Yes, Prof Beery was the pioneer of the mail order training program. I’ve collected his books and literature for the neat illustrations and photos, particularly of Saddle Horses. In one “prospectus” I saw a picture of his war bridle that you could order. I remember we had one on a box of used tack we picked up at a sale. Now I wish I had it to complete my Beery collection!!! I’m sure it’s long gone now.
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[QUOTE=wireweiners;5721748]
Does anyone remember Prof. Beery’s school of horse training? The forerunner to the Parellis and all the other “TV” trainers. He even had his own special training bridle you could order. I sent off for his free material, just sure it would make me a super trainer. Major disappointment.[/QUOTE]
You can still buy them!!
70’s had these classic memories for my sister and me:
rubber boots from Eiser’s as 1st real boots-so lovely with
canary polyester flared breeches-or-
rust breeches, same flare and icky material
NO suede knee patches
CORDOVAN field boots!!
The Junior Essex Troop horse show (original)-3 days of heaven in May
watching Secretariat win the Belmont while sitting on top a schoolie with a wart on his lip
going to Mecca, aka the National Horse Show at MSG
crossing our stirrups over the saddle and pretending we were Turcotte or Baeza
colored yarn in braids-we’re talking pink, red, yellow
SHORT tall boots, with
knee-straps----EEEEWWW!!
Oh my - what a laugh this is - I remember it well. The velvet hunt cap with a chin elastic - worn up and over the brim for dressage, and under the chin for hunting and x-country. (Soooo safe!). Eventing started at Training level, water jumps had no standard so we jumped in landing with water over our boots. The old remedies - seems quite a lot of us were around in them thar days.
YES! Eventing started at training level-at my 1st I wore my equitation attire- blue velvet hunt cap, blue coat w/blue velvet on collar and pockets, lt. blue shirt w/blue homemade velvet ratcatcher, oyster-white britches, and my cordovan field boots. Stunning combo, I must say:lol:
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In the 60s, Eventing started at Prelim. It wasn’t til about 1971 that Training was recognized.
Lovey had a better spot for the Belmont than I did for the Kentucky Derby -saw Secretariat win the KD while I was crushed up against the infield chain link fence on the backside of the track. Well, I didn’t see him win, but I saw the blue and white blinkers go flying by, a nose ahead.
Tack & Halters were leather! plus you cleaned it after each use.
Stocks? you tied them yourself!
In the early 70’s I was able to buy a used Steubben for $275 (outrageous money for a used saddle!). I still have it and use it, and everyone fights over using it – they DO clean it too.
Feed was $5.55 a HUNDRED with all-hundred of it in the same sack!
Hay could be bought for 50cents so the farmer could fill the mow again.
>anyone remember part of the mow being Loose hay? with a rope? where also some first kisses were (stolen)?
Be home by dark was the motto --helmets? what were they? (right along with seat belts -- didnt exist except for shows).
Horses were real horses, they took it, they gave it, we kept getting back up, cause those were our teachers. If you fell off, well, you better figure out how NOT to the next ride -- lucky you if your horse didnt run back to the barn too.
Summertime, we'd find places to take out horses swimming wearing body-shirts. Saddlebags were big clunky western heavy leather that more likely would get you bucked off at a trot if you forgot to tie them down tight enough.
Your horse didnt get a blanket in the winter, he got brought in.
Seems that all that made some pretty good horsemen in those days.
Auburn, I showed at both Ttown venues, but only once at the newer one before going off to college. Just curious how many people have told others that you use to canter up this rode when it was just dirt and they look at you in horror because now it is 4 - 6 lane hwy in the middle of town. And yes I still have my velvet hat with the elastic strap and my velvet hat with the plastic strap.
Whoops, meant to say “road”:lol:
Wow! Some of you have childhood memories that I only read about! Riding your ponies, showing etc!
I do remember some of the old-time stuff from “working” at a rental stable when I was 16 (Jurrasic Period I think).
