Who is from the "olden" days

[pippy]

I would love to hear stories about those of you, (including me) who learned to ride the good ole schooling horses, but then....all there was were the HOT TB's off the track. How many funny stories do you have about, "Don't sit in the saddle, it fires them up" or "Don't pull on the reins, that makes them go faster." Those TB's taught us how to ride though, didn't they?:yes:

[fourmares]

What do you consider the "olden days". I rode in the 70's and 80's. (o.k. I still ride, but that's when I started) And rode a lot of schoolies... even back then there were plenty of non TBs to ride. We also rode appys, and QHs and morgans. I even rode a few mustangs. Horses often did a little of everything and didn't specialize in the same way that they do now. Jumpers spent a couple of years in the hunter ring before moving up. Any hunter class under 3'6" was unrated as were jumpers under 4' or 4'6". Lots of shows had outdoor courses and it was not unusual to have whole divisions show in slightly hilly areas instead of in groomed flat arenas.

[Equsrider]

Every once and a while my kids ask me about the "Olden Days" (all the 70's and early 80's)and what it was like...one of my favorites is about my OTTB Jr Jumper mare.She was about as hot and fast as they come.....Learning to even get on the mare was a challenge as standing still was NOT something she EVER wanted to do!My young trainer at the time who is now a very successful eastcoast BNT decided that if I was going to continue in the jumpers than I also need to continue in the Big Eq ring...on the same horse!At one show in particular we are flatting in the Eq class, and well.. the fast mare was being her usual self...doing tempi changes down the long side as I tried to slow her and passing everyone up as I tried to soften...all the while my trainer telling me to sit taller, slow her down, don't pull on the reins,stop crying!!!!E-Q-U-I-T-A-T-E by golly!I came out of the ring a frazzled mess.I never knew a horse had so many different buttons and I had been pushing them all...all at the same time.Needless to say that class earned me quite a few lunge line lessons, I think now because the trainer was attached to the other end and there was no means of escape!But as I tell my kids the story, I get all welled up with devotion, to that trainer and that horse, because I did eventually learn to campaign her successfully in the Eq ring.as well as my first Grand Prix!My favorite EQ test...switching horses!!! Never found anyone else who was able to ride her in a moments notice!

[pippy]

What a great story Equsrider! One of my favorite stories is my first show with my new TB. We too, were in the flat class, not equitation, thank God, and apparently, my TB thought this was SO not right having all these other horses pass him. Well, he took off, and I am trying to slow him down, with my trainer yelling, "Be soft, don't pull on the reins." Yeah right, that worked well. I ended up flying off (now I am only 13 at this time...late 70's early 80's) and he thought it would be fun to start jumping jumps on his own. They of course, stopped the class, picked me up out of the dirt, and caught my horse. As the years passed, he did teach me how to be soft, and handle his "sensitivity" and became quite a nice 3'6 horse. I tell this story to my daughter, and she thinks it's hysterical.

[Equsrider]

Pippy, I like that one too! I have a million I could tell...I was about 8 years old and fox hunting on my pony...we came galloping out of the woods into about an 80 acre cut corn field, because I was a Junior member we rode at the back of the pact, but once we hit that field my pony felt like he had to be in front. We kept passing members of the field and just after passing my parents on my way to passing the MFH and hounds I hear what I thought my mom was saying...Pull on the REINS!!!I looked back and yelled I AM PULLING ON THE REINS!!!!!! Actually she was saying PULLEY REIN !!!!!!!!!I got a big talking too after that incident...but was always known after that as the kid with no fear! Not like I had any choice in the matter!

[pines4equines]

I used to be a groom all through the 70s (in my teens) and very early 80s. I worked for Jack Rockwell at the Hill (now Old Salem Farm), Gary Rockwell at Sleepy Hollow Country Club, Elmont Farms, Indian Hill and a bunch of others.

Also worked from Reiner Neivisch who I understand is working out of some large farm in Westchester. Man, was he a clean freak but boy was that great experience. You should see my barn now, Reiner would be happy.

I grew up in Westchester and didn't have a horse to ride, I did take many lessons but grooming was the way to be near horses if you didn't have one. At that time, Pony Club did not accept you if you didn't own a horse. But grooming was fun. I actually traveled the show circuit with Jack Rockwell. I groomed Native Gem for Beverly and infamous Sweet 'n Low who eventually went on to, I think, hold the record at the Garden for jumping the Puissance Wall. In 1979, I had a chance to see Twentieth Century Limited in a hunter on the flat class...I will never forget how that horse moved.....

I learned so much from these people that I worked for! Later I became a race horse groom, breeding...a world of experience that I look back fondly on. Hard work but fun! I went to college but all this horse work paid for some college and has helped with my business to this day.

[woodhillsmanhattan]

I wouldn't say I was from the olden days considering i was born in '91 but i did ride school horses for the first 2 years and then leased an OTTB for 2 years before I got my own horse :)

[clearound]

I used to be a groom all through the 70s (in my teens) and very early 80s. I worked for Jack Rockwell at the Hill (now Old Salem Farm), Gary Rockwell at Sleepy Hollow Country Club, Elmont Farms, Indian Hill and a bunch of others.

Also worked from Reiner Neivisch who I understand is working out of some large farm in Westchester. Man, was he a clean freak but boy was that great experience. You should see my barn now, Reiner would be happy.

I grew up in Westchester and didn't have a horse to ride, I did take many lessons but grooming was the way to be near horses if you didn't have one. At that time, Pony Club did not accept you if you didn't own a horse. But grooming was fun. I actually traveled the show circuit with Jack Rockwell. I groomed Native Gem for Beverly and infamous Sweet 'n Low who eventually went on to, I think, hold the record at the Garden for jumping the Puissance Wall. In 1979, I had a chance to see Twentieth Century Limited in a hunter on the flat class...I will never forget how that horse moved.....

I learned so much from these people that I worked for! Later I became a race horse groom, breeding...a world of experience that I look back fondly on. Hard work but fun! I went to college but all this horse work paid for some college and has helped with my business to this day.

When were you at the Hill? I rode with Jack from 72 to 76.

[copper1]

I remember well the days of OTTB horses and their success in the show ring! I grew up in the 60's and 70's of my horse life and we rode anything with hair and legs and boy did those horses teach us stuff! I recall a cute little chestnut mare of the track-real pretty, great mover and a fruit cake! Fine to get on, start to walk around the arena and then she would crouch down and freeze and after afew seconds, just launch herself in what ever direction and I had no choice in the matter! Even going back to basics on the lunge line she never came 'round as a riding horse. She sure did teach me how to sit tight! I do remember more than one though that went on to show ring success in NJ and those circuits, not the top level but up there pretty high.

[3Dogs]

look at my website - and that horse that brought me back into showing - Expert Witness - a TB!

[pippy]

Another one of my favorite stories is one day, I thought I'd take a nice walk in the field. Back in the early 80's we NEVER wore hats, so I'm just lolly-gagging around, and all of the sudden, the TB takes off...I mean flying at top speed. I aimed him at one of the paddock fences, thinking he'd stop. Oh no, we jumped it. Still flying around, I pulled one rein out to the side, and this time, I aimed him at an announcers booth. He stopped alright, he went right, I went left, and back to the barn he went. Again, picking my butt up out of the dirt.

[pippy]

I used to be a groom all through the 70s (in my teens) and very early 80s. I worked for Jack Rockwell at the Hill (now Old Salem Farm), Gary Rockwell at Sleepy Hollow Country Club, Elmont Farms, Indian Hill and a bunch of others.

Also worked from Reiner Neivisch who I understand is working out of some large farm in Westchester. Man, was he a clean freak but boy was that great experience. You should see my barn now, Reiner would be happy.

I grew up in Westchester and didn't have a horse to ride, I did take many lessons but grooming was the way to be near horses if you didn't have one. At that time, Pony Club did not accept you if you didn't own a horse. But grooming was fun. I actually traveled the show circuit with Jack Rockwell. I groomed Native Gem for Beverly and infamous Sweet 'n Low who eventually went on to, I think, hold the record at the Garden for jumping the Puissance Wall. In 1979, I had a chance to see Twentieth Century Limited in a hunter on the flat class...I will never forget how that horse moved.....

I learned so much from these people that I worked for! Later I became a race horse groom, breeding...a world of experience that I look back fondly on. Hard work but fun! I went to college but all this horse work paid for some college and has helped with my business to this day.

How amazing you got to groom those horses and watch them go. I was like you. I'd take any job I got just to be at the barn hoping to get a chance to ride.

[mroades]

In the 70's I was jumping ponies over 3' jumps bareback in a halter....even backwards! Kids nowadays dont get to do that stuff. I remember taking my Harrisburg qualifying medium to swim in the borrow pit, then being champion the next weekend.

[shawneeAcres]

I am from the very olden days having started riding in 1970, well.....actually before that! See I NEVER rode Schoolies, NEVER had a lesson (until I was 17), and got my first horse in 1970 for Christmas. My parents KNEW how "horse sick" I was as I would go out into the country and climb on ANY horse in ANY pasture, no saddle, bridle, etc! I used to stay at my cousins farm, they ran a saddlebred breeding operation for a somewhat wealthy insurance man in Stuart. Va. In summer of 1970 (before owning a horse) there was a tennesee walking horse mare across the road in a pasture, I took to riding her bareback, no halter, lead or anything! Well Mr. Boaz (the owner) found out, and he took me down to the "treasured tack room" where I would peek thru the windows (it was locked) at all the lovely tack, ribbons and awards inside. He opened it up and told me to pick out a bridle, I picked one with green roseetes on it! LOL Of course, still no saddle but at LEAST I had a bridle to ride with! When I finally got my horse ( a heinz 57 western horse) I rode him to a 4th place at my first show in Stuart. I was SO happy. Well, Then I decided I had to ride "english". My parents got me an argentine saddle (a Borelli I think) and an english bridle and I proceeded to teach myself how to ride this way. Still had never had a lesson, and it took me a while to figure out what they were talking about as far as "diagonals" go in the books I would read late into the night. I also taught my western horse to jump, using concrete blocks and cedar poles we cut out of the woods! Our first hunter show was at Lochill Farm in Hillsborough, NC where I placed 6th and 2nd in over fences classes (the 2nd was a handy hunter class) and 1st in Eq on the flat! That was it I was hooked! I proceeded to teach myself dressage, eventing you name it! I would ride ANYTHING and got on many a completely basket case TB in my day!! Yes those WERE the days!!!

[pines4equines]

Clearound: I was at the Hill the summer of 1979. I worked the show aisle. I remember a groom in the boarder aisle I really looked up to, she was an older woman...at that time I thought she was older, maybe 30-ish and she was a wealth of info. I would sit and ask question after question or just watch her groom. She was the first person who introduced me to the world of horses and what really happened after they were no longer useful. Previously I had worked at a school horse barn where the woman kept them until death. I remember this groom cleaning an infirmed horse at the Hill meticulously so it could be loaded on the meat wagon. I'll never forget that. She taught me compassion.

Clearound: Did you show with Jack? Ever go on the A-circuit with him? In 1979, we went to Mason Phelps show, Mt. Snow, several others that I don't remember.

One thing that was funny is Jack would feed us grooms once a day. We were on our own for breakfast and lunch. None of us ever brought enough money and we would loot the food tents. I know those ladies in the food tents knew we were doing it but what could we do, we were literally hungry!!!?? Kinda funny dichotomy...Here we're grooming the Sweet n Lows of the world and were so hungry that we were stealing food from the food tents??? You couldn't get away with that today???

But I did like Jack. Kinda of a quiet man but what a wonderful rider as I recall. I think in 1979, he was sick of the business. I guess he died sometime after that. He had started to bounce our paychecks and I think he knew he was sick.

I was also supposed to work for Barney Ward. When I went in the barn to ask for a job, the head groom took me aside and said "Trust me, you don't want to work here." I left and never went back.

[pines4equines]

Pippy: Yeah, we would take any job...But you know I learned such a work ethic, one that I prize to this day. When I went to work in breeding in 1982-ish. I worked at a breeding farm for a year prior to going to college. And, we all know what kind of work breeding is...stall, stalls and more stalls. Well, when I left, I am proud to say, they had to hire 2-1/2 people to take my place. The half being a part-timer.

That work ethic has carried along in my career, first in NYC and now in business for myself.

[3Dogs]

The mutt pony I rode in 1965 - Maryland Pony show - don't think we saw a 3 foot fence :lol:

[Seven-up]

But I did like Jack. Kinda of a quiet man but what a wonderful rider as I recall. I think in 1979, he was sick of the business. I guess he died sometime after that. He had started to bounce our paychecks and I think he knew he was sick.





Must be a different man, because Jack Rockwell is still kickin' down here in LA. I know his father died in the past 10 or 15 years, but I don't think his name was Jack. I know he came from CT, and his father was at Old Salem. ?

[pippy]

Pippy: Yeah, we would take any job...But you know I learned such a work ethic, one that I prize to this day. When I went to work in breeding in 1982-ish. I worked at a breeding farm for a year prior to going to college. And, we all know what kind of work breeding is...stall, stalls and more stalls. Well, when I left, I am proud to say, they had to hire 2-1/2 people to take my place. The half being a part-timer.

That work ethic has carried along in my career, first in NYC and now in business for myself.

I have to say I learned quite a work ethic myself. When I finally did get a horse, we did all our own braiding, and remember, the yarn matched whatever color jacket we wore, we cleaned our stall, and the trainer's stalls too, fed, watered. We had so much fun though, cuz we were at the show from 5:30am to 10:00pm. The most exhausting part of the day was my WILD TB in the show ring. Then, sometimes, after showing, we'd change into shorts and ride our horse to the pond and go swimming. Yes, those were the days.:)

[ivy62]

I started riding in the 70's...didn't own a horse until I was 14...We did 4-H and we had a blast. The funniest thing was we never had money to trailer to shows so we got up really early in the am and walked our horses there. Thank god it wasn't that far. But the real kicker was the rings were next to a freight train track and when a train came they said dismount and we did then waited for the train to leave and we continued on! Could you imagine doing this now! We went out bareback and swam in the resevoirs and had a great time.
The one thing I see missing is that horses are not used for enjoyment now the kids are too busy to spend every day at the barn so kid rides a made horse that is tuned up by some trainer instead of working hard themselves and letting the horses have fun also...
I also loved hunt courses. I remember taking my pony to NY pony show and ridng the course, you actually felt like you could ride with the hounds...I do not know to many hunters today that would do that well. I can say I am happy that the Hunter Derby is here...
Going to MSG and trying to win the Courvoisier Arabian that was raffled off and watching Rodney Jenkins with Idle Dice and my favorite was Stocking Stuffer for hunters, boy could he move.....those were the days...
And ALL the hunters and jumpers were Tbs! Gotta love the breed.....

