"old fashioned practices"

[Texarkana]

@BigMama1

But I do miss the days of riding lessons including what we called “stable management.” I have adult ammy friends who don’t have a clue what a horse’s normal temperature is, how to take a bridle apart and put it together, how to muck, or clip, or how to bandage a leg. When I was a teen, all boarders and lesson students at our barn - regardless of age - were expected to take part in stable management classes at least once a month.

Do people really not teach this any more? I hear it said so frequently on COTH, yet I also have many friends who constantly offer “camps” (aka all day baby-sitting for parents) throughout the year to teach these things.

Don’t get me wrong, I agree it’s a problem… I just don’t think its because people aren’t teaching it.

I kind of attribute it to the fact that society has gotten further and further removed from agriculture. Most kids grow up in the city and suburbs and will never get an opportunity to be around horses unless they specifically seek it out.

[BigMama1]

@Rackonteur

wish we had been taught that as kids. We were taught parts of the horse, parts of the saddle and bridle, but nothing practical like how to put all those together!

Taking a bridle completely apart and making kids put it back together correctly without any instructions was one of my favourite activities as a riding camp counsellor - guaranteed all of us at least an hour break in the middle of the day while the kids tried to figure it out lol.

[Displaced_Yankee]

@Rackonteur

And hay wisps. I wish I’d been taught how to make and use one.

The second edition of Susan Harris’ “Grooming To Win” has the instructions. I still pick this book up several times a year.

(Although, no substitute for someone teaching you how)

[FitzE]

Making shipping wraps by enclosing cotton batting in cheesecloth and sewing it, then hand ripping flannel fabric to make the flannels to wrap them with, secured with big safety pins. I remember when shipping boots with velcro came out I thought they were so naff and lazy and a sign of poor horsemanship (probably jealousy b/c I couldn’t afford them).

Riding in those black velvet hunt caps so old they had faded to a brownish or greenish grey. I know they’re useless but I really miss them!

Polo wraps that had self ties you’d tie in a bow.

Do people still use those leather shipping helmets that looked like the old-fashioned American football helmets worn back in the day?

Taping index cards to your forearm with the times and distances of the long-format Speed and Endurance phase.

Wool coolers (still love these).

[OverandOnward]

@BigMama1

Riding in a baseball cap or kerchief instead of a helmet is now a mark of stupidity, not coolness. And that’s a good thing.

The baseball cap. Well, feed store gimme cap, actually. There was nothing cooler than a jumping lesson while wearing one of those caps. You could really ride if you could jump a horse while wearing one of those caps. Or so we thought.

Nothing wears me out more than someone claiming that a lack of bicycle helmets, riding helmets, etc. helmets was better, back in the day. No it wasn’t. A few kids were lost - not dead, but no longer participating - to the community every year due to a brain injury that would last a lifetime. Not that this still doesn’t happen, but not nearly in the numbers that it did once. Helmets don’t just save lives in the sense they save people from dying. They save the ability to live the life one wants to live. Every ride, every time.

[OverandOnward]

A new thread reminded me of something that was not included in the old days … maybe because they thought it wasn’t an appropriate topic for girls not yet of marriageble age? (in the culture of the time)

Sheath cleaning. Bean removal.

Totally skipped. Knew nothing about it until an adult.

At the time some of the principal instructors in the arts of English riding were retired cavalry officers. Am I to believe that these rough-and-ready manly men did not know about sheath cleaning and beans? Or maybe they just weren’t about to venture into those realms with a bunch of teen and pre-teen girls & some boys?

The horses we rode used to make that weird rhythmic sound like a muted bagpipe on just one note, when they trotted. I thought it was the tack. I’ve been told since that this is the sound of an unclean sheath. I almost never hear it any more, so geldings must be a lot cleaner than they used to be. Or tack is better made.

Gelding scars - who knew?

I certainly didnt I had a body worker come to visit Mellow this week, first time using this person, but she is highly thought of around the barn. Things started off normally, and then she asked about his sheath, had to admit that I have yet to get up close and personal with him, so she dived in and came out with a handful of gunk. So she gave him a good clean, and removed a decent size bean. Then she went back in, and said that he had ‘gelding scars’ and we was very tight in ther…

[BigMama1]

@Texarkana

Do people really not teach this any more? I hear it said so frequently on COTH, yet I also have many friends who constantly offer “camps” (aka all day baby-sitting for parents) throughout the year to teach these things.

Don’t get me wrong, I agree it’s a problem… I just don’t think its because people aren’t teaching it.

I kind of attribute it to the fact that society has gotten further and further removed from agriculture. Most kids grow up in the city and suburbs and will never get an opportunity to be around horses unless they specifically seek it out.

Around here I haven’t seen it taught to kids as part of a regular lesson program - only in a camp setting. And I don’t see it being taught to adults at all. I see many adults who come from full training programs with their own horses who can’t mount without someone holding their horse, don’t know how to adjust their stirrups when mounted…one who has been riding for years left her horse in cross ties with the cross ties attached to the bit.

[ClassyJumper]

I use a mounting block at home where my mare stands perfectly but still have DH give me a leg up at shows where she is less inclined to stand patiently. She is off the track though.

[Rackonteur]

Brilliant!

