The Way Things Were: Pony Magazine in the 1960s

As you have probably realised by now, as a child, I was pony-obsessed. My favourite monthly reading was Pony Magazine, which I read cover to cover: every advert; every word. I recently bought a set of Pony Magazines from the 1960s. I actually took Pony in the 1970s, but there wasn’t a lot of difference between the decades in the style and contents of the magazine.

One advert which took me instantly back to that state of childhood wanting; longing for things I couldn’t have, and trying to work out what I could do to afford them, was for Jacatex riding clothes. How I loved that ad. The Pat hacking jacket; the Pat riding mac and the Pat jodhpurs. Who was Pat? Was there a Pat? Or were the clothes just something that was off pat? It was never explained. Jacatex adverts didn’t change much over the years. The 1969 ad below is the same one that I remember from the 1970s, a cheerful pony girl in immaculate clothes. I don’t know whether Jacatex ever did haul themselves into the modern age and replace their advertising: the fact that they no longer seem to exist would suggest not.

That style of advertising, using a commercial artist, was something that Jacatex’s main competitors used too.

The girl looks alright, but the woman is a bit of an anatomical oddity. Change was on the way, however. Both Harry Hall and Caldene embraced the slightly breathy advertising style of the 1960s. They used actual photographs and, from the look of it, the services of an advertising agency. Their adverts are a world away from Jacatex’s: and this ability to adapt has preserved Caldene and Harry Hall, both still going strong, but not, alas, Jacatex.

Moss Bros obviously felt their name and reputation were enough: their 1960s ads simply showed a Thelwell cartoon.

Note though, the style of jodhpur. The elephant ear style was still hanging on: you too could have a pair from Bedford, for a mere £4-4-0 (£4.20) .

I can say from bitter personal experience that these jodhpurs were extraordinarily hard-wearing. My first ever pair of jodhpurs were not, alas, a Jill Crewe like experience of delight: my riding teacher kept a stock of second hand clothes, and when my mother decided that my sister and I weren’t going to give up riding in a hurry, we were taken in to, oh bliss of blisses, buy some jodhpurs. There was nothing second hand to fit my sister, so she was ordered a pair, but there was something to fit me: a khaki pair of elephant ears. I can remember now how it felt as my dream of svelte fitted jodhpurs crumpled as Mrs Holton held up that baggy pair of elephant ears. She must have had them for years, and probably couldn’t believe her luck as my mother said “They’ll do for Jane.” Oh woe, oh woe, oh misery. If everyone else had been wearing them, I would have been as delighted as Jill was when she got hers, but they weren’t. Stretch fabric was now the thing, and jodhpurs were fitted.

There were of course children for whom price was not an issue back in the halcyon days of Pony, and they could pay 8 and a half guineas for made to measure riding trousers from Bernard Weatherill Ltd.

In comparison, Bedford ready to wear jodhpurs in cavalry twill were from £5-15-0 (£5.75), and Jacatex jodhpurs in Bedford Cord were from 39/6 (£1.97 ½).

It’s very noticeable that the riding hat doesn’t get much of a look in. In some issues, there was just a single, solitary advertisement, taking up a quarter of a page. Health and Safety wasn’t quite the thing that it was now, and Pony featured many photographs of readers cheerfully hatless. The one attempt Pony did make in the 1960s to persuade riders that a hat was a good idea was via the Percy and Allsorts League. Percy and Allsorts were a pony and a dog who ran a club for readers. There were six rules, and wearing a riding hat made it in at number five, though even then it wasn’t compulsory: “Members will try to remember always to wear a hat or cap when riding.”

Although readers were allowed a cheerful insouciance towards their safety, they certainly weren’t when it came to colour choice in their riding wear. In desperation, Jacatex in one advertisement describe their jodhpurs as “a lovely shade of putty.” Yes, well. Other colours you could have had were biscuit, light putty, fawn, or as a special order, canary (this was only for the show ring), but basically, it was any colour as long as it’s beige. Now that beige is restricted to competitions, jodhpurs seem to be any colour but.