[allpurpose]

Well, back in the late 60s when I started riding, we had a very cool piebald half-draft named Bozo in the school horse herd. He was steady Eddie, honest, fun to ride and huge! Everyone wanted to ride Bozo, and if you got to ride him in your lesson that week, you felt like a queen!

Well, flash forward 30 years, and there a few of us were, talking about the good 'ole days at the barn, and the subject of Bozo comes up. Someone had seen him recently at a local farm, now retired, standing tall and piebald in the pasture. She confirmed his identity with the owner because she was floored to see him standing there!

We did the math, and our steady Eddie half-draft Bozo had been...3 years old when he was being used in the school! Can you imagine? We couldn't believe it, and thanked our lucky stars we were still here to exchange stories! Yikes!:eek:

[pines4equines]

Seven up said: Must be a different man, because Jack Rockwell is still kickin' down here in LA. I know his father died in the past 10 or 15 years, but I don't think his name was Jack. I know he came from CT, and his father was at Old Salem. ?


Must be his son because Jack Rockwell from the Hill (now Old Salem) died of, I think, lung cancer from smoking 10 - 15 years ago. I didn't know he had kids...

[pines4equines]

Speaking of Rodney Jenkins! We used to sing a song when we were show grooms. Think the tune to Glen Campbell's Rhinestone Cowboy...

I've been grooming these shows so long
Singing the same ol' song
I know every dirty brush at the H-ill

Where poor kids get washed away
like the snow and the rain

There'll be a load of compromisin'
on the road to my horizon
and the light will be shinin' in me

Like Rodney JenKins rid-in' Idle Dice
in Madison Sq...uare Gar..den

I can't remember the rest....

And before you get all huffy about poor kids, we were the poor kids but we had dreams!!! The punctuation is where you lengthen in your singing...

[MintHillFarm]

I grew up with out a horse (no funds) but enjoyed every minute of my junior years working for Mark and Kent Jungherr at Coach House Stable in Rye, NY. I rode any horses they had; off the track, from the auction or otherwise. I was also fortunate enough to be able to hack some of the jumpers for Mark. I braided, groomed at the shows, mucked and taught the beginners. An really exciting year was when he had the PHA Jumper of the Year, The Hun, and we went to NY. I am sure if you were around OSF (The Hill) back in the early 70's you remember this horse! We all had a great time. The comraderie was teriffic and the knowledge I gained from those years is with me today. The Jungherrs (Karen included and I then rode with her after I got out of college) were very good horsemen.

[CallMeGrace]

I got riding lessons for my 8th birthday, in 1964. I was so horse crazy - I slept at the barn all summer, rode in the back of the van with the horses. We used to take the horses swimming in the river, have hair raising races along a steep path with a drop off one side. We would ride bareback all the time, jumping anything in the way. I, too, did not own a horse and was not allowed to join Pony Club. Then, a neighbor gave me his Morgan gelding conformation horse. Of course, being a chestnut, everyone said he was "too flashy" for the hunter ring (remember when you couldn't ride greys, either??). But that didn't stop me spending every waking minute with him. I often feel badly for my kids because they haven't had those moments of total abandon with their horses. What great memories!

[clearound]

Clearound: I was at the Hill the summer of 1979. I worked the show aisle. I remember a groom in the boarder aisle I really looked up to, she was an older woman...at that time I thought she was older, maybe 30-ish and she was a wealth of info. I would sit and ask question after question or just watch her groom. She was the first person who introduced me to the world of horses and what really happened after they were no longer useful. Previously I had worked at a school horse barn where the woman kept them until death. I remember this groom cleaning an infirmed horse at the Hill meticulously so it could be loaded on the meat wagon. I'll never forget that. She taught me compassion.

Clearound: Did you show with Jack? Ever go on the A-circuit with him? In 1979, we went to Mason Phelps show, Mt. Snow, several others that I don't remember.



I was a working student on the "show aisle" from 73-77 when I left to go to college. If I wasn't working for Jack, I sometimes worked for Michael Page. We had some amazing times back then. I wish I could find some of the people who I rode with there - Jamie Marshall, Gretchen Blair, Helen Greene and Wendy Kessinger.

I saw Jack about a year or so before he died. He was a true horsemen!

[Wellspotted]

Goodness, what youngsters there are here! ;)

To me, "olden times" would be the 40s and 50s because I started riding in the 60s. Must've been before the rule about flashy chestnuts and greys because I saw plenty of both at Pony Club shows, along with bays and browns. What I didn't see were pintos and Apps and palominos.

Does anyone know when short stirrup came along? I was away for about 20 years from hunters, and when I came back the divisions had all changed and kids were riding something called "short stirrup". I never did really get what it meant, not being a kid by then, and before I learned I was away from hunters again.

[boosma47]

MintHill, my son worked for Mark for three years during and after college. He loved the experience, and learned a ton.

Think my olden days are more like ancient days compared to all you youngsters! Like, the '50s and early '60s....Grew up in Fairfield County at the time GHM was a rising young trainer - his family lived down the street and his cousin was one of my best friends. We used to get really excited when he would come, along with Tab Hunter, to judge the member shows at Ox Ridge. We rode with him, Gordon Wright, Otto Heukeroth - when Patty was a high school student. Bill Robertson and Bill Steinkraus were dieties to us.

We would ride anything anywhere, hunted, camped out, rode random loose horses in their fields w/out tack, even rode a couple of cows, showed. Did the big Eqs on a leased camp horse, a 17 yr old TB mare who took a very quiet ride, and qualified for the Medal finals at MSG, but didn't compete. I, too, loved changing horses, because this mare was so sensitive she made me look really good!

Loved the outside courses, swimming horses, fuzzy bareback rides on frigid days....

Schoolies I remember? BooPeep and Johnny, at Wilton Riding Club when I would go ride at age 6, no helmet and turned out in the ring to figure it all out with very little supervision; Little Bit, Lord Byron, Meadow Lark, Meadow Sweet, Rocket, Drummer Boy,Rob Roy, etc at NCMT, Tar Baby at ORHC; Brownie, who I rode to win my first blue at camp at age 7

Then parentals decided, after I graduated from Chatham Hall, that I had outgrown riding. Had never owned a horse and had to wait until I was 40 to finally have one. You guessed it, an OTTB, age 4, who I still have 24 years later!

Wish I had started my professional career when I was young as I had wanted, but folks had other ideas and I was too passive to fight it!

[debsinsb]

OK, I'll chime in from the West Coast...

I remember when the Grand National was a BIG show. Sleeping in the tackroom. Watching the jumper classes, Jimmy Williams taking a wild fall in about 1968 or so, then coming back the next night to win the go-round.

The first GP out here, at the Rose Bowl, maybe '73 or so...seeing Rodney Jenkins...he was such a legend I couldn't say a word.

I rode/showed western mostly in the late 60's/early 70's, though I had some lessons with Barbara Worth, then worked at a couple of BNT H/J barns in the early 70's. The shows had different disciplines, and you had friends that rode H/J, saddle horses, western. It was a different time.

Fences were 3'6 and more...I think regular hunters were 4'. No short stirrup, and no pony classes out here in those days.

[Dispatcher]

I'm with you Wellspotted and Boosma4. I started riding in 1960-1961. Outside courses---what fun! Short stirrup and now long stirrup? What is this stuff? Boyohboy, things sure have changed! I feel like a dinosaur........

[MintHillFarm]

Boosma - I am sure your son gained a ton of knowledge from Mark. He is a wonderful rider and horseman. Mark had some really nice horses when I was at Coach House....Just Plain Wilber, The Hun, Friendly Regards, and others that made up my teenage years! He and Kent also picked out very nice horses and ponies for the clients as well, they were all well mounted...My memories of this time are still so clear!

[just_me]

I grew up with out a horse (no funds) but enjoyed every minute of my junior years working for Mark and Kent Jungherr at Coach House Stable in Rye, NY.
I boarded at Coach House in 1973 right before I moved, with my horse, to Florida.

[CallMeGrace]

I have asked this before, but anyone around from Gladstone, NJ in the 60's-70's?

[lunchbox]

I wouldn't consider this the "olden days' but I was a junior in the late 70's-80's.

On the west coast.

I remember going to the show at the Ventura showgrounds and riding our horses on the beach.

I remember going to the Santa Barbara "turkey show" every year and having Thanksgiving dinner in this huge banquet hall.

I remember that schooling areas were small, so they would set up fences in between the barn aisles and we would gallop down them and jump fences before going into the ring! Yikes!!!

Fun times!

And yes, all we rode were ottb's. I remember when the first WB's started coming in and we were fascinated by them :)

[Janet]

I used to be a groom all through the 70s (in my teens) and very early 80s. I worked for Jack Rockwell at the Hill (now Old Salem Farm), Gary Rockwell at Sleepy Hollow Country Club, Elmont Farms, Indian Hill and a bunch of others.

Ah- I remember it when is was "Salem View" (run/owned by Mr Greenspan and then run by Mark and Kent Jungherr) before it was called "the Hill". I occaisionally helped out in the show office when it was "the Hill".

Also worked from Reiner Neivisch who I understand is working out of some large farm in Westchester. Man, was he a clean freak but boy was that great experience. You should see my barn now, Reiner would be happy. Now THATS a name I had forgotten! IIRC he was first at Sunnyfield (when Mrs McIntosh owned it), then went to work for the Simpsons , then had his own farm on Succabone Rd in Bedford- that would be about 1970. I had no idea what he did after that.

I groomed Native Gem for Beverly and infamous Sweet 'n Low who eventually went on to, I think, hold the record at the Garden for jumping the Puissance Wall. That was at Washington, ridden by Tony d'Ambrosio. I saw it. As a teenager, I occaisionally rode against him. One time he beat me in a jumper class by less than a tenth of a second on a handheld stop watch. So I figure we were really tied! That was on a TB x QH.

[Janet]

Did anybody else ride and jump sidesaddle in a regular saddle? If anybody knows the clock tower at the intersection of Guard Hill and Succabone in Bedford, we used to jump the low fence around it "sidesaddle".

[Janet]

Schoolies I remember? BooPeep and Johnny, at Wilton Riding Club when I would go ride at age 6, no helmet and turned out in the ring to figure it all out with very little supervision; Little Bit, Lord Byron, Meadow Lark, Meadow Sweet, Rocket, Drummer Boy,Rob Roy, etc at NCMT, Tar Baby at ORHC; Brownie, who I rode to win my first blue at camp at age 7 That is distinctly odd, because there was Meadow Lark and a (Golden) Rocket at Sunnyfield in the same era.

[Moli]

Awe, Janet....I must be older than all of you. How about the 40's and 50's riding in the Chicago area. Does anybody remember jumping the six jumps BOTH ways? (just like the QH hunters.....) Let's hear from you......:yes:

[MintHillFarm]

Just Me:
What was your horse's name?

[Tandeelu]

The Jack Rockwell down south is the son of the late JR of The Hill.

All these long ago memories! I remember sneaking the schoolies out and riding bareback in a halter in the early 60's. (what was a helmet?) Later on I rode at Round Hill in Greenwhich CT. I remember Salem View turned The Hill turned Old Salem, Couch House, Stratford, Wilton PC, NCMT, Nimrod, Sweet Briar, (my Mom started lessons there when she was 55!) Sunnyfield-- McIntoshes- pre Neilsens, etc. I didn't ride at ORHC but I do remember Tar Baby and Miss T. Knew The Saddler! The old Greenwich show grounds, Altschult's in Stamford. The original Coker Farms in Greenwhich.

Ahhh...memories.

[Vandy]

I'm a bit younger than some, started riding in the '70s in New England. My very first show was on an OTTB school horse - I remember my trainer telling me there was this new division, "Children's Hunters" that was especially for beginners on school horses, anyone who'd taken a couple of lessons could do it because the fences were only 3' :lol:

[sporthorsefilly]

I rode on Long Island in the 60's. Medal/Maclay and hunters. I qualified for MSG at the last Sleepy Hollow Show of the season. I learned from Capt. Littaur; rode with Ralph Peterson and Harry DeLeyer. I trained horses for John M. Schiff in Oyster Bay too. Joe Koscuik shipped my horses in his Harry Kopf "gray" horse vans. We kept our horses at Little Plains Stable in Greenlawn LI NY.

[birdsong]

In the 70's I was jumping ponies over 3' jumps bareback in a halter....even backwards! Kids nowadays dont get to do that stuff. I remember taking my Harrisburg qualifying medium to swim in the borrow pit, then being champion the next weekend.

Nothing too fabulous to report other than learning to ride in the early 60's without instruction of any sort. Just spent my free time living on my horse...rode him to "town" to be with the others at the local riding stable. My horses were in the country on our property.

There were a few older riders there that excelled at jumping so a few of us children would play on the course afterward..not having a clue that we "couldn't " jump those things. My guy (who later qualified for the Olympics I was told) jumped 6' with a 6' spread coop. We flew so high...his tucked legs were above the standards most times....me grinning the entire time...clueless that this horse was special.

Sneaking mom's pink bedsheets to make leg wraps and bows for his mane and tail.....sigh....so much fun to grow up with horses and dogs for best friends.

[clearound]

Oh, Bud from The Saddler. Man, he really loved measuring all the young girls.

WRC and NCMT - fond memories from my youth.

One of my funniest memories is when I rode these school ponies at Fairfield and would be constantly in the dirt. Mrs. McKinney came up to me one day and told me that everytime someone fell off they had to put a dollar in the coffee can which paid for the Christmas party. Although I only rode there a year or so, I am sure my contributions far outlasted my stay.

[appychick59]

I started riding in the mid '70s too. I totally remember outside courses over hill and dale, freezing my tail off at winter schooling shows. I started riding in Denver, although I live on west coast now. No helmets ever (unless we were actually in a class). I also remember riding in summer in shorts, chaps and tennis shoes...... Those were the days ( its a wonder I survived!);) My first 2 horses were little appys, then 2 OTTBs and now back to an appy....

[SandyHTF]

Clearound: I was at the Hill the summer of 1979. I worked the show aisle. I remember a groom in the boarder aisle I really looked up to, she was an older woman...at that time I thought she was older, maybe 30-ish and she was a wealth of info.

I was also supposed to work for Barney Ward. When I went in the barn to ask for a job, the head groom took me aside and said "Trust me, you don't want to work here." I left and never went back.

I remember Barney from the jumper classes... he spent a lot of time sans horse. He was also one of those people whose reputation seemed to precede him and if you had half a brain you got out of the way.

I boarded at the Hill the year before it transferred ownership. I came there with a gelding and childrens hunter prospect and eventually bought a beautiful, talented, opinionated TB mare. She taught me how to guide without interfering.... god help you if you interfered (Can you say do the 5 in three? I knew you could.). To my trainers dismay I took her out to ride some of the hunt fields with a group of locals. OMG, going from the Eqs to cross country with the field hunters I thought I was going to die. :lol:

I loved that area... it was beautiful, the shows were fun, and horses seemed to be everywhere you looked. It is one of the few places I've ever lived where people commonly wore riding clothes to lunch and shopping.