[Texarkana]

@BigMama1

Around here I haven’t seen it taught to kids as part of a regular lesson program - only in a camp setting. And I don’t see it being taught to adults at all. I see many adults who come from full training programs with their own horses who can’t mount without someone holding their horse, don’t know how to adjust their stirrups when mounted…one who has been riding for years left her horse in cross ties with the cross ties attached to the bit.

I didn’t think about people beginning riding or serious riding as adults-- yes, that makes sense that they aren’t getting this type of instruction due to the shift to full care boarding/full training programs. Opportunities for adults to care for their own horses are likely going to become increasingly less frequent as we lose more land.

[KBC]

@OverandOnward

A new thread reminded me of something that was not included in the old days … maybe because they thought it wasn’t an appropriate topic for girls not yet of marriageble age? (in the culture of the time)

Sheath cleaning. Bean removal.

Totally skipped. Knew nothing about it until an adult.

At the time some of the principal instructors in the arts of English riding were retired cavalry officers. Am I to believe that these rough-and-ready manly men did not know about sheath cleaning and beans? Or maybe they just weren’t about to venture into those realms with a bunch of teen and pre-teen girls & some boys?

The horses we rode used to make that weird rhythmic sound like a muted bagpipe on just one note, when they trotted. I thought it was the tack. I’ve been told since that this is the sound of an unclean sheath. I almost never hear it any more, so geldings must be a lot cleaner than they used to be. Or tack is better made.

Gelding scars - who knew?

I’m glad I’m not the only one to have missed this whole subject until I was an adult. Come to think of it, have not heard the strains of muted bagpipes for years!

[Janet]

@OverandOnward

A new thread reminded me of something that was not included in the old days … maybe because they thought it wasn’t an appropriate topic for girls not yet of marriageble age? (in the culture of the time)

Sheath cleaning. Bean removal.

Might be regional. Or Pony Club.

As a pre-teen in the mid 1960s (in the Metro NY area) I was certinly taught how to clean my gelding’s sheath. And it was specifically checked, and scored, at any Pony Club rally

[Willesdon]

Old enough that I can recall horses still being given beer and eggs to build them up! Oh the joys of feeding when one had to mix the feed oneself: a scoop of this, a chop of that, a soak of something else. Thank heavens for the professional nutritionists at specialist equine feed companies. And rugging up at night with (human) blankets and duvets under the stable rug, all folded correctly then encircled with an anti-cast surcingle. On the other hand, over rugging has become a welfare issue, here in the UK.

[horseshorseshorseshorses]

From my childhood in the late 90’s/early 00’s at a hunter/jumper barn:

• Flater than flat close contact saddles with slick leather that did nothing to keep your leg still or your butt in the saddle.

• Polo wraps for all 4 legs while school over fences. Lord help you if you didn’t get the number of wraps correct.

• Gel half pads to cushion were the new hot thing. I loved mine,

• Solid wood tack trunks what weighed more than a small house (ok maybe not that much) that didn’t have wheels. Loading those suckers into the trailer was the worst.

• Feeding horses beer to help them fatten and shine up.

• Big square coolers that you could win that tied up by the ears.

• Baby pads with your barn logo embroidered on them under your fleece pad to keep it clean.

• Every hunter had either a kimberwick or eggbutt snaffle.

• The GPA helmet when it first came out was all the rage at my barn. I was far too poor and practical to buy it.

[ravenclaw]

I think stable management/horse management was part of the Pony Club ratings. Is Pony Club still around now?

One thing that I haven’t seen listed yet (although I might have missed it) is Triple Crown brand blankets, sheets, and coolers. I think Triple Crown might have made quilted leg wraps too. The ones that you put on before standing wraps.

[equinelibrium]

@Displaced_Yankee

The second edition of Susan Harris’ “Grooming To Win” has the instructions. I still pick this book up several times a year.

(Although, no substitute for someone teaching you how)

Yep, I’ve tried several times to make one based off of those instructions, and it never worked I ended up getting a leather backed brush which works pretty well.

[SuzieQNutter]

quote=“ClassyJumper, post:73, topic:753458, full:true”]
I use a mounting block at home where my mare stands perfectly but still have DH give me a leg up at shows where she is less inclined to stand patiently. She is off the track though.
[/quote]

When you mount from the mounting block at home you keep the horse standing still before you move off a lot longer than needed. This is because at the show the horse will stand but not for as long but gives you enough time to get on.

[KBC]

@Willesdon

Old enough that I can recall horses still being given beer and eggs to build them up! Oh the joys of feeding when one had to mix the feed oneself: a scoop of this, a chop of that, a soak of something else. Thank heavens for the professional nutritionists at specialist equine feed companies. And rugging up at night with (human) blankets and duvets under the stable rug, all folded correctly then encircled with an anti-cast surcingle. On the other hand, over rugging has become a welfare issue, here in the UK.

Oh the multiple feed bins, with the huge bran one in the corner, dipping into each one, making feeds up for each horse.

I’d forgotten the art of folding human blankets and quilts, and the anti cast roller…not sure I could do that without a refresher, or twist up a Whisp.

[Xanthoria]

LMK if you want instructions _ I can tell you

[Xanthoria]

@BigMama1

Taking a bridle completely apart and making kids put it back together correctly without any instructions was one of my favourite activities as a riding camp counsellor - guaranteed all of us at least an hour break in the middle of the day while the kids tried to figure it out lol.

We used to do that blindfolded at rallies as a competition. Ooof!