As a horseless youngster, I did appreciate that there were a lot of local shows. Put on by charities, local groups etc in a local field. Many had outside hunt courses. In one, the riders jumped in and out of the ring. as part of the course. Even when I started showing as an adult, the jumping classes went from crossrails for kids to three foot for adults. And everyone dreamed of having a TB (instead of the grade horses most started with) and showing with a rolled bridle. Many shows had several jumper classes. Jumpers often looked crazy and went sideways in between the jumps - didnt matter as many classes didnt time until second jump off. And there were “touches to count” classes which usually invlved disputes over whether a horse touched a jump! :winkgrin:
A highlight of my year was when my mom would take me to the Childrens Services Horseshow in Farmington. It was a multi-ring, multi-breed, multi-discipine show. It was really a SHOW! I am sure it must have been crazy to show there when there could be Saddleseat in one ring, driving in another, and hunters in a third. Hunter people sdid not appreciate the way SS people “animated” their horses on the showgrounds! But as a horseloving spectator it was the best!
When a horse was lame and it wasnt an abcess, the vet came and often said “soft tissue - throw him out in the field for a few weeks and we’ll see how he does”. Getting x-rays was a big deal. Maybe it was a Far Side cartoon that showed the vet with a horse looking down a list of possible diagnoses and after each the treatment was “Shoot it”.:no:
Oh how I wished for a horse trailer! I remember trying to get my yearling filly to her first show (for showmanship at halter with my way fancy MATCHING rope halter and lead!) in a borrowed stock rack.
You know, the kind that fits in your pickup bed, open with a wood floor? :eek: Too bad she had never been in anything before and my dad was not a horse guy. We had to back it into a ditch, crank up the sliding gate and try to get her to jump in it and leave all her friends at home. I’m not sure how we did it but we did.
Trouble is she danced all over in the bed of the pickup, reared up (yes she was tied) and got her front feet on the cab of the truck. :no:
My poor dad about had a coronary and we turned around and went home. Just one of many ‘good’ times!
Did anyone else do Bareback Tandem classes? Two people back to back on a bareback horse, walk, trot, canter?
I worked for a vet later on and we tube wormed horses into the 80’s. What an awful job.
Love this thread! I also remember the little woven rug looking saddle blankets someone mentioned, the granulated blue wormer they would never eat, the rope halters with that metal buckle with the hook in it, my two memorized horsey books were “Saddle Up!” and “The Horseman’s Bible”. Ahhhh.
I remember feeding sweetfeed with crimped corn added if they needed more fat and 2 flakes am and pm. My horses would rebel on a total of 4 flakes a day…
I remember when it was acceptable for a hack stable to work their horses every day from 8am until 9pm in the summer with no breaks and where the horses had to run down an aqueduct because people liked to gallop. 25-30 horses, one to two teen trail guides, groups of riders who had never ridden, no helmets, sandals, shorts galloping - and I do mean galloping - down this aqueduct about 1/2 mile long. Riders went for the gallop whether they liked it or not because once the ones in the front went they all went.
I also remember my first impromptu jumping “lesson”. Stable owner “I want to see what this boarders horse can do, grab a bridle and hop on him.” No boarder was around BTW. Hopped on 16.3 perch/TB cross with newly roached mane bareback, no helmet.
Jumped single rail set on cinder blocks. One jump only. Stood blocks up tall, jumped again, laid metal barrels on sides with single pole, jumped again. Stood up barrels, single rail jumped again. Stood up barrel with cinder block laid in it’s side, still single rail, no problem now I’m having a BLAST!!!. Final jump the height of barrels with cinder blocks stood up. Had to be 4 feet. BO says “yep, that horse can jump” and tells me to put him away.
Great thread! I too remember tack being sold in catalouges like Sears and the wonderful Miller ones with the great drawings and the charts of what to wear! I did get to go to the actual stores in Manhatten and remember that Millers was neat and tidy like a department store and Kaufmann’s looked like someone thru all the stuff in, closed the doors, shook it up and let it lei where it fell but you could find some great deals in there!
There was a tack shop in the Gimbals store in downtown Pittsburgh and it was great fun to covet in there when we made our once annual Christmas trip to the city! It was run by Ethel Chubb, a very kind lady who allowed me to just sit and stare at all the great stuff in there-remember how all the leather goods were the light color that would darken with age? I got all my first stuff from there, including my first “ratcatcher” which was a nifty print with the tie collar!
Newmarket boots and linen jackets
patent tops on ladies boots
outside courses at even the smallest shows
chokers of different colors, including plaid! My mom made me a ton of them!
eight or ten braids even on the longest necks!
staying at the barn all day and riding for hours, hunting down logs to jump, daring each other to try bigger and crazier jumps, saddle and bridle optional!