[SILLYSADIE]

I guess I am really OLD. Seeing how I rode at NCMT in the 50's. I do rememberall those horses plus Mr Buttercup, Shoebutton (shetland pony) Squirrel, Burgundy (I owned him) then donated him. Jimmy's Girl - Carol Wilson owned her. Remember Toby Self?
We use to hack all the way over to the Wilton Riding club to show and then hack back home that night. We got to ride in the New Canaan Parades. What FUN !!!!!!!
The went on to ORHC, Patty had the horse named Pete. Patty was my Maid of Honor at my wedding 46 years ago. She is now down in Southern Pines. :)

[Whisper]

I rode at one A rated H/J show at the Cow Palace in the 80's, but on a greenish TWH/Morgan mare, not a TB. :lol:We did a couple of "maiden" Hunter over fences classes (I think at 2'3") and a HUS class. She jumped everything, and did the transitions when asked, but we didn't get any ribbons. We were definitely outclassed, but it was so close we didn't even need to trailer there, just rode through the neighborhood.

My Dad did Showjumping on Long Island in the 50's and 60's, when he was young.

In more recent times, I've only done schooling H/J shows, on a couple of different TBs. I believe you that some TBs are tough rides, but the ones I've been able to ride regularly are all practically saintly!

[ccoronios]

Ivy62 - "But the real kicker was the rings were next to a freight train track and when a train came they said dismount and we did then waited for the train to leave and we continued on!"

FONDA???? Or is there another trackside arena?

[just_me]

Just Me:
What was your horse's name?
Jeffrey Pooka - Pooka to his friends. :lol: A chestnut with four white socks and a big white blaze. My friend's horse was Hermes.

[Carol Ames]

back when equitation was called "horsemanship:cool:' i recall being told about a pony HOTY whose, owner/ rider did not know gasp:lol:1 how to bridle a horse; that was considered very much a scanda:lol:l!andwas the subject of many "letters to the:winkgrin: editor"

[pippy]

I'm a bit younger than some, started riding in the '70s in New England. My very first show was on an OTTB school horse - I remember my trainer telling me there was this new division, "Children's Hunters" that was especially for beginners on school horses, anyone who'd taken a couple of lessons could do it because the fences were only 3' :lol:

Oh my gosh, my trainer told me the EXACT same thing. :lol:

[ivy62]

Ivy62 - "But the real kicker was the rings were next to a freight train track and when a train came they said dismount and we did then waited for the train to leave and we continued on!"

FONDA???? Or is there another trackside arena?

It was in Congers NY Fredericks feed and grain...the big thing was these trains on average were 200 cars!!!!!!

[drawreins]

I remember galloping my large bareback through the cornfields and then being champion on her days later at Harrisburg. She was in a halter with a leadrope and I was in jeans and sneakers. She never took a lame step in her life.

Makes me laugh as I think back to just this past weekend. I trailered my daughters' ponies out to friend's house to trail ride. Both ponies have on splint boots and ankle boots and bell boots and I was still paranoid that they would somehow injure, hurt, or bruise their dainty little legs.

It's crazy how the times change. But then again, back then my pony wasn't even half the price of what my daughters' ponies now are. Times sure do change.

[Whisper]

Drawreins, I went on a trail ride a couple of weeks ago with a halter and leadrope, and no boots on the horse. :D We didn't gallop, and mostly did W/T, but got a couple of nice canters in. http://www.flickr.com/photos/82782698@N00/2976984884 He's a good boy. I think it reflects more on the horse care choices people make than on what year it is. ;)

[AHC]

I started riding in 1969 or 1970. First at Fox Hill in the days when Frank Grenci ran the place, and then at Sleepy Hollow Country Club from 1972 though high school, then back there on and off after college.

For ther person who worked for Gary Rockwell -- he taught me in the mid 70's until Pam Hart Freeley came to be the hunter/jumper trainer. When Gary came back to Sleepy Hollow years later I took some lessons from him to improve my flatwork.

The first time I jumped in a horse show was at The Hill on a friend's pony. Continued to show there on and off through the 70's. Never had my own horse so I was one who benefitted from that new children's hunter division that anyone could do cause it was only 3'. Showed at places like Coker, Fairfield, Ox Ridge, Pendleton, Catamount (later Huntover). Got run away with something awful on the outside course at Fairfield. Trainer was yelling at me to drop my stick -- unfortunately I had already done that and it didn't help.

Spent summers at riding camp in New Hampshire waking up at the crack of dawn to muck and feed, groomed, tacked up, taught lessons, rode anything I could, horse showed all over southern New Hampshire.

Writing about this makes me nostalgic for the old days.....

[Acertainsmile]

I started riding in the late 60's and showing in the early 70's (small ponies)...

I remember, terrible footing in uneven (even hilly) grass rings, no in or out "gates". (Along with my dad standing there ready to catch my pony if he bolted out of the ring).

Outside courses, cutting the straps of my helmets, velvet collars, riding bareback all over the place in shorts without a helmet, swimming the ponies and being chased by the game wardens at the local reservoir, making crazy jumps at home and in the woods...jumping picnic tables and anything else we could at the playground at the neighborhood school, and begging my mom to let me ride my white pony around on Halloween and me dressed as the Lone Ranger... she never would let me do that!

Yes, those were the good old days for sure!

[Janet]

Pam Hart Freeley came to be the hunter/jumper trainer.
Another name from my past.

She was my second instructor, and taught me my "up down" lessons at Shrub Oak Stables, outside Peekskill. It was torn down when they widened Rt 6. But by then we had moved to Bedford, and were in the process of geting a pony of our own.

She was then Pam Haviland, and still a junior. We went to watch her ride in the Eq finals at the "old" Garden.

[just_me]

I learned to ride at Claremont in NYC in the early 70s. I'd jump hack horses over police barricades and anything else I could in Central Park. :lol:

Boarded my horse at Jamaica Bay the first summer it opened and regularly took my horse swimming.

[MintHillFarm]

Twentieth Century moved great...and as we used to say, hacked it's way to Madison Square Garden. Back then you could literally win enough under saddles classes alone to get there.

[boosma47]

I guess I am really OLD. Seeing how I rode at NCMT in the 50's. I do rememberall those horses plus Mr Buttercup, Shoebutton (shetland pony) Squirrel, Burgundy (I owned him) then donated him. Jimmy's Girl - Carol Wilson owned her. Remember Toby Self?
We use to hack all the way over to the Wilton Riding club to show and then hack back home that night. We got to ride in the New Canaan Parades. What FUN !!!!!!!
The went on to ORHC, Patty had the horse named Pete. Patty was my Maid of Honor at my wedding 46 years ago. She is now down in Southern Pines. :)

I remember Pete! Yes, Mr Buttercup, who would occasionally get, um, turned on, and would bang against jump OUCH!
The parades were a blast. Somewhere I have a picture of me on Lord Byron, waiting in the parking lot behind the movie theatre for the parade to start.

Carol Wilson's mother was my 3rd grade teacher, and I vaguely remember Toby. Gincy, on the other hand, was my hero then. Loved watching her school Sari in hand, teaching her Piaffe and passage, Do you remember Mighty Mite, Diabolo?

Sunnyfield was the place of my introduction to dressage. My sister lessoned there when Karen MacIntosh was preparing for the Olympics. Sis rode with Fritz Stecken, I believe. I remember all the Lippizaners there.

Love reading all the memories on this thread!

[europa]

showed in the 70s and 80s in Atlanta

Mr Pounds had wonderful shows at his barn and he had a very "unique" panel that he put in a class once. My horse was the only one who would jump it....all the others quit. Needless to say he had to remove it.

I wish I had a pic but it was a raging bull blowing smoke! The horses FREAKED....

HA HA....AHHHHHHHHH the good ole days

[freckles]

started riding hacks in the early 50's, still going and never want to stop

[lizathenag]

I was at a Pony Club A hopeful (I passed) clinic at Jessica Randenhouse's (with George Morris and Kip Rosenthal) the summer of the first Lake Placid Big show (1970?). All the rails and standards for the Grand Prix where there being painted in pastel colors (by us). The panels had been painted by some artist. They looked like someone had just thrown paint at them so we threw some more. . .

oh well.

in the evening after the work was done, we would get on our horses in halters and lead ropes and jump the courses we had done earlier in the day when no one was watching. . .

[MintHillFarm]

Jeffrey Pooka - Pooka to his friends. :lol: A chestnut with four white socks and a big white blaze. My friend's horse was Hermes.
Though in the middle of the night it may come to me! I was there then...:)

[SILLYSADIE]

Boo

ou had to be at NCMT when I was. Carol Wilson was my best friend at the time. Do you remember the horse Bonnie, Meadow Maid had fun BUCKING of all of us. Then all the shows we did at the farm and all the trail rides we did through Hoyts Nursery. :)

[boosma47]

Silly, you were probably one of the older riders, because both Carol Wilson and Patty were big high school people when I was just a 12 yr old or so.

Small world - and the rides at Hoyt's were definitely part of the memories.

Did you live in New Canaan? PM me!

[pines4equines]

Oh my God a bunch of memories:

I remember showing at Fox Hill, that's where I got my first blue, and I rode with Linda Jasquiel Brown at Sunnyfield.

Minthillfarm: I worked for Kent Jungherr when he moved to Orange County NY and had a boarding facility for Standardbred broodmares. That was 1982 -ish. He is still in this area. We moved to Orange COunty NY from Westchester in 1980. He's the one I worked for that he had to replace me with 2 1/2 employees. He was a GREAT boss. Really left me alone to plan my day and do what I needed to do. No nitpicking just let me do my job. I think he is transporting horses now and buying horses from Europe with his brother and reselling them over here ... to all you Warmblood buyers out there...

Janet: Reiner Nievisch, wasn't his farm called Clover Knoll or Hill? The farm in Bedford. What a wonderful place and I think I learned the most from him in regards to grooming, cleaning and keeping the place spic and span.

Do you all remember that large tack store in Bedford or Bedford Hills called Horse & Rider? I can't remember where that place was located except that my mother would drop me off there, do her shopping and then pick me up. I would spend hours poking through everything dreaming...I'm sure the owner of the store hated me. I never bought anything...

Does anyone remember Mrs. Sheila Adams of Chestnut Bay Stables in South Salem or maybe NOrth Salem?

[BAC]

Janet: Reiner Nievisch, wasn't his farm called Clover Knoll or Hill? The farm in Bedford. What a wonderful place and I think I learned the most from him in regards to grooming, cleaning and keeping the place spic and span.

I knew Reiner, he used to manage my old boss's private stable, knew his ex Lucy too, she was at the Rockefellers I think riding dressage. This was back in the early-mid 1980s.

[Tandeelu]

Actually Catamount Hunt Club was not called Huntover. Mike Heneghan moved all his horses over there when Sunnyfield (where we had been staying) was sold to Neilsens. His business was Huntover and he leased an aisle from CHC. Probably '76?

I remember Horse & rider in Bedford but alas can not remember the name of the road...but I could drive there! ;)

My first horse I did combined training with at first and then switched to Hunters. Rode out bareback and halter alot and he was the best trail horse. He was Nationally ranked at 3rd level Dressage the same year he qualified for NY in the A/O's. Not in todays world.

[Old Jr. Hunter]

The '70s and '80s was my era in Conn. I also rode many Tbs.

And how about the saddles? I still have my old potato-chip saddle -- talk about "close contact"! It's an antique!

I remember how I loved to watch Leslie (Burr) Howard ride in jumper classes; she was probably only about 18 or so.

We used to go to shows at The Hill (since someone mentioned it earlier).

[MAD]

Do you all remember that large tack store in Bedford or Bedford Hills called Horse & Rider? I can't remember where that place was located except that my mother would drop me off there, do her shopping and then pick me up. I would spend hours poking through everything dreaming...I'm sure the owner of the store hated me. I never bought anything...




It was on Adams Street in Bedford Hills. It was about halfway between the train station in Bedford Hills and Harris Road.

[SILLYSADIE]

There was a tack shop there back in the early 60's but I don't remeber the name of it. :lol:

[BridalBridle]

The mutt pony I rode in 1965 - Maryland Pony show - don't think we saw a 3 foot fence :lol:
LOVE that picture!!! Have one from there at the old Timonium Race Track from the early 60's too. What a great show with it in the infield. It had the old time outside course I was in elementary school and for some reason fascinated by the stables at the racetrack.

[just_me]

Though in the middle of the night it may come to me! I was there then...:)
Here's a picture of Pooka, me, and my best friend Lynne taken at Coach House 1974.

http://i440.photobucket.com/albums/qq123/janp1/pooka_jan_lynne.jpg

We were at Catamount before that.

[MintHillFarm]

I am still not placing him firmly in my mind...I'm trying but can't seem to remember!

[MintHillFarm]

PINESFOREQUINES:
Yes, Kent would be great to work for, and he really appreciated hard work - he grew up that way. He just wanted everything neat! He always had a broom in his hand at CHS...I was at the STBred farm in Goshen a few times in the 80's after he bought it. CHS was not the same after he and Mark left. When it got sold it was run into the ground and neglected...it was finally torn down some years ago and there are homes there now I think.

[Janet]

Horse and Rider was in Bedford Hills.

I do not remember the name of the street, but MAD's "Adams Street" sounds right.

You head north from the train station, parallel to the train tracks and the parkway, into a semi-industrial strip. There was the place that they stored the snow plows and so on, and had fuel for all the Town of Bedford equipment. Horse and Rider was right next to a car body shop.

If you kept going north on that street, you would get to the women's prison, and the north end of Harris Street.

My social studies teacher, Mr Hamid, moonlighted (moonlit?) at Horse and Rider, which was kind of wierd. He went on to become a breeder in CT (Norman horses).

But does anyone remember the tack shop that was in Mt Kisco before that. I want to say "The Silver Bit", but I could be completely wrong. They sold both riding stuff and ballet stuff. Then they stopped selling the riding stuff (probably because Horse and Rider was cheaper and had a bigger selection), but continued with ballet.

Not specifically horse related, but who remembers "The Bedford Barn" on North Bedford Rd? I still have some clothes from there, but they are pretty well worn.

[MAD]

I do not remember the name of the street, but MAD's "Adams Street" sounds right.


MAD's Adams Street doesn't "sound" right it IS right.

[Janet]

MAD's Adams Street doesn't "sound" right it IS right.
Oh, I am quite sure YOUR memory is right.

It is MY memory that is failing me on stuff like that.

[pines4equines]

JANET, YES it was the Silver Bit. Say when were you in Mount Kisco/Bedford? Did you go to Greeley? I lived there until from 1966 - 1977, then we moved to South Salem and then to Orange COunty NY. Maybe I knew you?

[pines4equines]

Reiner Nievisch was way neater than Kent Jungherr. Kent was neat but Reiner was exceptional.

