I had to talk a more than a few girls off the ledges because the new harnesses were going to ruin their pictures 
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EXACTLY! If you cannot ride your children’s horse or children’s pony- or your AA horse for that matter- bareback for reasons other than your personal preference or the animal’s withers, you and the horse may not be suitable for the division. They are supposed to have manners. If you slide off because you have no balance that’s an important lesson.
By the way, @Weezer, we have a bunch of fearless juniors who would love to back your pony and would do a good job, too, but the trouble is that their parents love them and feed them adequate nutrition so they are all TALL. Yet another problem with kids these days. 
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@Salty, that first picture is from 1966. 
The breeches had flares, were made of cotton, and had no stretch whatsoever.
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Sorry, once I heard those plastic harnesses referred to as the flea collar helmets, I could never think of them any other way again. Lol.
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Concern for a kid’s safety?
I’m not saying it’s always accurate, and it should always be polite. However, I am willing to give the benefit of the doubt to someone who might not want to see a kid get hurt.
I had those breeches too! 
(I started riding in the early 1960s) Flared, gabardine breeches with those little buttons on the calf because Velcro had not been invented yet! Those buttons pinched my calves and left little circles on my skin because my custom boots were so tight fitting. And because of the flared breeches, the riding jackets stuck out so far, I look at pictures of myself in those days and want to cry! I still remember my first pair of canary breeches that had stretch fabric and Velcro on the calf, I thought I was so cool.
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Those were my first pair too!
LetItBe
I think my nostalgic love for these things may now be close to dead and buried 
I still swear posting the trot without stirrups was much easier in a pancake. Or I at least like to blame the struggle bus’ing on the plush, deep-seated, knee-rolled up, chock full o’blocks, modern day saddle I’m in now.
Instead of being, you know, twice as old (give or take, and give some more) as I was when I rode in a pancake.
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I like to decide where to sit and put my leg by myself, thanks. Lol.
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When I was a kid, our parents dropped us off at the barn on non-school days and left us. We carpooled and whoever’s mom just left us for the day, until somebody else’s mom picked us up. There was plenty of bareback, halter and lead rope shenanigans. And games of tag. And illicit racing and other stupidity.
The barn I’m at now, my first back as a re-rider, is super ammy and kid friendly but I often wonder where everybody is. Apparently when the weather is crap, the kids are really, really scarce.
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Me too. Me too.
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That’s a shame! Most of our juniors have another commitment (two gymnasts, a soccer player, a volleyball player, lead in the school musical…) so that does take up some of their time, but they’re around about as much as school and the barn management will allow them! We always have a horde helping with summer camp, etc. It helps that many of them live close enough that the parents can drop them off and go do something else. This is something that really struck me while watching Road to the Maclay as a junior- some of those kids lived 90-120 minutes from the farm and got taken there and back in traffic both ways. Of course they weren’t barn ratting. There simply wouldn’t be enough hours in the day. After that I felt very lucky that I was “only” 45 minutes away and that my mother was a horse person who recognized the value in dropping me off in the morning with $5 to go trail ride up to the corner store for lunch.
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Has anyone ever really thought about that patch on the inside of the crotch on old TS breeches? I mean, what were they implying?
Or was it more innocent, like just an extra piece of fabric to bolster the stress on that seam?
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Those were the kids who were zeroing in on shooting for a ribbon at the finals. Most of them probably did not do that all throughout their junior years.
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I can’t imagine doing it for a year!
I remember reading somewhere Jacob Pope used to commute to Heritage from Maryland every weekend when in school, staying up there in the summers as a working student.
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It takes a lot of dedication. Not just from the rider, but from the rider’s whole family.
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Wasn’t it a gusset because the fabric had limited stretch?
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I still think it’s an elegant look, maybe because I was obsessed with C.W. Anderson’s drawings when I was a kid. Split breeches must have been a legitimate concern, however, what with no stretch!
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