Me too…Marlboroughs with garters. Rode in a Stuben, until Borelli (sp?) came along. Hat and jacket same color, blue or dark green. Then my mom got divorced, horses got sold, and I had about 5 years of no showing. Then, since it was the 70’s, deck shoes, jeans, and polo wrapped legs. What a dumb fashion that was!
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Like Kurt Russell pulling the horse trailer with his sports car in Horse in the Gray Flannel Suit! Lol.
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Oh, I thought the pulled tails and roached manes were so cool! It made those QHs look like real ranch horses.
I remember the huge solid jumps in the outdoor hunter courses.
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Mohair string girths are still popular with endurance riders. They’re comfy!
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I still have those! All four even, with extra straps.
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I still have a partial set of pillow wraps - Wilkers, I think? - in my closet that the cats nap on. Realizing it’s only a partial set, I’m wondering where the others are because those ****ers were EXPENSIVE (for me).
I had hideous halter fleeces, too.
And cringe, thinking about my pommel pad use. I was totally filling up any clearance under my Courbette Stylist.
Oh. FOAM LOLLYPOP PADS!!! Has anyone said that yet?
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Polo wraps for half chaps was some MacGyver goodness!
(was that meta?)
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I remember when the courses were posted without any written measurements for the lines. You just jumped everything out of a forward stride. Not a whole lot of consciously counting strides, except maybe the in-and-out. And there was almost always an in-and-out. About the only instructions I got from my trainer back then was, “Gallop!” Lots of galloping to the jumps. Galloping, galloping, galloping…
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Saddle fitting meant adding or subtracting a numnah.
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I remember board (on Long Island, NY) for $60 a month. That included staff doing turnout and blanket changes, hay 3x a day and grain 2x a day. With an indoor ring and grass turnout… It’s now hard to find anything with an indoor for less than $1800.
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I can relate to a lot of these. My first saddle was a Crump Prix de Saute.
I remember when my mom sewed velcro onto the flannel standing bandages so we didn’t have to stab ourselves with rusty bandage pins.
People bred TBs specifically for the hunter ring, and they could get expensive.
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A bit more recent here but I remember when fake tails were just coming on the scene. My trainer and family refused to participate.
We showed in snaffle bits and brow bands on our junior horses, rather than bosals with hangers or shaped ear headstalls.
Gloves were a MUST in showmanship and horsemanship (puke).
Girls wore button down oxford shirts under vests. If you were really fancy, you switched to a slinky shirt (I can’t remember what we called them) under the vest for horsemanship or just the slinky shirt all on it’s own if it had sequins or a small handful of rhinestones.
Those horrible bun hair nets with the bow were a thing.
My sister’s first fancy show saddle, which became my hand-me-down, was a medium oil Billy Cook with modest silver, and wire wrapped cantle. Comfiest western saddle I’ve ever sat my tush in, but heavier than sin.
I only have “way back” stories from the western world because I didn’t start showing hunters until I was in my 20s. I’m a little worried by those essentially gagging at the idea of high waisted side zip TS breeches 
I just discovered those a couple years ago and am in love with them. They flatter my not-so-size-0 rear end and I’m always scouring FB for bargains on lightly used ones. I thought they were “in” but I do love them. I had no idea they were a “way back” item. Low rise breeches make me scoff because there is just no way for them to fit comfortably nor flatteringly on me.
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{nodding} & One of the classes with the least entries was Non-TB.
Which my trainer-at-the-time kept wanting me to enter, because my TB was not tattooed (never raced) & stockier than a lot of the TBs competing.
I’m also old enough to recall when WBs were a novelty in the Hunter ring 
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And I DROOLED over them, as a too-tall rider on thoroughbreds so skinny they had only a left side or a right side, with my feet practically touching the ground.
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Navajo saddle pads. 'Nuf said.
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Egg crate foam half pads 
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Spotted a pile of them at a tack shop yesterday and thought: This can’t possibly be happening again.
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I made a half pad from egg foam and my App LOVED it! All the other gels, etc, I bought him and he like that one the best.
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Yes, this! 
And then, when WBs first came on the scene, they were the older, heavier types. (I remember because we were breeding to some of those early imports). Some of the hunter judges would make a notation on their scorecards like, “WR” for “wrong ring” because they felt that WBs were more suitable for jumpers.
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Going back even further, needlepoint belts with your name or horse’s name on them and custom chaps with needlepoint across the back.
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