Showing ponies in the 90s

So I'm jumping on the back of the trend that I saw in Horse and Hound the other day about nineties childhoods. What do I remember from showing in the nineties? Well, I definitely remember the days before the really fancy showing browbands. Pretty Ponies were definitely the first “today style” we saw, but initially, we had plaited ribbon browbands without the big rosettes on the side.

I can remember there being no showing kit for young children. When I did my first show at age two and a half, I had to wear little black school shoes and a school blazer. I think we just about got jodhpurs or whether they were cream leggings, I'm not sure. I'll have to look back at the photos. I remember I used to wear a proper flower as well. We always wore cornflower for mountain and moorland classes, as you'd wear a buttonhole with a tweed jacket too.

There were a lot more smaller, village-style shows. I grew up near the Welsh border, so many of the shows had sheep dog trials attached to them. I remember the big, old-fashioned marquees; all of the shows had those. They would have proper sit down lunches in them, even though they were little shows. They were really events for the whole community, especially before the changes to the Sunday licensing as they’d be the only place with a bar!

I also remember the Rice trailers. My mum had a really old school rice trailer that you had to back out of. I still see them around nowadays, but mainly as bars and food trucks.