[MintHillFarm]

Horse and Rider...wasn't that Kay ??? who owned it? Adams Street is correct.
Nothing beat The Saddler though till Beval came along...There was a tack shop in Larchmont too near the train station.

[Janet]

JANET, YES it was the Silver Bit. Say when were you in Mount Kisco/Bedford? Did you go to Greeley? I lived there until from 1966 - 1977, then we moved to South Salem and then to Orange COunty NY. Maybe I knew you?
We moved to Bedford (Guard Hill Rd, across from Tanrackin) in 65. My father still lives there (just), but I went off to college in '71.

We (my sister Gillian and I) went to Fox Lane, but I had a bunch of good friends that went to Greeley- Patty Peckham and Mary Link in particular.

[BAC]

We moved to Bedford (Guard Hill Rd, across from Tanrackin) in 65. My father still lives there (just), but I went off to college in '71.

Janet, do you know Frank and Catherine Heller and their 7 (or is it 9) daughters? They lived on Guard Hill Road for many years, when I knew them it was from 1981 to about 1996.

The Heller place was called Blanchland I think.

[Janet]

Janet, do you know Frank and Catherine Heller and their 7 (or is it 9) daughters? They lived on Guard Hill Road for many years, when I knew them it was from 1981 to about 1996.

The Heller place was called Blanchland I think.
By 1981 I was in Virginia. The name Blanchard does not really ring a bell.

But there was a family with LOTS of girls that lived at Ensign Farm (had an anchor at the end of the driveway). And they MIGHT have been "Heller". They went to Catholic school, but rode the same school bus, and there was one my age I regularly sat with. I can see her, but I can't remember her name. They lived near the sculptor Joseph McDonnell (but on the other side of the road). At least once, the "Lighthouse for the Blind" was at their place, and we did a musical ride.

[BAC]

But there was a family with LOTS of girls that lived at Ensign Farm (had an anchor at the end of the driveway). And they MIGHT have been "Heller". They went to Catholic school, but rode the same school bus, and there was one my age I regularly sat with. I can see her, but I can't remember her name. They lived near the sculptor Joseph McDonnell (but on the other side of the road). At least once, the "Lighthouse for the Blind" was at their place, and we did a musical ride.

That might be them, they were definitely Catholics. At one time before I met them the family had a large farm in Bedford and they kept horses, possibly racehorses, but by the 80's they had downsized and Blanchland was only a few acres. It was a beautiful home, not small by my family's standards. I can't remember the names of any of the girls except the youngest, who was Sarah. Its horrible that my memory is now so bad. :(

[SILLYSADIE]

Was one of the girls named Susan Heller. If so she still rides with Carol Moloney.

[Janet]

That might be them, they were definitely Catholics. At one time before I met them the family had a large farm in Bedford and they kept horses, possibly racehorses, but by the 80's they had downsized and Blanchland was only a few acres. It was a beautiful home, not small by my family's standards. I can't remember the names of any of the girls except the youngest, who was Sarah. Its horrible that my memory is now so bad. :(
Probably the same family, they had horses on the farm, but, AFAIK, the girls did not ride much.

[BAC]

Was one of the girls named Susan Heller. If so she still rides with Carol Moloney.

I just can't remember. Sarah, the youngest would be at least 26 now, same age as my boss' youngest son, which is the only way I can remember. I don't think any of them rode when I knew them, although I only had limited involvement, mostly social occasions, and that was with the parents. The daughters' names were mentioned frequently though, if only I could remember. I think the family's involvement with horses was mostly through racing. They did have Stubbs paintings and other horsey motifs in the decorating theme of their house though.

[MAD]

Was one of the girls named Susan Heller. If so she still rides with Carol Moloney.

Susan Heller is not related.
I went to St. Pat's with Lilly and keep in touch with Fella a little. There are 9 girls.

[Janet]

If you are interested, here is an older thread on the same general subject
http://www.chronicleforums.com/Forum/archive/index.php/t-35636.html

[SILLYSADIE]

Thanks Janet

It hard to believe that was all done in 2001. Amost what is being said today. Always great memories and friends to hear about.

[bit-o-honey]

Does anyone remember the Maryland Pony Show when it was held in the infield at Timonium Racetrack? Heaven help you if you had an OTTB!!!!

The one I rode in the 70's was so hot in the schooling ring that half the riders would flee when they saw her coming. And yet she would win the class once she got in the ring - or the outside course!

Pairs classes, hunt teams, really challenging Jr equitation classes where you had to switch horses, outside courses, Knock Down and Out jumper classes at the local shows, the good old days!

[SILLYSADIE]

Was there in the early 60's with Tanrackin ponies !!! :):)

[LuckyFinn]

1968...Friars Gate Farm with Julie Ulrich...great school ponies- and got my first "show pony" there also..

[Acertainsmile]

Does anyone remember the Maryland Pony Show when it was held in the infield at Timonium Racetrack? Heaven help you if you had an OTTB!!!!

The one I rode in the 70's was so hot in the schooling ring that half the riders would flee when they saw her coming. And yet she would win the class once she got in the ring - or the outside course!

Pairs classes, hunt teams, really challenging Jr equitation classes where you had to switch horses, outside courses, Knock Down and Out jumper classes at the local shows, the good old days!



Yessss!!! I remember that! Of course you know how when your little you never really know where you are? :)

[Janet]

Was there in the early 60's with Tanrackin ponies !!! :):)
Which ones? Pollyanna?

[Peggy]

Rode in Malibu from the mid 60's to 1973. The local ETI corral initially had one LA County rated show a year, back in the days when it was essentially all western with two english flat classes. We sure thought those people had really fancy horses. My mom took over running the shows and ran a number of rated shows at Crummer Field in Malibu. The group was ousted, allegedly so a developer could develop something, but the land still sits there with no buildings in sight. I remember Larry Langer when he trained part time and had a day job (as an aerospace engineer, IIRC) and wore blue jeans and white tennis shoes.

There was a GP at the Rose Bowl. There was also one inland in San Diego someplace that I remember going to watch.

Remember the Forum shows?

[ponybreeder]

I feel like I must know everyone on this thread! I rode with Nimrod from 1969 to 1977. It is true, that my horse, 20th Century, Ltd was a fabulous mover, but in 1976 when one still just counted blues to get into New York, we qualified with more blue ribbons than any other horse entered in the horse show. They weren't just hack classes as he was A/O HOTY that year. After I went out on my own, I was at Coach House as trainer and Kent's girlfriend. From there, I went to Boulder Brook for a few years and then to Shannon. While I was trainer at Shannon, Patty Peckham was manager and we are still dear friends.

My first riding instructor was Dick Ulrich, round about 1960, when he and Julie were in Dennis, Ma. I grew up on Cape Cod and rode at a number of barns there before going to Nimrod.

My mother ran the Cape Cod Horse Show and I have lots of stories from those years. That show was so much fun! Lots of crazy stuff went on there every year.

Barney Ward and Ronnie Mutch were best friends, and Barney even lived at Nimrod for a while. I have known Mclain since he was born. Many of you may not know that Mclain has a baby brother. Barney and his wife have a five year old son, Dillon.

Years later, I leased 25 stalls at Old Salem, and ran my business, Grand Central from there between 1987 and 1996. I had the best of all worlds, as I married the owner and still had my own business. We sold Old Salem in 2002 and now have a breeding farm in North Salem.

I have memories of almost everything that you all have discussed that happened on the East Coast!!

[clearound]

My mother ran the Cape Cod Horse Show and I have lots of stories from those years. That show was so much fun! Lots of crazy stuff went on there every year.



Robin -That was one of my favorite shows as a kid!

[Janet]

I feel like I must know everyone on this thread! ... While I was trainer at Shannon, Patty Peckham was manager and we are still dear friends. Were you at Abe's funeral, or Mrs. Peckham's memorial ? If so I may have met you!

[ponybreeder]

I was away for Patty's mom's memorial, but I was at Abe's funeral.

[SILLYSADIE]

Janet

I had the ponies Bantam, Georgetown, and Master Craft, This was before Poluanna. I also broke Twyeford Gone Away. When I left Mrs. Waller was getting Chantain and Polyanna. All GREAT ponies. Broke and galloped the race horses as well. :)

[BAC]

Susan Heller is not related.
I went to St. Pat's with Lilly and keep in touch with Fella a little. There are 9 girls.

Yes, Lilly was one of the daughters.

[MintHillFarm]

Apologies ponybreeder, for being inaccurate on that fact - I just remember how well your horse moved, even to this day...he was exceptional!

[BAC]

Janet

I had the ponies Bantam, Georgetown, and Master Craft, This was before Poluanna. I also broke Twyeford Gone Away. When I left Mrs. Waller was getting Chantain and Polyanna. All GREAT ponies. Broke and galloped the race horses as well. :)

I remember Bantam, Polyanna and Twyeford Gone Away. There was an article about Polyanna in the Sunday edition of the NY Times sports section when Mrs. Waller imported her to the US. And every year I would admire Chantain's ad in COTH's stallion issue.

[SILLYSADIE]

Had lots of fun riding for Mrs. Waller but she was not easy to work for. Mr. Waller was a GEM !!
Also stabled my hoprse at Shannon stables when Artie Hawkins ran it. Wow

[ponybreeder]

Apologies ponybreeder, for being inaccurate on that fact - I just remember how well your horse moved, even to this day...he was exceptional!

No offense taken. I remember the expression "hacking your way to indoors" really well!!

[ponybreeder]

seems like we were all floating around here at the same time! Do I know any of you????

[MintHillFarm]

Yes we go way back... You rode my horse (I still have that photo from Farmington in the pre-greens from 1980 or so) we also shared a cottage in Bedford in 1982-83 ish...along with Albert, Jill Russell and Lion!

[miss girl]

And how about the saddles? I still have my old potato-chip saddle -- talk about "close contact"! It's an antique!

I still have my saddle too! No, knee rolls or blocks. Yeah! That's real close contact!

I started riding when I was 8, stopped when I aged out and started back up again 3 years ago. I'm now 40. My brain remembers what to do but my body is still catching up. And boy! The jumps look a whole lot bigger now. :eek:

[ponybreeder]

Yes we go way back... You rode my horse (I still have that photo from Farmington in the pre-greens from 1980 or so) we also shared a cottage in Bedford in 1982-83 ish...along with Albert, Jill Russell and Lion!

Aw, what a joy that was!!!! How are you??

[Plumcreek]

OK, I'll chime in from the West Coast...

I remember when the Grand National was a BIG show. Sleeping in the tackroom. Watching the jumper classes, Jimmy Williams taking a wild fall in about 1968 or so, then coming back the next night to win the go-round.

The first GP out here, at the Rose Bowl, maybe '73 or so...seeing Rodney Jenkins...he was such a legend I couldn't say a word.

I rode/showed western mostly in the late 60's/early 70's, though I had some lessons with Barbara Worth, then worked at a couple of BNT H/J barns in the early 70's. The shows had different disciplines, and you had friends that rode H/J, saddle horses, western. It was a different time.

Fences were 3'6 and more...I think regular hunters were 4'. No short stirrup, and no pony classes out here in those days.

SB here also, San Marcos '67. I was at the Rose Bowl when Idle Dice won - still remember him sticking a hind down into the last oxer, then pulling it up and over the back rail to win. Screaming exciting first Grand Prix. Rode at Hope Ranch riding club early 60s then dressage with Bunny Klein Funke and Col. Earl Thomson, then Eric Bubbel (when he still had John Galvin's horses). Wrangled at Rancho Oso, rode the back country with Al Moss. So glad I grew up then rather than now. Did you know Shelly Ewing? I remember sitting on the fence at Earl Warren and watching JW and his group of future Olympians (Mary Mairs (Chapot), Ann Kursinski, etc. ) walk by. You KNEW they were going to be Olympic riders.

[Plumcreek]

Rode in Malibu from the mid 60's to 1973. The local ETI corral initially had one LA County rated show a year, back in the days when it was essentially all western with two english flat classes. We sure thought those people had really fancy horses. My mom took over running the shows and ran a number of rated shows at Crummer Field in Malibu. The group was ousted, allegedly so a developer could develop something, but the land still sits there with no buildings in sight. I remember Larry Langer when he trained part time and had a day job (as an aerospace engineer, IIRC) and wore blue jeans and white tennis shoes.

There was a GP at the Rose Bowl. There was also one inland in San Diego someplace that I remember going to watch.

Remember the Forum shows?

I remember Larry Langer and Twiggy.

[MintHillFarm]

I am fine and hope you are too... Love your website, and am so happy your ponies are doing so well! I did forget one member of the group we had in Bedford; Bad Cat...

[WhiteSox]

When I was about 8-9 years old, I had an 11 hand dun pony that we took everywhere. She was the BEST! A neighbor of ours had a pony that could have passed as her twin. Same size, same color. We were at this show and they had a jump off. They started at 3ft. At the end of the jump off, all the big horses had dropped polls. It was just the two of us on our little 11 hand ponies SOARING over 4ft jumps. Mind you, the "jump" was one single poll, no ground lines. These two ponies could have gone under the jump with ease. Finally, when we both cleared 4ft 2in our parents called it and made us quit. We were fearless in those days! Wish I had a video of THAT day! Now 3ft on a 16.3 hand horse looks gigantic to me...LOL

[SILLYSADIE]

Boo

Check your PM

[ponybreeder]

I am fine and hope you are too... Love your website, and am so happy your ponies are doing so well! I did forget one member of the group we had in Bedford; Bad Cat...

Do you rememebr when Albert ripped up the screen and jumped out the window from the second floor? (Albert being a mentally challenged 9 pound JRT, for those who don't know) Most JRTs get excited about animals, Albert saw the kids who lived in the main house swimming in the pool and playing with a ball. He had a ball fetish. He went to join them. The kids saw him jump out of the window.

[boosma47]

seems like we were all floating around here at the same time! Do I know any of you????

Pony, I took a couple of lessons from you at Shannon, perhaps early 80s? Sure you don't remember me, tho;) I rode schoolie Casey, schoolie Murdock, Susan Silver's mare, Salamagundi, and Montana(?). This was after Barbara Lindsay left. Wasn't Reinhard Teetor there, too, for a while?

We moved up here shortly after.

[KathyR]

I rode and showed in the 60's, 70's 80's,2000's, notice the big gap there? We rode, showed, hunted, equitated the same horse. Went to local and rated shows. Did our own grooming, stall cleaning, braiding, and thought that was what everyone did. Remembering some favorite classes from back then, pairs hunters over a real outside course, back to back bareback classes, bareback eq classes, no stirrups classes, and my favorite, the parent leadline class, always won based on loudest cheers and whoops from the sidelines. My mom usually one that one, on my sister's large pony, because we could "whoop" the loudest. Kids today miss out on so much of the fun and the real riding experiences.

[Bogie]

I used to be a groom all through the 70s (in my teens) and very early 80s. I worked for Jack Rockwell at the Hill (now Old Salem Farm), Gary Rockwell at Sleepy Hollow Country Club, Elmont Farms, Indian Hill and a bunch of others.

