"Wow, they do that now?" -- Surprises after a long absence

[kirbydog]

Harry Hall was the first to come out with the super clingy breeches. The dang things would embed themselves into your flesh after a long hot day of wearing them under your nice tightly fitting boots. Had to peel them out of my skin a few times. Not pleasant…

[JBCool]

Haha, yeah I was able to attend our local year-end show the other week for the first time in forever and discovered that all my purchased-since-the-last-time-I-showed-in-November clothing was definitely designed for summer! Days 2 & 3 involved multiple layers that could go over said show clothes in between classes.

[Tha_Ridge]

@MHM

I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a 2d class on the East Coast.

We have plenty of 2d out here.

[Renn_aissance]

Speak for yourself on the scars. That horrible seam meant I could not wear Tailoreds because the seam wouldn’t go over my calf! Instead I wore Pikeur in the same shade of puke green, once I eventually got cool enough that I wasn’t wearing beige.

My first pair of jodhpurs were rust. I am sure they were Millers. Mom (well, really Grandma) hadn’t kept any of her own childhood riding gear, outside of her brush box and the aforementioned full chaps, otherwise I’m certain I would have started riding in super cool pants with a flared seat.

[foursocks]

The two possible breeches you could wear when I was a junior to show in were either very thin and skin tight- Harry Halls, for example, which would show my grandma panties- or the thick puke green TS’s that made your thighs look huge.

There were a few male trainers who got a lot of mileage out of the skin tight ones, especially when they didn’t wear underwear.

[Words_of_Wisdom]

They ARE basically indestructible-- I got spun off once, and landed on my knees-- my knees themselves were all torn up and bloody, but the material of the breeches still looked perfect!

[chestnutmarebeware]

@Training_Cupid

@ZuzusPetals

Why don’t breeches come with elastic stirrups? Wouldn’t that make all the sense in the world to keep them from riding up?

Because this would require the pants to be almost exactly the correct length for your leg, and how often does that happen?? (Speaking as someone who is 5’2" and has to fold up the bottom hem on most of my breeches, and get my nice slacks hemmed… )

Yes, but your mom who is handy with a sewing machine could get the idea from the kiddie jods you wore as a tot and add them to your breeches after listening to you moan and groan about them riding up!

My mom was the ultimate McGyver mom and I still miss her every day!

[chestnutmarebeware]

And I miss Newmarket boots, dammit!

Just throwing that out here…

[MHM]

@chestnutmarebeware

And I miss Newmarket boots, dammit!

Just throwing that out here…

I swear I just saw those on somebody not too long ago and did a giant double take. I had not seen them in years and years and years.

[chestnutmarebeware]

@MHM

@chestnutmarebeware

And I miss Newmarket boots, dammit!

Just throwing that out here…

I swear I just saw those on somebody not too long ago and did a giant double take. I had not seen them in years and years and years.

You made me curious, so I did a quick Google search and they are available through a couple of bootmakers, Dehner being one. I didn’t recognize the other names, so they may be fashion boots, though.

[ZuzusPetals]

@Chestnutmarebeware, another name I recall from the board 1,000 years ago. How I enjoyed your insight then and I’m so pleased to see you here still. I’m glad this thread made you recall your mother with fondness.

[Texarkana]

@ChickChickleton

Remember how it was cool when the velvet changed colors - purple or yellow.

OMG, has this been mentioned yet?

Having a faded brown helmet was a status symbol, to the point where when I got to college (a school with a huge H/J program) I realized many of the girls achieved this by storing their helmet in the back windshield of their car.

Not long after CO started selling velvet helmets in shades of blue and brown.

[Paint_Party]

@kirbydog

remember boot garters?! on your Marlborough boots?

Was going to post the same comment.

And if your Marlboroughs weren’t tall enough, you got patent leather boot tops sewn on top. And scoured the local cobbler shops to find someone who’d rip open the back seam and take them in a little to fit your scrawny calf.

^^^ This was me at 13 and 14

[Foitin]

Glad they are still kickin’

[Indy]

@Texarkana

OMG, has this been mentioned yet?

Having a faded brown helmet was a status symbol, to the point where when I got to college (a school with a huge H/J program) I realized many of the girls achieved this by storing their helmet in the back windshield of their car.

Not long after CO started selling velvet helmets in shades of blue and brown.

I had totally forgotten about doing that until your post. When I was a junior I attempted to achieve the cool faded velvet helmet look by using bleach spray. Which I did not dilute enough so it shredded the velvet. Fortunately I was at least smart enough to test out the bleach on the underside of the brim so I didn’t destroy the whole thing. But I definitely showed the better part of my last junior year with a jacked up looking helmet because my mom wouldn’t buy me a new one.

[Peggy]

@Pokerface

@CBoylen

I love the 2-way TS. I hunt in them. They don’t get taken out by the thorns. Y’all and your damn soft new-age breeches that don’t survive in the hunt field…

That may be their ONE redeeming quality. Two if you count that they are the same color as your horse’s slobber .

Always thought that was a super practical color.

And I washed both the TS breeches and the cotton shirts. Hung to dry and ironed the portions of the shirts that stuck outvof the jacket.

[gertie06]

@foursocks

or the thick puke green TS’s that made your thighs look huge

In my circle, it was cool to wear these hideous things a little bit baggy…so I looked simultaneously fat AND like I pooped my pants.

[ShenanAnna]

I never really liked skin-tight breeches. About 1990, one of my horse catalogs had “kinda horsey” pants that were loose in the thigh, almost like old-style jodhpurs, but with fitted lower legs and knee patches like regular riding pants. I know they were meant for regular wear, but that’s what I rode in.

[Jaegermonster]

@ZuzusPetals

Even on these boards so much has changed. I was active in the days of dear Cactus Kate and Willem, of jiggling curb chains for good wishes, of Erin up and quitting, of the Aiden thread that took us to the depths of a family’s despair and the heights of their triumph. I believe we even had a guy or two posting.

We’re sitting here talking about what was and I’m so enjoying it. At the same time, it’s all so bittersweet. A horse world that we knew is gone forever, in so many ways.

Even now, as I’m barn/horse/coach shopping – and waiting delivery of a new pair of full chaps IN HUNTER GREEN, NO LESS [can you hear me in the back row, you half-chaps boosters?] – I worry that my joints are shot, my nerve gone, my tolerance for injury about zero. But I have to try. I need horses again. I need you all again.

I remember all
Of that too!!

[rulex]

@MHM

A lot of the kids today seem to be fitting the horse activity in around their other 10 activities, so they just don’t seem to have the time to hang out at the barn all day and go for a trail ride out through the woods, or bop around bareback, or what have you.

I don’t know if it’s that so much as now kids are not left unsupervised at the barn, and the supervising parent is on a schedule and keeps the kid focused on getting in and getting out.