Smells fishy, though!
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I think in UK it is still at thing. It makes me think of Thelwell cartoon of kid whacking their pony on the butt with a towel.
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I was lucky enough to learn about strapping from an English groom a few years back. My sensitive gelding was not a fan of being brushed but he LOVED strapping. I definitely got odd looks from barnmates when I “beat” him with a towel in the crossties 
It made him so very shiny!
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For the longest time Preliminary was thelowest level. Hence the name. Then (circa 1970) they introduced Training as an easy way to get started. Novice came along about a decade later.
But Pony Club rallies had levels down to D1.
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I think strapping has always been a UK only thing. It was in our pony club mnual, but I did not know anyone in the US wh actually did it.
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Overgirths used on XC, particularly long format 3 days when you could be on your horse for an hour with a broken girth. Along those lines, the whole setup in the 10 minute box…all the spare tack, vet supplies, clothing (horse & human) you had to pack and arrange.
White lined bridles were big in the 90s. Rubber reins were usually red or white rubber.
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Phelans! i lived in San Francisco and shopped there a couple times a month…awesome place. I still have a couple of neck warmers with their logo.
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The Miller Catalog was the Bible, velvet hunt coat collars, leather lined skull caps, tearing up mattress pads to make standing wraps. Safety pins instead of Duct tape because it did not exist. The upgrade of Purina Horse Chow to Omelene. I still remember the first printed lined paper bag…it was such an innovation! Source supplement was the all the rage and no barn medicine cabinet was complete without blu kote, red kote, furazone and peroxide. We used saddle soap, Neatsfoot and Lexol ( a wonder our tack survived). Mane &Tail shampoo and Show Sheen were must haves for our horses and ourselves ( a wonder our hair did not fall out). Feed corn when it was cold and bad feet were the result of not using enough hoof flex…
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Red Cell with the pump attachment screwed to the top. The pump was supposed to make it easier to dole out the correct portion but all I remember was the mess it would make! It seemed like everyone had their horse on it too. The feed room looked like a disaster zone. Also remember a lesson horse feed room where most of the old timers got 2 grams of bute. Every. Day. That was decades ago and I have not met a vet in current times that would recommend that!
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When did it become ok to throw a halter & lead on the ground when bridling, and then leave it there until it was needed after riding?
One of the biblical-commandment principals drilled into us was “nothing that touches the horse ever touches the ground “. Something really terrible would have happened to anyone who threw a halter, horse blanket or longeing equipment on the ground. If they left it there, they probably wouldn’t see it again after the barn manager locked it away.
A lot of basic habits have changed in strange ways.
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Shipping bandages of cotton quilts and flannels wrapped the old fashion way instead of shipping boots. When shipping boots became the rage I bought a really nice set, hated them and quickly went back to the tried and true after one trip. You can still find flannels so I know I’m not the only one…
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A dial phone with a super long flexible curly-coil cord attached high on the wall of a covered arena, so the pro trainer could answer calls without getting off the horse.
Horses that, while being ridden in said arena, went directly to said phone whenever it rang.
Truly flat English jumping saddles with zero knee roll. I still have my old Blue Ribbon and it was a very simple construction.
Velvet-covered helmets. Mushroom style.
Hemp lead ropes.
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Or not sweep up after your horse? I am the last lesson of the night and the cross ties are a mess, bridles in a heap, helmets lying around on the floor, brushes everywhere. I swear I get the prime lesson times because I clean up before and after, lol
Also the belief that you never rode alone, this was not for safety, it was so you could get your tall boots off.
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It means “hot” but not in the sense of temperature. I got the impression from a Spanish-speaker it means more like “hot” as in “lookin’ hot, babe”!
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I believe they were named for the Aqua Caliente racetrack, where they first became popular with jockeys.
It was also the rage for hunter and event riders to get nylon covers made in their stable colors. This was before spandex and other super stretch fabrics, so you had to have a rubber band or googles on the helmet to hold your custom cover on. Eventers fancied a pompom top on theirs, I had a plain flat button on mine.
Mine was retired after saving my life in a fall in the 80s.
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Embroidered chokers😉
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I am not sure if this was function of time or the fact that I am just around different people in a different place, different breed/discipline. Same re general anal retentiveness about grooming, tack cleaning, etc. I used to be in Morgan/Saddlebred barns in New England, now I am in MN and it is 25 yrs later, different disciplines.
You faced holy hell if you left halter on the ground, or even just dangling from cross ties. Horse gets foot in it, or you trip, all bad.
I am the only person after 13 years of riding in the state of Minnesota that I have seen clean their bridle after riding (not exaggerating). I had someone use my horse in a lesson and the bridle was hung up drenched in sweat. I realized it had never even occurred to her that one would clean a bridle after using (even if not drenched), whereas I never asked b/c it didn’t occur to me that someone wouldn’t.
A lot of ppl don’t even wipe down the bit. The 18 year old in me is shocked that their horses have not died. Also that barn hasn’t burned down b/c of lack of weekly cobweb removal.
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Same - I’d see stuff & pictures in books. I always thought they did it in KY or some other magical horsey place in the South.
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I was confused in 2010 when vet asked me what form of bute I wanted.
Me: It comes in different forms now?
The last time I had used bute I had to pulverize pills with a hammer for my pony.
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A horse with strong signs of advancing colic must be euthanized immediately, “before it gets bad“.
I still have friends who get back into horses after a couple of decades (or more) of career &/or children, all in a panic because their new-ish horse is showing early signs of colic. How soon do you make the call to end the horse’s suffering before it becomes unbearable?
When I came back to horses, the first time I was in a veterinary ICU with a colic, I told the vet that I did not want to drag this out for the horse if it was unlikely to have a good outcome. The vet looked at me and said kindly, “he has better than an 80% chance of surviving”.
Veterinary medicine has come so far in the last few decades. 
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