet.
Another minor correction: I rode with Buddy Brown, too (after my family moved to Connecticut) He started on a small pony named Sparkler, then showed large pony West Wind (formerly owned by James Hulick) then moved on to another large, Wennol Bechan (had been shown by Shawn Brittle previously, can’t remember the owner’s name but they were in VA). After that he showed Junior Hunters and Jumpers with Sourball and Sandsablaze. I don’t remember him riding any of the Tanrackin ponies. Meta Boykin was the regular rider for Mrs. Waller.
Aiken ! San Felipe was a great horse wasn’t he?? The hunter classic at Upperville oyyy!!! I loved schooling over that big bank what fun !!! and CC I grew up in md /va area learned about horses there would still be there but POTOMAC fever JUST killed me had to leave! Have been on LONG ISLAND for long time.
You are right - the chin elastic was tucked underneath
Boy do I miss those outside courses!! Charlotte, Tryon, Deep Run,Camden(on the polo field). I remember going to the Charlotte GP, too!!!
How about when the NC State Fair was on the midway?! We would go ride the rides by ourselves- back then- no thoughts of bad things that could happen- except getting sick from one too many turns on the Tilt A Whirl. I remember going to the State Championship at Dorton Arena & having separate schooling times by discipline- boy did it get wild at switchover times! Then at night , we would all go sit in a box, right by the ring. We would all pick our favorite shakytail & whoop it up for that one! It was really cool to get dirt clods kicked up on you!Then came the open jumpers. Boy have things changed in THAT division! Oh, the glory days…
Yeah man! I WAS a division in those days. Another March was around in those days too but he was difficult (to say the least) but he could usually win the hack if Royal Blue didn’t beat him.
To me, those were the glory days of four foot horses. The Hunter Classics were truly that. Upperville was the best tho’…with the stone wall at the far end and the bank.
When I showed my 12.3 hand pony I had a medium bright blue wool (like Shetland wool, kinda fuzzy)jacket, pale blue sleeveless ratcatcher, navy blue velvet hardhat and matching navy blue velvet choker (that I put this big fake gold horse brooch on), and I braided him in matching medium blue yarn. Jackets were Pytchley, jodphurs were Harry Hall. My paddock boots were brown pull-ons with elastic on the side and I had these clips that clipped to the bottom of the jodphurs and were basically thick rubber bands that went under the boots to hold the jodphurs down. I wore this big ugly red digital watch (back when you had to push a button and the time showed up in red lights) that I always wore and it shows in my horseshow pictures. Never counted strides. Those were the days! I remember an outside course where you started in the ring, jumped out of the ring over a coop in the fenceline, went around a circuit of cross country jumps, and jumped back into a ring over a different coop to finish. The judge sat on a chair on top of a flat bed trailer in the middle of the field.
When I first did the a/o’s there were always like 40 of us and it wasn’t all total perfection because, as has been said, you jumped 3’6" or you didn’t go to the A shows. So everybody jumped 3’6" - it was no big deal. All the hunters practically were TB’s in the early 80’s and I excelled in the “non-TB hunter” division with my QH, when it was offered. And it seemed like one class out of every hunter division was a handy hunter class - my QH was great at those too. Sigh.
He was sold out here to Laurie Gonyea, and trained by Sue and Leon Butts at Woodbrook.
He was a really nice horse, a big dapple gray, Laurie called him Please.
Laurie sold him to Lakeside, who also bought Spindletop Showdown.
Whatever happened to the gentleman who owned Spindletop? Marvin Van Rappaport? 
Let’s see-
RUXTON, RUXTON, RUXTON- my fave hunter of all times!!!Breeding anyone?
Prix de Saute seemed to be the saddle of choice-my first saddle was Jeffery Welles’ outgrown 14"one
hmm-yep- rust breeches
same light glenplaid jackets, but trimmed in coordinating velvet, which OF COURSE, matched your hunt cap with the elastic thingy- if you had the brown hat & collar- brown field boots were de rigeur
There were some rather outgoing “ladies” who rode AU NATURAL- sans bra-that is
Underalls were all the rage then ,too- of course those rust(or gray) breeches had to be Harry Hall waffle weave- skin tight- only natural, since our jeans were ,too. Yes, men wore those same tight breeches.
There were tack room parties- every good barn had a blender-or 2- . The Ziffs used to leave the keys in the golf carts at Culpeper- made for great fun, until you borrowed the one that was stuck turning to the right- those stalls have never been the same!!
Same orvis
Same hoof oil
Same glycerin
Same bigeloil
better hairnets-
OOOOH —!!