Hmmn, I was at The Hill in the 70s too! Perhaps our paths crossed! I also did not have a horse so I mucked stalls, cleaned tack, groomed and rode anything that needed to be worked. I spent a couple of summers hanging out there working. I had my first paid job there in the summer of '76. I remember making $60 a week and feeling rich! When I was there Michael Page boarded there and watching him ride was a real education. I don't think I'd even heard of dressage before then.

That is one facility that has REALLY changed since then!

[clearound]

Hmmn, I was at The Hill in the 70s too! Perhaps our paths crossed! I also did not have a horse so I mucked stalls, cleaned tack, groomed and rode anything that needed to be worked. I spent a couple of summers hanging out there working. I had my first paid job there in the summer of '76. I remember making $60 a week and feeling rich! When I was there Michael Page boarded there and watching him ride was a real education. I don't think I'd even heard of dressage before then.

That is one facility that has REALLY changed since then!

I was at The Hill for a bit at the same time. I left to go to college in 77 but sold my hunter in 76. I also used to work for Michael at some horse shows. Talk about a perfectionist. Were you there when Gretchen Blair and Wendy Kessinger were there. The boarded on the "show aisle" with me. I was a working student there.

[Bogie]

Gretchen Blair rings a bell . . . honestly, it's been such a long time since I was there it's hard to remember - my brain cells just aren't working that well at my now advanced age :lol:.

I was a working student for the "other Jack" for awhile, taught some beginner lessons (scary, thinking back on it that they let me do that), and rode Roxanne Zobek's horse, Mr. Pickle.

I grew up in NYC and used to take the train up during the week to ride or get lifts with Carol Maytag (I believe she rode with Michael then). In the summers, I lived with my grandparents in Patterson so could be at the barn every day.

[miss girl]

I did everything on one horse too! (in the 70's) I also remember the bareback equitation classes. I did equitation, hunters & jumpers on my 15.2 chestnut mare. She was awesome...she had a huge heart and would do anything for me. Then when I moved up to the big Eq and the 'A' circuit (early 80's New England area) I had to "specialize" on one horse. My little mare wouldn't cut it anymore. I then graduated to a 16.2+ TB mare...I don't know something about mares? They just have huge hearts. This mare would do anything for me too. She didn't have a stop in her and boy did I get her to some sticky spots. I then stopped riding...had a family and about 20 yrs. later. I now have another little mare (with another huge heart) and back competing on the local level. I guess horse blood runs thick in humans. :winkgrin:

[elizabeth1]

There can only be one and that's a name I haven't heard in 30 years.

He was a squarely built kid with bright red hair that haunted the Cornell barns in the 70's. He didn't have a horse but would beg, borrow or steal a ride on anything(and I mean anything) in hopes of having a jumper. The outcomes were often not so good...

If I remember rightly he finally got his own horse when he was about 17. He probably had to earn the money to purchase it himself. Not much of a horse but he had dreams of making it into a jumper.

I googled him and lo and behold!! I'm very happy he made his dreams come true and finally got some very good horse education.

He honestly was one of the last names I'd expected to see here. Good for him.

[Weatherford]

I have asked this before, but anyone around from Gladstone, NJ in the 60's-70's?

Yeah... mostly 60's, a little early 70's... who are you :lol: ?

Will post more after I read the rest of the thread....

[tbrerider]

1968...Friars Gate Farm with Julie Ulrich...great school ponies- and got my first "show pony" there also..

LuckyFinn- I had lessons at Friars Gate 1976-1980. Julie had trained my aunt's horse prior to that, and while I was there was starting to spend more time way from the farm- in Germany, i think?
Totally agree on the awesome school ponies- one called "Blue" did advanced dressage- I accidentally asked him to do a levade once! I learned so much there.

[Bogie]

That's funny, he was at the Hill when I was there.

There can only be one and that's a name I haven't heard in 30 years.

He was a squarely built kid with bright red hair that haunted the Cornell barns in the 70's. He didn't have a horse but would beg, borrow or steal a ride on anything(and I mean anything) in hopes of having a jumper. The outcomes were often not so good...

If I remember rightly he finally got his own horse when he was about 17. He probably had to earn the money to purchase it himself. Not much of a horse but he had dreams of making it into a jumper.

I googled him and lo and behold!! I'm very happy he made his dreams come true and finally got some very good horse education.

He honestly was one of the last names I'd expected to see here. Good for him.

[elizabeth1]

Bogie:
Late 70's or early 80's would be about right. I believe but am not absolutely sure his dad was a Cornell professor. He would have graduated from high school in 73 or 74 then I'm very sure he went to college. He probably pursued his passion after that.

[MintHillFarm]

Albert was true to his breed and had his eye on the ball for sure! He was a character - Jill Russell was the best JR I have ever known though....hopefully she and Lion are hanging out together; she perched up on her hind legs and Lion sitting next to her with his paws crossed.

[pines4equines]

Bogie: I was at the Hill in 1979, were you there then? I did the show aisle...Which horses did you ride? Do you remember Beverly and Native Gem, a grey that we joked was a camel with his withers. Us grooms called him Lips.

Do you remember the groom Diane? And, Theresa? I think she was Jack's working student that year. I'm trying to think of others. Prima Donna was a horse there...I just can't remember others.

[Bogie]

In '79 I was in my freshman year of college, so not around much. Mostly I was there from '76-78. I was a working student for Jack Adams and rode the myriad sales horses that he had come through. Roxanne Zobek also fixed me up with some rides and I rode her horse. I even took some of the schoolies to shows. There were a group of kids there all the time -- Theresa, Lorie, Peter, me (Liz). Most of us didn't have our own horses.

There was another barn in N. Salem, smaller, and I can no longer remember the name, but I rode horses for the lady who ran that, too. And for a private barn in Greenwich. Basically, I rode anything anyone offered because there was no way I was going to get my own horse.

I honestly didn't know all that many boarders that well. Jackie Lundy, as she was the daughter of one of my father's friends, Carol Maytag, as she used to give me lifts up from NYC . . . those are really the only names my ancient brain can remember!


Bogie: I was at the Hill in 1979, were you there then? I did the show aisle...Which horses did you ride? Do you remember Beverly and Native Gem, a grey that we joked was a camel with his withers. Us grooms called him Lips.

Do you remember the groom Diane? And, Theresa? I think she was Jack's working student that year. I'm trying to think of others. Prima Donna was a horse there...I just can't remember others.

[Bogie]

It would have been about '77. I remember that he was married when he arrived, but that he later had an umm "relationship" with a groom that worked there. She used to drive me to the train station and was full of gossip.

That place was a real education for me -- and not just about riding. I was truly shocked as a 16 year old to learn about some of the extra-marital relationships that went on at that barn :no:.

Bogie:
Late 70's or early 80's would be about right. I believe but am not absolutely sure his dad was a Cornell professor. He would have graduated from high school in 73 or 74 then I'm very sure he went to college. He probably pursued his passion after that.

[pines4equines]

Bogie: Was Peter the boy with one green eye and one blue eye or was it brown? And, I remember Theresa! And there was another boy that I can't remember the name.

[elizabeth1]

Sleezy is why I left. When I returned some 25 years later, I still love the sport, the horse.

[LuckyFinn]

LuckyFinn- I had lessons at Friars Gate 1976-1980. Julie had trained my aunt's horse prior to that, and while I was there was starting to spend more time way from the farm- in Germany, i think?
Totally agree on the awesome school ponies- one called "Blue" did advanced dressage- I accidentally asked him to do a levade once! I learned so much there.

Hey tberider..I was gone by the very early 70's..Julie is in France now "Friars Gate en France" I'm pretty sure..great ponies...Lone Oak ponies,-Jet and Eagle were cool, Wishful Thinking, Krackerjack, Raggedy Jan, Powdered Sugar, Bo Peep..all good ponies. I ended up at Rock Meadow in Byfield MA for my late junior years..always will love Friars Gate tho!!!

[ponybreeder]

Pony, I took a couple of lessons from you at Shannon, perhaps early 80s? Sure you don't remember me, tho;) I rode schoolie Casey, schoolie Murdock, Susan Silver's mare, Salamagundi, and Montana(?). This was after Barbara Lindsay left. Wasn't Reinhard Teetor there, too, for a while?

We moved up here shortly after.

I don't remember, but that is really cool. Where are you now?

[Madeline]

Does anyone remember the Maryland Pony Show when it was held in the infield at Timonium Racetrack? Heaven help you if you had an OTTB!!!!

The one I rode in the 70's was so hot in the schooling ring that half the riders would flee when they saw her coming. And yet she would win the class once she got in the ring - or the outside course!

Pairs classes, hunt teams, really challenging Jr equitation classes where you had to switch horses, outside courses, Knock Down and Out jumper classes at the local shows, the good old days!

I was there in 1956+/-. Long outside course. I had a slightly herd-bound pony and we put one stablemate out at the far end and one back at the finish. Worked fine except for the whinnying... At the time, the Md. Pony Show was a bit of an anomaly as the outside course did not start and finish in the ring, so you had (if you can imagine this) two classes going on at the same time!!

[boosma47]

I don't remember, but that is really cool. Where are you now?

Isn't it strange to be remembered, but not remember? ;) No, I recall you gave a great lesson.

We are up in the NW corner of Massachusetts, basically part of the Capital District/Western MA. Been here since 1985. I'm teaching, still have 3 horses, still involved in my wierd way.

My trainer and I were talking about Reinhard Teetor just last week... small world, indeed.

[AHC]

Janet, if you check back in here, we had many of the same experiences. I too remember the Silver Bit. I'd have to beg my mom to stop there when we went to the Bedford Barn. She was happy to shop for clothes, horse stuff not so much.....

When I rode with Pam in high school I didn't have a horse, but she always found something for me to ride and show, and she let me ride everything in the barn.

Ponybreeder, don't know if we've ever met, but I'm SURE we were at many of the same horse shows. And one of my current trainers taught MAD's little sister when she was a junior.

It is a small horse world....

[taylor93]

Hi ponybreeder,
Wasn't there a horse called 20th century limited at ronnie's place? Or, am I confusing him with grand central? So long ago. I started at nimrod in 67' or 68'. Then left for awhile and came back. It was incredible what they did with that place! And, weren't you tall? :D I remember the Hill. Loved it. Almost all those places. Did jumpers, what a ride!!!!:D

[Seal Harbor]

Hi ponybreeder,
Wasn't there a horse called 20th century limited at ronnie's place? Or, am I confusing him with grand central? So long ago. I started at nimrod in 67' or 68'. Then left for awhile and came back. It was incredible what they did with that place! And, weren't you tall? :D I remember the Hill. Loved it. Almost all those places. Did jumpers, what a ride!!!!:D

Those were both Ponybreeders horses and they were both there.

[debsinsb]

SB here also, San Marcos '67. I was at the Rose Bowl when Idle Dice won - still remember him sticking a hind down into the last oxer, then pulling it up and over the back rail to win. Screaming exciting first Grand Prix. Rode at Hope Ranch riding club early 60s then dressage with Bunny Klein Funke and Col. Earl Thomson, then Eric Bubbel (when he still had John Galvin's horses). Wrangled at Rancho Oso, rode the back country with Al Moss. So glad I grew up then rather than now. Did you know Shelly Ewing? I remember sitting on the fence at Earl Warren and watching JW and his group of future Olympians (Mary Mairs (Chapot), Ann Kursinski, etc. ) walk by. You KNEW they were going to be Olympic riders.

Yes, I knew Shelly and Shirley Ewing.

The old SB shows were great. Wonder what the Turkey show is like now.

Somewhere I have pictures from that first GP at the Rose Bowl. Someone mentioned another one out here in the early 70's around San Diego-was it at Rancho Bernardo?

[christmasfarm]

i remember:
"a very young rider" and plain jane . . . .
johnny's pocket doing open sp.eed, and norman getting used to a new import named "bruno" (i love you) . . . .
"kitty" (touch of class) doing preliminary with debbie, and abdullah dumping conrad(and those who came before!) over and over . . . .
norman's working student, a kid named jeff welles, getting a second in the first grand prix he ever entered, on a horse named dark sonnet that he borrowed from kathy gifford . . . .
southhampton finished at 2 every day, so everyone could go to the beach . . . .
lake placid had two rings, and three tents, including one that blew away . . . .
steve stephens used to introduce himself as "part of the ring crew" . . . .
GHM still competed . . . .
3'6" is where the hunters STARTED, and the jumpers had to be ready to do preliminary to show at all (4' to 4'3"). remember premin, intermediate and open? . . . .
remember hogsbacks? . . . .
the leone's lovely junior hunter, rain forest, met with an unfortunate poker accident, an incident that also cost that particular show most of its grooms for a few days . . . .
"ike" returning at the age of 19, after retirement, to do open speed, because he would get so upset when the vans left for a horseshow and left him behind . . . .
katie and melanie taking nearly endless heat from their instructor about the size/shape of their butts, despite the talent they were displaying . . . .
omg, i could go on and on, and am in danger of doing so. (remember touch the sun's COLOR? . . . . remember the retirement party for the hunter HORSE at the waldorf astoria? the horse was THERE, in the ballroom! what horse was that? . . . . remember sandron's golfcart full of dachsunds? . . . . remember the costume jumper classes at washington? . . . . remember the way the spectators dressed up for the Garden?)

[Acertainsmile]

I remember the costume jumper class at Washington!... And especially the night when a rider entered the ring wearing only a plastic pumpkin on his head...turned out he was a groom, but I think I remember seeing him jump one fence before a big hand covered my little virgin eyes! :eek:

[ivy62]

I certainly remember when the National at MSG started on Tuesday night and concluded on Sunday..The spectators dressed formal to the nines! Girls didn't wear field boots only dress boots and when you did wear field boots they were cordovan.....
I went one year with my 4-H troop to the Maclay finals and it only cost $5.00 for the enire morning.....

The USET grounds in Gladstone were absolutely awesome now they are houses....so sad....

[ponybreeder]

The horse at The Astria was Bruce Duchussois's "Kim's Song"

[Equinoxfox]

OH Pippy : This is a wonderful thread. It has brought back so many memories for me. I started riding back in the late 70's /early 80's. NOT owning a horse I rode my bike down to the farm to learn to groom, work, and ride. I rode everything my trainer put me on. ( Appy's, OTTB's, Morgans, etc) .. she even had a couple of Arab -crosses in the school. Boy talk about learning good work ethic. I learned all the basics, braiding , hauling , and those local schooling shows. WOW talk about chaos.. Parents, Kids, Ponies and school horses all over the place. And then the occasional one that got loose. LOL. To this day I THANK that trainer and keep in touch with her. It is amazing at how much knowlege they had and the level of hands- on they gave us. Boy I miss those days.!! And look how it helped to develope me now!! Long live the days of "Kirby-Lonesdale Farm" and " Anne Gavin" from the Southernn, Virginia area.!!! YOU ROCK..:D

[MintHillFarm]

When I was in college in CA, during the school year of 1974/75, I worked part-time for Champ and Linda Hough. I know all of you remember Spindletop Showdown (after Marvin Van Rappaport had him) Emmett Kelly and others...what a beautiful farm they had.