Bathing and grooming your horse multiple times as well as your tack and then when you finally gave the horse a break, you were having horse shows on foot with your barn mates.
transporting horses in the back of a metal floored dump truck! (how did they survive?
My very first eventing experience was at prelim and you got bonus points for speed! I did have a Caliente helmet which I still have, with a navy and red cover. Competed in the very first Essex Horse trials on a pony at training level.
We all mamanged to make it this far to be able to reminisce about it!
[QUOTE=MsM;5722611]
As a horseless youngster…[/QUOTE]
I was horseless too, until graduating from college, got my first job, and went to the bank to get a loan for a horse (the bank officer said “you mean a house?” :lol:)
I’ve always thought it interesting that those I rode with when young, who had any horse they wanted, usually did not keep the interest as an adult. That includes as a youngster, through friends in college who had all the “made” horses. (I showed in intercollegiate shows when it was just getting off the ground, and couldn’t believe how much better I did than in regular shows where I used the school horses. Many of the others were only used to their own horse, and not having owned any as a kid, I was used to riding everyone else’s.) And although I haven’t kept horses consistently as an adult, due to marriage and kids, I have always returned to it, and don’t know if I’ll ever be able to shake it. 
And today, especially now with Facebook, when I contact old riding friends, if they were the ones who “did it all” when they were young, they aren’t riding any more. The only exceptions are perhaps those who never left riding for a second, and moved on to become professional riders or trainers. The ones who are nuts about riding like me;) for the most part didn’t “have it all” when they were young either. I seem to see a lot of this throughout this thread.
[QUOTE=copper1;5723726]
remember how all the leather goods were the light color that would darken with age?[/QUOTE]
I remember having to repeatedly wash with saddle soap and use Neatsfoot oil on new tack at the barn until the leather became supple - and how slippery your pants were if it didn’t sit long enough - or doing it at the last minute before a show and sliding around! :lol:
Ahhh, the '80s… Riding a 10-mile competitive trail ride with no helmet!
Pulling down the chin strap of my velvet-colored eggshell helmet when Mom arrived… Washing the App in Amway soap to make him super shiny… Putting Sun In on his mane and tail and prepping his mane with Dippity Do so the braids wouldn’t move for days… 100% polyester RUST BREECHES and Appaloosas with SPOTS…
Doing 3’ EQ over Fences at the 4-H shows because there was no 2’ 6" EQ… Riding to my lesson on a four-lane road… Pulling the App’s shoes and taking January and February OFF…
And Tom Thumb bits were considered gentle, starter bits.
Horses were way more expensive back in the 70s. True, I was lots poorer but a $700 horse was pretty marginal in those days.
Adjusted for inflation, the $700 horse I bought in 1978 would cost today, with inflation calculated in, $2,423.40. I could probably buy that same horse for $400 today. A greeny green, off-track appendix quarterhorse.
(according to this inflation calculator, http://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/cpicalc.pl )
I’m with danceronice about the age thing. When these “old days” threads come up (rarely) I find that most COTHers aren’t old enough to have been riding in the 60s.
Unlike me. 
I remember English and Argentine saddles, and also when the Stubbens first appeared at my lesson barn.
I remember loose-ring snaffles, dees, and full-cheeks; rubber and ported pelhams (and MULLEN mouths); kimberwicks (saw uxeters in books/catalogs but not in real life); and “bit and bridoon” (never hear that term anymore! 
)
Grey wool pads (or fleece ones about the same time the Stubbens appeared–was that related?) and no pads.
Web girths, string girths, folded leather girths, balding girths.
Stirrups with black rubber pads or no pads.
Plain flat bridles (no raised leather, no fancing stitching, definitely no bling!).
All-suede Stubben saddles in the Kauffman’s catalog.
Elastic-sided jodhpur boots (we loved that the Beatles wore them!–or a version of them). Buckled jodhpur boots.
Flared jods and breeches. Canary and rust.
Madras.
I could go on and on …
[quote=Wellspotted;5724510]
I’m with danceronice about the age thing. When these “old days” threads come up (rarely) I find that most COTHers aren’t old enough to have been riding in the 60s.
Unlike me.
Ha! Unlike me too. I’m reading posts about the '70’s that make it sound like that was SOOOO long ago.
I think 1961, when, I started riding, was a long time ago. The '70’s are a bit too recent. (see what happens when you get old…)
I remember getting Prof Beery’s booklets and my brother calling him a shyster even back then! And my brother didn’t know anything about horses…