Guys had to wear hairnets when certain judges judged!! No flyaway locks!!
hmmm- that is about all this old brain can remember-
Great thread. The white face pony in Florida was Shenadoah Opal ridden by Joanna Houston. Christina S. used to train for Heaven Trees. She also had the large jr. Mumansk. I think they were AHSA pony and horse of the year the same year.
Emmet, I rode with Junie, too. Did you?
Aiken, I don’t think that (Spindletop) Showdown–he was shown extensively both with the prefix and without–was ever beaten in the Conformation division in the time he was with Junie. It was highly unusual for him to even lose a class, so I imagine he might have won more than Rox Dene, though of course everyone went to many fewer shows per year back then.
Ditto the Stubben Siegfried - I loved that comfy thing! I always felt that I could ride ANYTHING in it.
Once you were out of ponies you went 3’6. Period!
OUTSIDE COURSES!!! None of that sissy counting strides stuff - you galloped down and waited.
Black patent tops on your boots.
When the weather was cooler (I grew up in Fla) you wore a tweed riding coat and a sweater. No vests, ski jackets, etc.
Newmarket boots in summer.
Headgear optional.
Little bow things on shirts.
Janet, Welland Valley Early Bird is exactly the pony I was thinking of. I used to see her at the shows with Menlo and Pollyanna (weren’t all three English imports?)
When Mrs. Mackay-Smith (of Farnley ponies)got married, she became Mrs. Dunning. Speaking of Farnley ponies, does anyone remember Farnley Nimbus, Farnley Icing, or Farnley Galilee?
Handy classes! I used to love those. I remember showing at Sugartown one year in a handy class. Last thing we had to do was pull up in front of the final fence, reach forward and knock off a pole which had been laid across the top of the two standards, back up and then trot the fence (which was now about two feet high.) My sister’s pony, Rommel, used to hate handy courses. He was a point-and-shoot pony, hated all that turning and fussing around. So by the time he reached the last fence he was already mad.
He came off the turn and saw what looked to him to be a four foot fence (pole across the top of the standards) in front of him. Obligingly, he speeded up. Meanwhile my sister was frantically trying to pull him up. Rommel wasn’t having any of it. He put in a couple of big strides and popped the last fence like it was nothing. Thanks to my father and his zoom movie camera the whole thing was captured for posterity–including the shocked look on the face of the ringamaster.
Emmet, Junie was a real perfectionist and a wonderful horseman. If you think the horses looked good at the shows, you should have seen them at home–they looked exactly the same(except for braiding of course.) Even the hooves were painted every time we rode (this was long before anyone knew that wasn’t good. In those days Junie was the only one doing it.) I never even saw a horse with a dirty blanket there (and the horses went out all the time.)
The thing I loved most about Junie was that when I arrived at his barn, the greenest kid you ever saw with the pony/horse I’d just brought home with me from camp (we’d been told she was 14.2 and didn’t know enough to measure her–we didn’t have her vetted either ) a mare of indeterminate lineage, little jumping ability and sporting a brand (cowpony not WB!) he never batted an eye. Just gave me some borrowed tack and set about teaching me to ride.
We even took Monogram to some shows–all shined up and braided she was still pretty much of a sow’s ear compared to the rest of his stuff. Plus she liked to stop. A lot. First show was a little, unrated schooling show. I found out later that he’d gone to the show management and gotten permission for me to show Monogram in the large pony classes “if she has to try to jump that mare over 3’6” she’ll probably die" LOL. (It wasn’t like I was going to be taking ribbons away from anyone.) He was a great guy.
What about cordovan boots, newmarket boots, velvet choakers to match the collar (velvet) on your hunt coat…horse braids in the color of the hunt coat…long(ish) hunt coats…flat tack, rolled tack, double bridles on the working horses…oh my…what about “hogs back” jumps, aikens, side diagonal side in the jumper(!!!) classes… touch classes…wow…I am OLD.
and Fairfax Hunt before Reston and Lake Fairfax.
In the early 1980’s, my first husband and I went to the 'chases out at Belmont and then to the Fairfax Hunt Club afterwards. You had to drive around the apartment complexes and Regional Park to get to the club.
Does anyone have that picture of Rodney(with no hat) on ID over a oxer? I think it was used for some ad in PH. Not sure but somewhere in the mid 70’s.
I thought I was the only person in the world who remembered Deluxe Saddlery. I actually tracked these people down while on a horse buying trip to Baltimore 25 years ago.
And, Specks, you must not be quite as old as I am because, in the beginning, there were Open Jumpers at the Raleigh show (which at that time referred to the Lions Club show, a multi-breed show. The horse arena just doesn’t have the ambience that Dorton did.
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