[BAC]

I certainly remember when the National at MSG started on Tuesday night and concluded on Sunday..The spectators dressed formal to the nines! Girls didn't wear field boots only dress boots and when you did wear field boots they were cordovan.....
I went one year with my 4-H troop to the Maclay finals and it only cost $5.00 for the enire morning.....

The USET grounds in Gladstone were absolutely awesome now they are houses....so sad....

I must be older, I remember when the show ran from Tuesday to Tuesday, an entire 8 days, it was heaven. It always involved election day. This was in the 1960s and earlier.

[lcw579]

I certainly remember when the National at MSG started on Tuesday night and concluded on Sunday..The spectators dressed formal to the nines! Girls didn't wear field boots only dress boots and when you did wear field boots they were cordovan.....
I went one year with my 4-H troop to the Maclay finals and it only cost $5.00 for the enire morning.....

The USET grounds in Gladstone were absolutely awesome now they are houses....so sad....

I had a pair! They were hand-me-downs from Maryanne Steiert and I was so proud of them I wore them until they were so tight I almost had to be cut out of them after a long hot day at a show. :lol: My dad was afraid he was going to break my ankles getting them off!

I still lust after another pair ...

[SILLYSADIE]

BAC

I'm with you. The MSG did go from Tuesday to Tuesday ! :D

[debsinsb]

When I was in college in CA, during the school year of 1974/75, I worked part-time for Champ and Linda Hough. I know all of you remember Spindletop Showdown (after Marvin Van Rappaport had him) Emmett Kelly and others...what a beautiful farm they had.

You have a PM

[Saddlebag]

What a great childhood I had, growing up in Barrington, Illinois, and riding my horses everywhere...if I wanted to go over to play at a friend's house, I just hopped on my Not-So-Trusty pony, Rocket, hacked to my destination and then turned Rocket out in a paddock while I played with my pals...or we would all meet on the trails somewhere, and act like a gang of marauders...When I was around 12, I started to foxhunt with Fox River Valley, andloved every minute of it. In 1955, my parents bought me (for about $500.) a young gelding from Ralph Fleming (one of Si Jayne's acolytes) whose training in jumping had consisted of being dumped out of a truck into the middle of the indoor ring with a bunch of other horses that Ralph had bought at auctions out west, two or three rides by the local kids who hung out there and served as cannon fodder by riding the horses that came off the truck to see what they were. The system went like this...if the horse didn't buck anybody off, they galloped it to a jump. If they got it to jump something after a couple of tries, the fence was raised to about 3'6". If they could survive jumping that, it went into the riding school as a lesson horse, and after a week or so of life as a school horse (for jumpng lessons), they would pass it off to some unsuspecting buyer as a "perfect, made child's Hunter". Yup..it happened that way, but the only thing was that instead of an unmitigated disaster, I adored the horse...loved him passionately, and he never let me down! I started to get some lessons from Bobby Breen...who really did teach me how to ride, and together, that young gelding and I just kept on going! I called him "Tony"...showed him as Plutonium, and I did everything with that horse. He only stood about 15:2hh, but he had an enormous step...could and would jump anything, and he won tons as a Hunter (Those were the days when you bridged your reins, stood up in the irons, and galloped over those outside courses! The truth was...I couldn't have stopped him if I wanted to, but I was having a blast, so No Harm, No Foul. Later, I started doing jumper classes with Tony, and he was a star at that too...once, in a lesson...no less, I talked Bob into raising an oxer as high as we could. We kept jumping the thing, and afterwords, when we measured it,it was 6'6" ! No lessons like THAT are to be found these days!

For college, I moved to Northern California, and I am still here. I have enjoyed a long career as a professional, have ridden and trained some great horses, and have had the opportunity to teach some wonderful students too. I am a bit creaky these days, but I own a farm which is the farm I had always dreamed of as a kid. I can still ride pretty well, and I have a bunch of neat homebreds to play with. It is like everything has come full circle, and I can now appreciate the horses the same way I did when I was a kid! Only thing now, is that my body won't let me ride all day like I used to! And with this sucky economy, the shows are so expensive, and the horses are hard to sell. But, nobody has ever accused me of being astute, so I just keep going, and the horses are still great!

Oh...I kept Tony his entire life, and he lived to be 30. :yes:

[ivy62]

BAC- I guess they changed the National many times. I was there in the early and mid seventies..Everyone stayed at the Statler Hilton. I do miss that show....I understand that they are bringing it under one roof again in Syracuse...
I do miss the raffle for the Courvoisier Arabian!
Also, the trends in clothes..remember when a pony rider would match the hunt cap to the coat! green hunt coat equals green hunt cap! or a brown hunt cap....
Or when a Crosby Prix des Nations only cost $125 dollars and that was a lot....

[BAC]

BAC- I guess they changed the National many times. I was there in the early and mid seventies..Everyone stayed at the Statler Hilton. I do miss that show....I understand that they are bringing it under one roof again in Syracuse...
I do miss the raffle for the Courvoisier Arabian!
Also, the trends in clothes..remember when a pony rider would match the hunt cap to the coat! green hunt coat equals green hunt cap! or a brown hunt cap....
Or when a Crosby Prix des Nations only cost $125 dollars and that was a lot....

Yes, by the seventies it was getting more expensive to hold the show in NYC and it was becoming less popular with the general public so it was shortened until by the last time it was at MSG it was only 3 or 4 days I think. When it was an 8 day show they still had ponies and the harness horses, saddlebreds and all kinds of exhibitions/demonstrations, it was my favorite time of year. I also stayed at the Statler Hilton, and remember the Courvoisier Arabian, I was sure I was going to win and sell it for enough money to buy a fancy show hunter. ;)

[Ruby G. Weber]

Actually the retirement party to end all retirement parties was at Washington. Don't remember which hotel but Kim's Song (the horse being honored) was there. The party favors shall we say, were unique. - And were likely the cause of many riders tardiness the following morning for the second year hack.

THE costume class was also at Washington although it was VERY impromptu. The riders in the Regular Conformation Appointments "added a little something" to their hunting attire that night. IIRC RJ wore a Richard Nixon mask. (Yes, in those days the Working and Conf. Appointments classes frequently were scheduled during the evening performance.) But I digress. The horses and riders were lined up in the ring being judged for conformation and appointments when the bareback streaker wearing only a pumpkin on his head and his work boots on his feet galloped into the ring on a grey Intermediate jumper. The pumpkin headed rider quickly realized he could not gallop around the ring - because of the placement of the other jumps - so chose instead to jump around the outside. I was in the warm up area that night and I can tell you it was the best orchestrated event ever to take place. The pumpkin headed rider was a groom for one of the Conformation horses who was lined up in the ring. That groom was dressed and awaiting his horse when the horse came out of the ring.

And yes, I too remember the Garden going from Tuesday to Tuesday.

And the outside course at Devon. And Detriot.

Guess I'm old as the dirt too!

[DuffyAgain]

There can only be one and that's a name I haven't heard in 30 years.

He was a squarely built kid with bright red hair that haunted the Cornell barns in the 70's. He didn't have a horse but would beg, borrow or steal a ride on anything(and I mean anything) in hopes of having a jumper. The outcomes were often not so good...

If I remember rightly he finally got his own horse when he was about 17. He probably had to earn the money to purchase it himself. Not much of a horse but he had dreams of making it into a jumper.

I googled him and lo and behold!! I'm very happy he made his dreams come true and finally got some very good horse education.

He honestly was one of the last names I'd expected to see here. Good for him.


I believe I sat with them at Michael & Georgette Page's son's wedding. :) (Reinhard & Leslie Teetor)

[DuffyAgain]

Those were both Ponybreeders horses and they were both there.



And she's still tall! :winkgrin:

[MintHillFarm]

I remember seeing Kip Rosenthal place 4th in the Maclay finals...Good Boy Dee and Rome Dome were her two wonderful horses that I watched at NY...

[Janet]

Does anyone remember Karen Timberman? (or maybe it was Timmerman)

[Acertainsmile]

Actually the retirement party to end all retirement parties was at Washington. Don't remember which hotel but Kim's Song (the horse being honored) was there. The party favors shall we say, were unique. - And were likely the cause of many riders tardiness the following morning for the second year hack.

THE costume class was also at Washington although it was VERY impromptu. The riders in the Regular Conformation Appointments "added a little something" to their hunting attire that night. IIRC RJ wore a Richard Nixon mask. (Yes, in those days the Working and Conf. Appointments classes frequently were scheduled during the evening performance.) But I digress. The horses and riders were lined up in the ring being judged for conformation and appointments when the bareback streaker wearing only a pumpkin on his head and his work boots on his feet galloped into the ring on a grey Intermediate jumper. The pumpkin headed rider quickly realized he could not gallop around the ring - because of the placement of the other jumps - so chose instead to jump around the outside. I was in the warm up area that night and I can tell you it was the best orchestrated event ever to take place. The pumpkin headed rider was a groom for one of the Conformation horses who was lined up in the ring. That groom was dressed and awaiting his horse when the horse came out of the ring.

And yes, I too remember the Garden going from Tuesday to Tuesday.

And the outside course at Devon. And Detriot.

Guess I'm old as the dirt too!


You know, I was probably 10 or 11... you dont perhaps remember the year do you? It was all a bit of a blur, like I said, my dads hand went over my eyes fast! Thanks for clearing that up about what class Mr. Pumpkin Head made his debut in! :lol:

I also remember something about a woman with a see thru skirt... kind of missed the details on that one, but I think it was the same evening.

[je.suis]

4pines,to what indian hill are you referring? bedford?

[MintHillFarm]

Yes, it was Karen Timberman....she was at Coach House before Mark and Kent bought it. She and her mother and sister I think...

[Janet]

Yes, it was Karen Timberman....she was at Coach House before Mark and Kent bought it. She and her mother and sister I think...
Thanks. I was beginning to think that i was the only one who remembered her- and then she seemed to disappear.

I knew her when she was a junior, and I think her mother was a judge.

Does anyone know what she did after that, or if she is still involved in horses?

[Ruby G. Weber]

The Halloween bash at Washington was Circa 1975. Give or take.

I do remember Stocking Stuffer and Market Rise were in the line up - if that helps.

[pines4equines]

je.suis said: 4pines,to what indian hill are you referring? bedford?

Yes and I think it was on Indian Hill Road a I recall, now this was way back 1980 or so so I'm not sure. Can't even remember the name of the person I worked for but I do remember some of the horses. There was a draft/cross that was a big clod, sweet horse but cloddish. The owner wanted him to go A/O hunter and he really was just too big of a clod, square peg/round hole kind of thing.

[MintHillFarm]

I think Karen Timberman's mom was a judge...I won a Maiden Eq on the flat class on one of her horses at the LaGuardia Horse Show right near the airport a million years ago! Not sure what happened to them. I thought they may have moved to Long Island, though not sure...

[Acertainsmile]

The Halloween bash at Washington was Circa 1975. Give or take.

I do remember Stocking Stuffer and Market Rise were in the line up - if that helps.



Hey, my memory is not completly shot!!! I would have been eleven that year!

[ivy62]

I loved Stocking Stuffer! He was the best.....
The neatest thing for me at the National was the fine harness horses. They looked so formal, like one of the dressed up spectators should just go for a ride....
So many of the juniors I saw in the maclay finals never seemed to go any where after that. I wonder if they gave it up and went on to college....
I loved the out side hunt courses, I did pony hunters...I am short but I think they were so much better then in the ring the way they are now...I am glad to see the Hunter Derby coming back. Signs of the old good stuff resurfacing.....

[shade]

je.suis said: 4pines,to what indian hill are you referring? bedford?

Yes and I think it was on Indian Hill Road a I recall, now this was way back 1980 or so so I'm not sure. Can't even remember the name of the person I worked for but I do remember some of the horses. There was a draft/cross that was a big clod, sweet horse but cloddish. The owner wanted him to go A/O hunter and he really was just too big of a clod, square peg/round hole kind of thing.

I worked for a Kelly Hoy at Indian Hill Farm on Indian Hill rd. Is this the place/person you;re referring to? What ever happened to her. I wasn't there very long. That was my introduction to WEF. Working for her that is..

[Jumphigh83]

So anyone of the oldsters remember the fancy dress relay "Little Red Riding Hood (Anne Kursinski) and the "Wolf" (McClain?)...brought the house down when the wolf cornered Little Red who lifted up her apron revealing a GIGANTIC ummm....phallus....and chased the wolf out of the ring? OMG I thought I would die laughing...announcer had to turn off mike to laugh..totally lost his composure (everyone did)...everyone got in trouble for that one! But it certainly WAS worth it..the adults got it and it just went over the heads of the little kids...I am pretty sure that was the end of the fancy dress relay for a long time!:lol::lol:

[pines4equines]

Shade said: I worked for a Kelly Hoy at Indian Hill Farm on Indian Hill rd. Is this the place/person you;re referring to? What ever happened to her. I wasn't there very long. That was my introduction to WEF. Working for her that is..

Yes, it was Indian Hill Farm...was the road Indian Hill or Baxter? What farm is on Baxter in the 70s?

I don't remember the name of the woman I worked for but Kelly Hoy does sound familiar...

Shade: WHen were you there? I think I was there 1980.

[fish]

.
So many of the juniors I saw in the maclay finals never seemed to go any where after that. I wonder if they gave it up and went on to college....
.

Worse: the ones I knew best got married immediately after their last year, promptly had children, no longer had time (or fitness level) for riding....
Maybe that shows how "olden" I am :(

[BAC]

ISo many of the juniors I saw in the maclay finals never seemed to go any where after that. I wonder if they gave it up and went on to college....

I was around when Rita Timpanaro, Lesley Burr, Katie Monahan, Crystine Jones and Conrad Homfeld were all winning Medal or Maclay Finals, they are all still either riding or involved with horses. And I remember watching David Olynik (sp?) win at MSG and Stacia Klein Madden winning the Maclay.

[shade]

Shade said: I worked for a Kelly Hoy at Indian Hill Farm on Indian Hill rd. Is this the place/person you;re referring to? What ever happened to her. I wasn't there very long. That was my introduction to WEF. Working for her that is..

Yes, it was Indian Hill Farm...was the road Indian Hill or Baxter? What farm is on Baxter in the 70s?

I don't remember the name of the woman I worked for but Kelly Hoy does sound familiar...

Shade: WHen were you there? I think I was there 1980.

I'm pretty sure it was on Indian Hill Rd. Not sure of the exct year I was there but it would have had to be early 80's. I always wondered what ever became of the farm itself. It was a decent place. The barn has 2 levels and had faucets outside every stall.,.,and I swear it was close to Susie Shroer(sp) place.

