Do you remember being a pony-mad child in the 80s? If so, then these may well sound familiar…
1. You avidly followed the exploits of Fred, the Horse & Pony pony. You may even have owned a share in him.
2. You had posters of iconic grey racehorse Desert Orchid all over your bedroom.
3. Your heroes were Ginny Elliott (although she was Ginny Holgate or Leng at the time), pictured above, and Harvey Smith.
4. You sneakily got hold of your mum’s copy of Jilly Cooper’s Riders and fell madly in love with Rupert Campbell-Black, even though you were a bit embarrassed by all the sex stuff.
5. You had a jute rug for the stable, which you’d thatch (pack) with straw to keep your pony warm on cold, wet days, and a canvas New Zealand rug to keep him dry in the field, which weighed a tonne when it got wet and muddy.
6. Your favourite books (that you were actually allowed to read, unlike Jilly Cooper) were by Josephine Pullein-Thompson, or the Ruby Ferguson “Jill” series. You wished you owned Black Boy and Rapide.
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7. You had the original My Little Ponies that actually look like horses (albeit multi-coloured ones), but went off them when they got wings and fish tails and stuff like that.
8. Your mum answered your plea for a pony by buying you a Sindy pony. Sadly, you couldn’t quite hide your disappointment.
9. Your riding instructor spent some time each lesson teaching you how to do round-the-worlds and scissors.
10. Your riding hat was basically a cardboard and velvet shell with a piece of elastic for a chinstrap, unless your parents were prepared to fork out for a crash hat, in which case you could look forward to an even more spotty chin than usual thanks to the chin cup.
11. You used to hack out for hours with your mate and her pony and a saddlebag full of Disco crisps and Wagon Wheels.
12. Hardly anyone had trailers, so you used to hack to local gymkhanas.
13. You got a copy of the Pony Club annual in your Christmas stocking every year.
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Amanda Vlietstra is a freelance writer and editor who’s worked for a number of national magazines and websites. Having thrown herself back rural living with gusto since moving from London to Buckinghamshire in 2012, she juggles her horsey life with work and two small children. She claims to do dressage, but really just potters about having fun on her 14.2hh Belgian Warmblood mare, Roxy. She also enjoys a good gossip over a coffee in the tackroom!
