Break out your old photos of buckstitched chaps, and silver laced tack! Or link me to old show pics you’ve found online. I wasn’t to see how things have changed!
don’t forget the dyed to match chaps, boots and hats with those oh so lovely tall crowns
http://www.jerrywellsquarterhorses.com/stallions.html
this site has some great older show pics
http://www.mygardenofpromise.websetsbydonna.com/photosbydonna/index.htm
some great ones here
http://www.equinechronicle.com/wp-content/files_flutter/1280347957EquineChronicle1974.jpg
at one time this was cool
http://www.jerrywellsquarterhorses.com/stallions.html
scroll down for Impressive yearling photo from 1970
kind of like looking at a photo of the Titanic as it disembarks.
“One of the Leading Sires of All Time…”
!
[QUOTE=Burbank;6500794]
http://www.equinechronicle.com/wp-content/files_flutter/1280347957EquineChronicle1974.jpg
at one time this was cool[/QUOTE]
:eek:
I don’t have any pictures of it in use, but I have a vintage western/parade saddle, with the diamond spots on everything. I love it, it is so delightfully tacky. I’d really like to get a breast collar made to match and show a saddlebred in it, WP there is basically parade.
Similar to this, but older and a lot nicer:
http://stuff4horses.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=162_168&products_id=1261
[QUOTE=Burbank;6500794]
http://www.equinechronicle.com/wp-content/files_flutter/1280347957EquineChronicle1974.jpg
at one time this was cool[/QUOTE]
:eek::eek:Too awesomely awful! I wish it was a color photo!
Don’t forget my personal favorite — saddle blankets with yarn fringe all over the back edge! EVERYONE rode with one. And the gaited people, nothing personal meant by this, would ride with the buckstitched saddle and a saddle pad that looked like a furry bathroom rug. There was a time when I lusted over those fringed saddle blankets!
I had a fringed saddle blanket! It was black and red and looked awesome on the bay I was riding back when I was a “wrangler” at the Peekskill Dude Ranch. 
I loved buckstitching. I still have a bridle I think.
Loved the western pleasure horses in those old pictures! They certainly looked like more of a pleasure to ride than the extremes seen in the show ring today. How did we get from there to here?
How about this gem? Western equitation suits. All I could find was a pattern to sew your own: http://www.etsy.com/listing/11126806/jean-hardy-vintage-western-outfit
I never did figure out how women managed to ride in those things since many of them had elephant bottoms ala bell bottoms to the extreme
red mares, you’d need to show Parade in a saddle like that in the ASBs unless it’s really, really different where you are.
And, there are ASB peeps who still dye their hats a matching color. Couple of them have won at L’ville the last two years.
For others, dark oil is in in the ASB ranks, and rhinestone bling on the saddles and bridles (seen in the QH ranks) … O-U-T w/ASBs 
A famous saddlemaker based in Temecula even makes his saddles so the rhinestones can come off, or as he confided quietly, “when folks come to their senses.”
[QUOTE=sk_pacer;6501751]
How about this gem? Western equitation suits. All I could find was a pattern to sew your own: http://www.etsy.com/listing/11126806/jean-hardy-vintage-western-outfit
I never did figure out how women managed to ride in those things since many of them had elephant bottoms ala bell bottoms to the extreme[/QUOTE]
This is how old I am…my original equitation suits were made of WOOL. We didn’t have polyester back in those days. And the suits were made with a crotch strap to hold the shirt tight and in your pants.
No matter how thin you were, we wore what we called an “iron maiden,” a neck to thigh girdle so your skin didn’t jiggle, or heaven forbid, you had a little muffin top anywhere. Between the crotch strap, the iron maiden and the chaps, heaven help you if you had to pee.
I miss the old brow band/concho and ferrule headstalls made by Victor, Jedlicka, etc. Those were gorgeous works of art. The sterling and sterling/blued bits were amazing, too.
I miss romel reins…although you will see some folks in the working cow classes still using them.
I would also like to say that I get a big laugh when I hear H/J people complain about having to wear a coat for a two minute round of jumps. Try wearing a iron maiden, a wool equitation suit, leather chaps, a felt hat, gloves and boots on a 90 degree day, all while riding a reining pattern (basically) with perfect equitation.
WIMPS! :lol:
What I like about those old photos is the western horses traveling in a natural frame–not like the peanut pushers of today. Who started that trend anyway? And why?
I remember seeing ads for wool suits but couldn’t find any pics. The first eq suit I saw in real life was one of those polyester things with those huge bell bottoms. There were a lot of shirts just for normal wear back then that had those stupid crotch pieces and corsets were just about needed for the brave few that wore them. except maybe Twiggy.
I wasn’t much into showing except for some gaming when I left home so was in the blue jean with creases. white shirt and bull dogger tie group. That was also the accepted dress code for wp classes in this area since many show participants were working cowboys rather than people with show strings at fancy barns. I remember the two toughest competitors in most western events were a working cowboy and a mixed farmer, neither of whom wore anything but pressed jeans, white shirt and bull dogger ties.They also used the same tack they used for working. This is still a very rural area, still lots of working cowboys, mixed farming and no boarding barns
Go Fish, romel reins are still very much in use in the Arabian WP ring, love them
Ditto on the nice, normal, natural, happy-looking western pleasure horses. Western Torture horses of today are just pitiful in comparison.
Certainly a refreshing flashback compared to the robotic looking WP horses of today.
I don’t have documentation to back this up, but from what I’ve been told -supposedly at an upper rated show many years ago, one of the judges pinned a peanut roller type of horse.
Other competitors took note and followed suit. Then the trend started.
Recently went to a Regional QH Show and couldn’t believe the horrible movers. :no: I thought the AQHA was moving foward and trying to end this trend, but the slowest, robotic moving horses, with their ear tips clearly below the withers, behind the vertical, were pinning.
Even worse, horses obviously trained using the rail to keep them slow were doing quite well. Judges had to be blind not to notice this…