[MintHillFarm]

Baxter Rd is in North Salem. Michael Page's place is approx 1/2 way down and Stoney Creek (Carol Maloney) is on one end. There is another farm is at the opposite end from S.C., but not sure who has that now...

[pippy]

I was around when Rita Timpanaro, Lesley Burr, Katie Monahan, Crystine Jones and Conrad Homfeld were all winning Medal or Maclay Finals, they are all still either riding or involved with horses. And I remember watching David Olynik (sp?) win at MSG and Stacia Klein Madden winning the Maclay.

I was a young teenager, and we went to Katie Monahan's barn to pick up a horse. What was the name of her barn? We also went to Conrad Homfeld's place. Gosh, that seems like a life time ago! I hope someone remembers the name of Kaitie's barn...it is driving me crazy.

[shade]

I was a young teenager, and we went to Katie Monahan's barn to pick up a horse. What was the name of her barn? We also went to Conrad Homfeld's place. Gosh, that seems like a life time ago! I hope someone remembers the name of Kaitie's barn...it is driving me crazy.



I believe it was Plain Bay Farm

[Playing Games]

I learned to ride at Claremont in NYC in the early 70s. I'd jump hack horses over police barricades and anything else I could in Central Park. :lol:

Boarded my horse at Jamaica Bay the first summer it opened and regularly took my horse swimming.

Me too! That's where I learned to ride. It was 1973.

[pippy]

I believe it was Plain Bay Farm

Ahhh, thank you! My friend's horse was plain bay, too. Great horse.

[MAD]

I'm pretty sure it was on Indian Hill Rd. Not sure of the exct year I was there but it would have had to be early 80's. I always wondered what ever became of the farm itself. It was a decent place. The barn has 2 levels and had faucets outside every stall.,.,and I swear it was close to Susie Shroer(sp) place.


The barn on Indian Hill Road belonged to Mrs. and Mrs. Arthur Hawkins before Kelly Hoy had it. I think the Hawkins sold it about 1976. Eric Hasbrouck took over the barn after Kelly Hoy.

[fair judy]

i can't believe i haven't looked in here. i know some of you guys from nimrod days..... rode at old mill (yohais) in jericho LI with george and dear robert hoskins in 1968 . crazy days! lessons in groups with really famous people who must have thought who is THIS kid? went to mutch indoors that winter and lived in the DERELICT camper with david/suzie fubini, d distler, my sis and me, j vullo and off and on anyone who needed a place to stay. ronnie silcox was playing bad bad leroy brown in the aisles, frank bonner was there and debbie porter had the hack string. we got sent to the ring to pick up rocks if we rode badly. i think i built an extra foot on the nimrod wall ( its still there around the subdivision). i remember blast parties at cape cod!!!! and dunphy's indoor ferris wheel. i remember when lake placid had big water tanks and we had to carry water. what was the name of that hippie bar there?

you guys are mostly puppies:cool::cool::cool::cool:

[War Admiral]

1968...Friars Gate Farm with Julie Ulrich...great school ponies- and got my first "show pony" there also..

LuckyFinn - In 1968 I was still riding saddle seat so we probably don't know each other, but I rode *right* down the street from FGF at Fleetwood Farm! I got my first OTTB in 1969 and switched and I *think* I took a couple lessons at FGF (in fact I know I did, it was my first time in an indoor, which Fleetwood did not have) but ended up riding with Denny O'Keefe instead.

Janet - Nope, never rode sidesaddle in an astride saddle, but I definitely remember the time a friend and I dug her grandmother's sidesaddle out of the attic, spent DAYS cleaning and conditioning it, and stuck it on that selfsame OTTB to see what would happen! :lol: I lived on a main road, with my ring right next to the road, and O'Keefe (ex-cavalry drill sergeant) happened to drive past. He hit the brakes on his truck, rolled down the window and bellowed "IF YOU'RE GONNA WRECK THAT GOOD HONEST HOSS TRYING TO RIDE SIDESADDLE, BY GAWD, GIRL, YOU'RE GONNA LEARN IT RIGHT!" Pulled his truck over, got out of it, stomped down the hill, climbed over the 4-board (he was 83 at the time! :eek:) and proceeded to give me the sidesaddle lesson of my life! I took a couple more from him over the next week, he and about 3 other trainers helped me get the appointments together, and my freebie OTTB and I beat quite a few squillionairesses at the Myopia show a couple weeks later. :lol:

[fair judy]

Janet - Nope, never rode sidesaddle in an astride saddle, but I definitely remember the time a friend and I dug her grandmother's sidesaddle out of the attic, spent DAYS cleaning and conditioning it, and stuck it on that selfsame OTTB to see what would happen! I lived on a main road, with my ring right next to the road, and O'Keefe (ex-cavalry drill sergeant) happened to drive past. He hit the brakes on his truck, rolled down the window and bellowed "IF YOU'RE GONNA WRECK THAT GOOD HONEST HOSS TRYING TO RIDE SIDESADDLE, BY GAWD, GIRL, YOU'RE GONNA LEARN IT RIGHT!" Pulled his truck over, got out of it, stomped down the hill, climbed over the 4-board (he was 83 at the time! ) and proceeded to give me the sidesaddle lesson of my life! I took a couple more from him over the next week, he and about 3 other trainers helped me get the appointments together, and my freebie OTTB and I beat quite a few squillionairesses at the Myopia show a couple weeks later.
__________________

PRICELESS:):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):)

[shade]

The barn on Indian Hill Road belonged to Mrs. and Mrs. Arthur Hawkins before Kelly Hoy had it. I think the Hawkins sold it about 1976. Eric Hasbrouck took over the barn after Kelly Hoy.


Thanks MAD..I wonder who has it now..

And boy was I a newbie to the H/J circuit ways back then. Surprised I survived.

Fair Judy did you know about the Nimrod reunion a few years back? There was also website started at the same time.

[just_me]

Me too! That's where I learned to ride. It was 1973.
I heard the bridle paths went downhill later on and the city didn't maintain them, but in the early 70s, they were the cat's meow. I loved riding in the park. I pushed rides, so I got to do a lot of it for free.

[fair judy]

shade, i didn't go to the reunion. i do go over to the group sometimes........

[ponybreeder]

Actually, Kelly Hoy sold Indian Hill to Mickey and Maria Newman, both riders and parents of Jessica Newman who started and runs Just World. The Newmans Hired Eric Hasbrouck and they had a number of boarders as well as their own horses. Cara Raether and her family became customers of Erics, and after the Newman's owned Indian hill for 10 years or so, they sold it to the Raethers. Cara no longer rides with Eric, but he still does some training there. It still belongs to the Raether family.

[pines4equines]

I worked at Indian Hill when Kelly Hoy owned it. And yes to those water spigots outside each stall. What a dream that was! I worked at a race hrose farm that had that...excellent option.

[theoldgreymare]

Nothing beat The Saddler though till Beval came along...There was a tack shop in Larchmont too near the train station.

The Larchmont tack shop was the Village Saddlery. Proprietor Arnold Weiner, IIRC.

[fair judy]

saddler..... anyone ever see annie morris?

[taylor93]

annie morris? Was she a teacher at Nimrod? If so, I believe she lives in Redding, CT now.

[Hocus Focus]

This is a dangerous thread. It dates us beyond words. LOL

When I refer to my old days there are different stages... the very early years was more cowboys and indians than actual riding. Rode for five years bareback. Even jumped a barbed wire fence bareback ... not intentionally mind you, but it happened and both of us survived, but I think that was when I got my first gray hair. Fun in those days would be galloping across a snow covered field, having the horse hit an icy stretch and go down and slide. I was very good at lifting my leg and sitting on top while we slid. Oddly neither horse nor rider ever got hurt from those antics. It seemed like a good idea at the time.


When I finally moved to civilization. I took my first riding lessons at Leitchcroft Farm just north of Toronto and after a year and a half of that, did the groom circuit. Worked for Jim Elder for a time. That was certainly the highlight of that era. My first day there was certainly monumental. It was right after the Royal Winter Fair and Hans Winkler (then capt of the German team) was up looking at young horses. Jimmy made us jump them that day adn the fences shall we say were much higher than anything I had ever faced before. I would dearly love to have a video of what occured that day. I gave new meaning to soaring through the air above the horse, but miraculously we met on the other side and apart from some snickering in the background, I demonstrated beautifully the "creative seat" which I am certain impressed everyone to no end.

Things improved. I had one year of showing later, mostly eventing and it was successful including three wins at training level and a second place finish in the Eastern Canadian Championships (90 entries) so that is my riding career in a nutshell.

Always been a horse junkie and followed the circuit as a photographer ever since. Such is life. Olden days for me also including starting as a horse show photographer working with June Fallaw in the mid seventies in California
Time does pass does it not.

I am 56 already.

[Sansena]

saddler..... anyone ever see annie morris?

Yes, Annie still is in Redding, at her house. I saw her last month and she's doing well.

[buryinghill4]

Gary Rockwell at Sleepy Hollow Country Club...Also worked from Reiner Neivisch
Small world. I was at SHCC when Gary got hired. And one of my best friends worked for Reiner... total flashback this morning! :lol:
Gary wanted me to buy a young stallion that had tons of potential. Breeder was going to let me do payments! I turned down the offer (Gary was sooo sad). That colt ended up being realllly famous. Oh well :(

[buryinghill4]

In 1979, we went to Mason Phelps show, Mt. Snow, several others that I don't remember.

One of my alltime favorite shows! "Pre-Vermont!"
I didn't realize that was a Mason show.
I recall Leslie rode a palomino 1st year (can someone help me out with the name??). Used to lie down when he was waiting at the ring. Very calmly would lay down and graze :winkgrin: At Mt Snow he really enjoyed the sun and grass.

[buryinghill4]

The original Coker Farms in Greenwhich.

Ahhh...memories.

Coker Farm... Greenwich.
Taconic Road.

Let's see... I remember getting trashed with Kip Connors... on Thanksgiving at Coker in Judy's living room :lol: Giving me a headache just thinking about it.

In the barn that winter would have been Johnny's Pocket, Royal Patrick, Best Mistake, Gwynedd Ask Me, Freedom, Frosty Lad, ...:) Some living on the truck, and some freezing out in the fields...

[buryinghill4]

No offense taken. I remember the expression "hacking your way to indoors" really well!!

Like "Reality" did ;)

[buryinghill4]

The neatest thing for me at the National was the fine harness horses. They looked so formal, like one of the dressed up spectators should just go for a ride....

LEMON DROP KID. You would have remembered HIM :winkgrin:

[buryinghill4]

:lol: http://www.berkshireshowstock.com/index.html

[Janet]

The original Coker Farms in Greenwhich.
Conversely, I remember the current "Coker Farm", pre Richters, when it was "Running Fox Farm", a private farm, owned by "Uncle" Harry Gibson, who was MFH of GBH, and bred and raced TBs.

SO MUCH polished brass and marble!!!

[Anyplace Farm]

So anyone of the oldsters remember the fancy dress relay "Little Red Riding Hood (Anne Kursinski) and the "Wolf" (McClain?)...brought the house down when the wolf cornered Little Red who lifted up her apron revealing a GIGANTIC ummm....phallus....and chased the wolf out of the ring? OMG I thought I would die laughing...announcer had to turn off mike to laugh..totally lost his composure (everyone did)...everyone got in trouble for that one! But it certainly WAS worth it..the adults got it and it just went over the heads of the little kids...I am pretty sure that was the end of the fancy dress relay for a long time!:lol::lol:

I must be an old-timer, since I remember watching McLain riding in his first Grand Prix. I think he was like 11 or so. I remember it being a pretty big deal to everyone. And yes, this was when Barney hadn't been busted yet. I was working for Beacon Hill at the time. Stacia was a junior and Frank & Bill were 'Beacon Hill' then.

[pippy]

I have had the BEST time reading this thread. How fun so many people have re-connected.:D

[La Gringa]

I also rode in the late 70's early 80's. Back then you moved up faster. They didn't have all the baby green, short/long stirrup divisions. We jumped real hunt looking fences, not built out verticals. There were walls, coops, straight verticals etc.

I moved up to Jr Hunters and Big Eq at 12-13 years of age, and never looked back. I also successfully did hunters, eq, and sometimes a jumper class all on one horse!

I had an Appendix QH mare to start with, then a Trakehner gelding that won everything in the younger Jr hunters and Eq ... yes a Trakehner. Back then nobody knew what he was, and they loved him. In 81 in Calif, there weren't very many WBs in the hunter divisions, mostly TB's... and some fabulous ones..

;)

[La Gringa]

I must be an old-timer, since I remember watching McLain riding in his first Grand Prix. I think he was like 11 or so. I remember it being a pretty big deal to everyone. And yes, this was when Barney hadn't been busted yet. I was working for Beacon Hill at the time. Stacia was a junior and Frank & Bill were 'Beacon Hill' then.

That must make me ancient because I remember McLain winning the medal finals.. LOL.

[elizabeth1]

:lol: http://www.berkshireshowstock.com/index.html

Just have to ask, do you know him?

[Anyplace Farm]

That must make me ancient because I remember McLain winning the medal finals.. LOL.

No, I think he did his first grand prix before doing Medal Finals. His first grand prix would have been about 1986-87. I'm too lazy to look it up, though.

Plus, I'm pretty sure I'm older than you. At least I think... No way are you over 44. If so, power to ya, sister!:cool:

[Anyplace Farm]

OK, I broke down and looked. It says he won USET Medal Finals in 90 at 14. So, that would make sense -- my seeing him in his first grand prix in Tampa at 11 in 1987.

Dude -- I'm old. At least by my standards.

[sahqueen]

Does anyone remember Karen Timberman? (or maybe it was Timmerman)


I know this is an old thread, but I just happened to stumble accross is...I've had horses with Karen for about 5 years and she has been based out of my farm in upstate NY for the past 2 years. She shows mostly AQHA now, although has a few customers that have welsh ponies, so has been doing a little local hunter stuff as well.

[InWhyCee Redux]

I would love to hear stories about those of you, (including me) who learned to ride the good ole schooling horses, but then....all there was were the HOT TB's off the track.

Uhmmm, that is exactly the type of school horse I am riding right now. ;)

[Hrselvr1982]

I don't know if it counts to chime in for someone else here...but I love looking at pictures, and listening to my Grandma's stories! She joined the circus when she was 18, and did Roman Riding and many other crazy things! After the circus, she began to train in dressage, trained with Captain Heyer and Major Borg (I believe in the late 1960's), rode and won the Prix St. George. She is now 80 yrs old, and is happy with her quiet life on her farm with many friends and family.

