A few years back a good friend of mine was cleaning out her basement when she came across an old box of old Western Horseman magazines. I happened to be visiting at the time and so we spent a good hour or so flipping through all the pages and admiring how much styles, techniques and products have changed over the years. She had been packing these old magazines around since she was a kid and though she would have liked to keep them, she knew that it was time for them to go in the garbage. I couldn't stand the thought, so offered to take them (knowing the flack I would catch when I came home with more "junk").Over the next few months I worked my way through the box. Many of the magazines were damaged so that it was impossible to open them without tearing the pages. Others looked like they could have come straight off the news stand, if it were not for the faded yellow and outdated dress on the covers. The dates ranged from the early '70's to the late '80's. I found the articles, styles, and pictures fascinating. I found old stallion advertisements for Doc Bar, Poco Bueno, Impressive and other legendary sires. The oldest of the magazines were from 1963, '64, '67 and '68. I put these aside to give back to my friend, as I felt that the were worth keeping. Yesterday, while cleaning my book shelves, I realized that I still had them tucked away. I flipped through them and decided to take some pictures so that I could share them with you all today!
So here it goes.... Western Horseman, 1960's style!
Check out the fashion of the day!! Now that is "hot"!
Or how about a brand spankin' new trailer for $1295! Cutting saddles have changed shape over the years! I bet they didn't even hang on to the horn!
The saddles were not the only thing to change...look behind the judges and check out the head set and style of these top Western Pleasure horses (taken at the Quarter Horse Congress)
I picked a moderate headset in comparison!
I think it is safe to say that reining has evolved over the past 44 years! Then....
and now...
The original Halter horse back when "form to function" actually applied....
My personal favorite....people smoking in clothing advertisements....
What exactly is it that this horse is suppose to be conformed to do?....
My personal favorite....people smoking in clothing advertisements....
Wouldn't you love to hear what Fugly would have to say about "Junior Horseman"! I love that they actually printed the addresses of these young riders below the pictures!
How about the stallion advertisements.... (Joe Cody and Pacific Bailey)
I enjoyed looking at the pages from those old magazines....the trailers and saddles don't change that much but the cloths sure do and thank goodness no one smokes like they use....lol
ReplyDeleteBig Guys MOM
OMG!!! Don't you just love it when you find old stuff like that?? There is nothing more fun than sitiing down and looking at "then," and comparing it to "now."
ReplyDeleteWhat is up with conformation and halter horses? Sometimes I think that they look like fatted hogs, or big, old, Hereford bulls...lol!!!
Now I have to go down and check out those comercials...
I have a bunch of old western horseman and, like you, i enjoy going through the old ads and the photographs. I think i even have one from the 1950's and it features Roy Rogers and Trigger.
ReplyDeletewow, cool post. i can finally get the new anorexic 90210 out of my brain. wait, maybe not...
ReplyDelete(the knobby kneed girls, help!)
anyway, i hope you've inspired people to do the same. i'd love to see more posts like this. i used to go to the university of washington library and look through the old periodicals section to see what life was like before me.
what horses and riding was like - that's even better.
modern humans: anorexic, disgusting
modern stock horses: beefcake, disgusting
~lytha in germany
wowwwww! As I get older, history is more interesting to me.
ReplyDeleteI love seeing stuff like that.
ReplyDeleteJust the other day we were going through the "junk cupboard" at the restaurant, where we have odds and ends of almost anything stored.
Well we found the menu from when the restaurant was first opened, 23 years ago!! :o
Of course we HAD to compare it to the current one, items and prices. It was good for some chuckles.
Oh man, my mom's basement is loaded with stacks of old Western Horsemen. It is so cool to look through them and see all the old stallion ads. The dam of Leo Bar was Flit by Leo. Now that mare could produce a running horse.;)
ReplyDeleteThe clothes?? OMG-My mom still has her "outfits" that she used to barrel race in...in the 60's. Talk about loud!! I don't know how she ever managed to stay with her horse when he turned a barrel and her wearing those slick metallic pants. Yes, I said metallic! I so have to get pictures of those to post-LOL.
YOU ARE SO AWESOME!!! I loved that post!
ReplyDeleteSo right with those halter horses....how I long for the days when form applied to function.
Man I feel so sorry for those poor ponies today - mst aren't even broke to ride - they are just hay burners till they die....
What a find! Hey thanks for brightening my day, I am totally stressed getting ready to go on my trip, sat down for a minute checked your blog - so glad I did!
Oh my gosh, what differences!! I love the clothing, hehe. It's funny because I just recently went to a few western pleasure shows with a friend that shows to see if it was something I would be interested in doing and she was saying that her horse NEVER places in halter and I didn't know why. She said to look at the actual halter horses and see if I saw anything different. I said well, the definitely look heavier and she said yep, big masses of meaty flesh is all they are. lol How crazy. If that older picture were the norm now, her horse would definitely have placed. How crazy.
ReplyDeleteWE HAVE SOME of those! We were cleaning out our barn and found a whole box of older WH!! Great post!! I love to look through them!
ReplyDeleteThe clothes cracks me up!