[gillisdog]

Does anyone remember the OLD tack shop that was in Banksville, NY in the 60's and 70's? Right between Greenwich and Bedford. Our mothers would NEVER have driven us all the way to Wilton to shop at The Saddler. That would have been like going to Mars. I can't remember the name of it now. We used to buy our horse show chokers seperately from our shirts, in quite funky colors. A lot of them were reversible, like solid green on one side and paisley on the other. Sort of a la carte. If you had a choker you liked you wore it with lots of different shirts. I think we called them ratcatchers. We hacked to horse shows all the time: Greenwich Horse Show, Stratford Stables, Alschultz Field, the polo field behind Quaker Ridge Stables, Round Hill Stables, Anderson Hill Rd (where Pepsi is now). We spent all year preparing for about six horse shows. The times we went by van to the Whip & Spur in Bedford and "Troop" (as we called it) in New Canaan felt like the big time. OK, we were pathetic. But had a lot of fun. No fancy horses. "Handsome is as handsome does" was the catch phrase. Those ribbons, any color, meant a lot.

[Joy Karr]

I'm older than all of you. Grew up in the 40's and 50's. Took riding lessons at Clearbrook in Seattle but had to stop because of an appendix operation. My mother said I could never ride again. Too dangerous. We bought 5 acres in Bellevue by Bridle Trails park. My girlfriend and I used to go riding on full moon nights and jump the white jumps in the arena. We all rode TB's or a few mixed breeds. We did both hunter and jumper classes because there were no divisions then. I read the Chronicle and drooled over the hunters, "Waiting Home" and Duke of Paeonian(sp). Was very jealous when my girlfriend got to go to the National Horse Show and ride in the AHSA Medal rideoff. My mother said if I spent any of her money on horses after she died, she would come back and haunt me. Haven't seen her yet, but I thank her every time I buy my horse a new piece of equipment or another ton of hay. Both of my daughters ride and all 4 of my grandchildren. Life is great.

[gillisdog]

Both of my daughters ride and all 4 of my grandchildren. Life is great.

My daughter rides too, and most of my good friends. Yes, the riding life is great.

[snaffles]

We always had lots of horses to ride that were TB's off the track. One in particular, "My Guy Friday" would take off whenever he heard the telephone ring. He thought it was the starting gate bell !!!!

[War Admiral]

LEMON DROP KID. You would have remembered HIM :winkgrin:

Yepyepyep!!!!

[FoxManRed]

OK, this dates me...(mid 60s)

Anyone remember Secor Farms Riding Club in White Plains?

Wayne and Frank Carroll?

Horses off the top of my head: Willowbrook, Peter Pan, Pal, Fiddlesticks, Chopsticks, Brandywine, Ebony, Cadet, Blue Boy, Cheri, Joker, Margo, Ridgefield, Candy Stripe, First Impression...

Frank's Hackneys?

The smell of hot mash for the evening feed?

Straight Stalls? Padded Stalls? Straw bedding?

Harry the tack guy?
Randy the groom?

The Lounge upstairs?

The bridle path through the skunk cabbage?

[Lori]

In the 70's I was jumping ponies over 3' jumps bareback in a halter....even backwards! Kids nowadays dont get to do that stuff. I remember taking my Harrisburg qualifying medium to swim in the borrow pit, then being champion the next weekend.

Yep, in the 70's I was doing the same thing. I learned bareback and we would jump anything, go anywhere (try riding on the median strip of route 7 in Sterling, VA to the community college these days!!!). We would ride all day long and the pony I rode tied by throwing the reins over a fence post and she never moved.
I feel lucky to have grown up in a great horsie area with the best classic books of instruction and the best shows to go to even if just to watch.
I rode everyones outgrown or outcast ponies and horses. I never had a real good one, but boy did they teach me to ride and to LISTEN.
I had SO much fun as a kid!!

[Ruby G. Weber]

FMR...I remember Secor! I too remember Randy and also Billy. My horse was on his aisle. How about Sherry's Fortune's Turn? And Dale Batchelder (sp?) had a nice chestnut mare and Zelda. (She was a monkey.)

There is a nice picture of Wayne and Nan on FB - "Back in the Day."

[WinningWaysEast]

I also rode with Jack Rockwell, but much earlier than old salem, started with him when i was 5 at Tricolor farm in greenwich. We had a tragic fire there and i lost my first pony "Page Boy" Jack was as real as they come~ And all of these years later, the words from Jack echo in my head as he said repeatedly..... Slowwww downnnnnn~

[WinningWaysEast]

OMG N C M T now THAT brings back memories~ i can fondly remember the circus that we put on there where i decided to jump a course "standing up" on top of my pony "Comic Page" still have that picture proudly positioned on my night stand, those were the good old days~

[WinningWaysEast]

That must make me ancient because I remember McLain winning the medal finals.. LOL.

i remember when mcclain was BORN so i guess im beyond the grave:}

[Janet]

Does anyone remember the OLD tack shop that was in Banksville, NY in the 60's and 70's? Right between Greenwich and Bedford. Our mothers would NEVER have driven us all the way to Wilton to shop at The Saddler. That would have been like going to Mars. I can't remember the name of it now. We used to buy our horse show chokers seperately from our shirts, in quite funky colors. A lot of them were reversible, like solid green on one side and paisley on the other. Sort of a la carte. If you had a choker you liked you wore it with lots of different shirts. I think we called them ratcatchers. We hacked to horse shows all the time: Greenwich Horse Show, Stratford Stables, Alschultz Field, the polo field behind Quaker Ridge Stables, Round Hill Stables, Anderson Hill Rd (where Pepsi is now). We spent all year preparing for about six horse shows. The times we went by van to the Whip & Spur in Bedford and "Troop" (as we called it) in New Canaan felt like the big time. OK, we were pathetic. But had a lot of fun. No fancy horses. "Handsome is as handsome does" was the catch phrase. Those ribbons, any color, meant a lot.
No, I don't remember a tack shop in Banksville. The only tack shops I remember (60s- 70s) were the Silver Bit in Mt Kisco and Horse and Rider in Bedford Hills. But I DO remember riding from Bedford to Banksville on the PLA trails.

[MintHillFarm]

Yes there was one in Banksville, but I can't remember what the name was. I will ahve to think about that one...My Dad actually drove me to The Sadddler in Wilton which for him was the end of the earth...

WinningWaysEast - weren't you at Coach House for a time back in the 70's???

[MAD]

No, I don't remember a tack shop in Banksville. The only tack shops I remember (60s- 70s) were the Silver Bit in Mt Kisco and Horse and Rider in Bedford Hills. But I DO remember riding from Bedford to Banksville on the PLA trails.

There was a tack shop in Banksville called Kaufman's (sp?). From what I have heard, the person that owned it was a brother of the owner of the Kaufman's (again, sp?) in NYC but the stores were not affiliated.

[gillisdog]

You are right, it was Kaufman's! Thanks so much for remebering that for me.

BTW, for Janet and anyone else who is interested, you can still ride the BRLA trails down as far as Watch Hill Farm, Mrs. Debany's place. You can see it on the new BRLA trail map, which is written about in today's New York Times, Westchester section.

[MAD]

You are right, it was Kaufman's! Thanks so much for remebering that for me.

BTW, for Janet and anyone else who is interested, you can still ride the BRLA trails down as far as Watch Hill Farm, Mrs. Debany's place. You can see it on the new BRLA trail map, which is written about in today's New York Times, Westchester section.

Mrs. Debany ;) was my source for the name Kaufman's.

[Janet]

Mrs. Debany ;) was my source for the name Kaufman's.
Ha ha!

[Janet]

You are right, it was Kaufman's! Thanks so much for remebering that for me.

BTW, for Janet and anyone else who is interested, you can still ride the BRLA trails down as far as Watch Hill Farm, Mrs. Debany's place. You can see it on the new BRLA trail map, which is written about in today's New York Times, Westchester section.
My late father was a "walking" member of BRLA, and there is a copy of the new map now at his house.

We used to ride to Margot Graham's place.

But they have changed a bunch of the trails off Guard Hill Rd. "Our" trail (past the Tanrackin retirees barn) is now marked "no Riders", and the one that used to go up behind the main house has been moved to run along the fence by I684.

[msrobin]

I am from the olden days. I rode western (yes I know) when I was a kid. I was only 6 months old in May of 1972 when my first pony arrived. Badger was the meanest shetland pony around. Mom would sit me on him and hold on to me while dad walked us around. When I was 7 I started taking lessons 3 times a week. Then moved into huntseat and got more serious showing all over.
It was the days when you could board a horse at the best place for under $175 per month full board. That same place is still there and I heard they are asking 850 a month now.

I loved the olden days wish I could go back. Things were just different than they are today.

[KnKShowmom]

Well I had read this thread thinking "that was before my time" but if you were in the olden days in '72 then I guess I need a reality check....

Most of my friends had horses at their houses and we would ride to Caumsett State Park/LI bareback with halters wearing shorts, sneakers, and bathing suits. We would school around the cross country course and end up down on the beach so we could go swimming with the horses.

We used to laugh at the professional eventers who would trailer in to school with every piece of equipment they could fit on their horses and we would go by with only halters with ropes on each side!

Hard to believe we lived to talk about all the fun we had -

[SuperSTB]

I envy everyone that can recall names and such. I certainly can't and I'm not that old! I rode in the 70's and 80's too- started at barns on long island- hunter jumpers. I didn't *own* my own horse but bounced around when my parents 'leased' them for me or later on I worked to afford my own. I recall riding at places in Greenlawn, Smithtown, Patchogue(???), and barn further out on the northshore (when I was actually showing). I also recall going down the east coast one year with a group to show.

Later on- when I was mucking and working my way to stick with horses, memory was better served :)

But this is how bad I was... I rode in a clinic by GM and I didn't even know who he *was* at the time. It wasn't until a few years later when I reconnected with a riding buddy- that she dawned the light on me.

Ahhh I'm still really bad with names...

[fair judy]

any one remember my cousin beth coakley? i think she rode with jack rockwell, she is around 62 now...... had two lovely junior horses, pebble hill and springfield.

[fair judy]

Mrs. Debany ;) was my source for the name Kaufman's.

that is a good one!:lol:

[fair judy]

how about m j knoud's tack shop?

[Linda]

I rode back in the 60's at Shadowland Ranch in La Jolla with Ruth and Augie Handley. We did lots of shows including the Del Mar Fair show back before the show ringswere redone. The ring was tiny so the fences on course seemed to be stacked almost on top of each other.

We practiced a drill team at home that we did at a gallop.....amazing to think of it now.

On weekends, we used to ride bareback down to Blacks beach and gallop the horses in the sand and in the water. I would never do that now but we didnt give it a second thought then. The access gate was often locked so we would ride down the steep goat trails from the cliffs to the beach. We never worried about galloping in deep sand and never had any tendon or ligament injuries either..... Clueless kids!

Youth! We thought these were the most fun things in the world to do with our horses. We clearly had a TON of fun. And I cannot even imagine doing any of it now! I ride in the ring and on the trails - but at a sensible pace and not down steep goat trails.

[abird80]

I'd love to see all the old jumping pics!!!! :yes:

[OAK]

I thought Beth rode out of Boulder Brook. I do remember her horses the were real nice ones !!!!!

[fair judy]

duh..... yep, it WAS boulder brook. i was in new york visiting last week and it was so good to see her. beth is such a lovely woman, and always so well "turned out". my daddy used to say that she always had her "mane and tail done". beth sweetly took that as the highest compliment.

we went to playland...... dang, that was a walk down memory lane! and the larchmont yacht club. hasn't changed one whit in 50 years.

who was the gentleman who ran the boulder brook facility then? i've forgotten, and she just told me three days ago........

[AlwaysHopeful]

just wanted to add, i was reading in the beginning when you all were saying how kids these days don't get to experience the "joy" of owning a horse anymore!

well i'm definitely not the olden days (started riding at 8 years old in 1999), but i got to experience that! i rode western, learned for the first couple years on schoolies, got my first horse, finally after a couple more horses (that i bought myself) i got my "dreamhorse"! i spend every waking moment at the barn, i worked there cleaning stalls and pastures. i spent every weekend in the summer at playdays, riding allllll day long on my 5yo (well not exactly riding all day long, we'd do our class and then just sit and watch the rest of the day) and then swimming in the river! i did all the work on him and he was my BABY. i remember just sitting in his stall playing tug o' war with the leftover alfalfa for like 20 minutes.

kids still do get to experience that stuff! maybe not at the top show barns, but us backyard riders are still doing it!

[OAK]

FAIR JUDY

I went absolutly brain dead trying to think who ran Boulder Brook. This morning when I opened this up I REMEMBERED!!!!!!!! IT WAS AL HOMEWOOD. Yeah ! Boy it is not fun getting OLD

[MILOUTE55]

hey, at least your all young and "hype" enough to be online! :)
None of my former trainers are computer literate! :D

[BAC]

Most of my friends had horses at their houses and we would ride to Caumsett State Park/LI bareback with halters wearing shorts, sneakers, and bathing suits. We would school around the cross country course and end up down on the beach so we could go swimming with the horses.

Kids are still swimming with their horses at Caumsett although if the park ranger catches you he will give you a lecture and complain about you to the barn management. :lol:

[SuperSTB]

I'd love to see all the old jumping pics!!!! :yes:

I wish I still had mine... fire destroyed quite a lot but my grandmother has a few salvaged ones left. There was another thread on old saddles we used to ride with and I fondly remember my pancake flat jumping saddle (hand-me-down). I hoping that next time I'm on the east coast visiting, I can squirrel some time to dig through boxes of photos. flat saddles... auto release... tb jumpers :)

[gillisdog]

FAIR JUDY

I went absolutly brain dead trying to think who ran Boulder Brook. This morning when I opened this up I REMEMBERED!!!!!!!! IT WAS AL HOMEWOOD. Yeah ! Boy it is not fun getting OLD

I also remember a wonderul man named Leon who was running Boulder Brook in 1982-84. The grooms were Randy, Chicken John, Abe and others. Best grooms ever. All excellent horsemen. Once Leon saw me trying to ride my horse who hadn't been out in days and he came over and gave me a quarter. I said "What's this for?" He said "The toll on the Hutch!". (If you have ever been there, you get it. Of course, the tollbooth is gone too now).

[fair judy]

THAT would have been a Loooooong ride home........:cool:

[Peggy]

I rode back in the 60's at Shadowland Ranch in La Jolla with Ruth and Augie Handley. We did lots of shows including the Del Mar Fair show back before the show ringswere redone. The ring was tiny so the fences on course seemed to be stacked almost on top of each other.
West Coast, in the 60's and early 70's but further north. My mom and I boarded horses in Malibu and my mom ran the ETI shows at Crummer Field. I remember Larry Langer when he was an aerospace engineer for his day job and wore jeans and white tennis shoes to horse shows.

[KnKShowmom]

[QUOTE=fair judy;4020573]
we went to playland...... dang, that was a walk down memory lane! and the larchmont yacht club. hasn't changed one whit in 50 years. QUOTE]

OMG, we used to sail in the regattas at Larchmont! Now thats a place I haven't thought of in years! Glad to see some things haven't changed.