I have recently discovered your website.
When I grew up in the 70s the only waterproofs available for serious country wear were rubberised cotton riding mackintoshes. Like most country girls I was pony mad and naturally had a succession of these macs. At first I thought nothing much about them although my mother punished me now and again for not wearing my mac when I went riding in the rain. This was painful as she was a great believer in corporal punishment and until I was about 12 spanked me with a gym shoe or hairbrush.
However,
as came to puberty I began to get special feelings both about wearing a rubber
riding mac and about being spanked. I came to associate one with the other.
Whether my mother realised this I do not know but she started to beat me whenever
I was naughty with one of my own riding whips. This only resulted in my fetish
(for I now realise that this was what it was) getting worse. I used to purposely
go out whenever it rained without my mackintosh to invite a whipping despite
the fact that with a riding crop it really hurt.
I loved wearing my mac tightly belted and always with the collar turned up and I insisted that I was bought one with a fastening on the collar to button round my chin. I always buckled the leg straps whether I was walking or riding and that gave me an extra feel of restriction. If I went to show or Pony Club event in the rain I loved looking at all the other children, as we said, "well macked up!".
I have never lost this fascination with rubberised riding macs and still have a couple.
I have treated my own daughter in exactly the same way as I was dealt with by my mother. Her reaction has been just the same. Throughout her teenage years she seemed to will me to punish her by being obstinately disobedient over wearing her riding mac and I used to insist that she always did it up terribly tightly.
She, like me, got used to the gym shoe or slipper on her bottom in her childhood years but more recently I moved on to using her own whips. I would tell her to take her mackintosh and all her whips up to her bedroom and wait for me there. After an hour I would go up, make her spread the mac on the bed, kneel beside it and bury her head in the rubbery cloth. I would then sort through her whips, commenting on them in turn before selecting one and giving her perhaps five or six cuts across her bare bottom with one. She never cried out though she wriggled a good deal. I never used a schooling whip - they are far too dangerous.
Sophie has now left school and is working at an equestrian centre. She has taken her riding macs there and they are apparently the envy of all the other girls.
It
is such a pity they are so rarely seen nowadays, are so expensive and so hard
to buy. I had great difficulty getting child's size ones for Sophie when she
was younger but of course now she is into normal ladies sizes. Although difficult
to find they can certainly still be bought - thanks heavens!
I enclose a few photos of her wearing her mackintosh which you are welcome to put on the website.
Fiona
Dear Fiona
The pics you sent I think are absolutely classic - I'm sure everyone will agree.
It must have been really difficult then for you when the rain came. You must have longed to put on your beloved mac - but had to resist in order to earn the (even more?) longed-for parental discipline...
When you were having to deal with your own daughter didn't you think: why don't I FORBID her to wear her mac. Then she could have had it both ways - the lovely feeling of wearing the mac, and the thrill of being punished for it... But maybe this would have been too calculating?
It was so good of you to write and send me the pics - do hope you will write again. You must have lots to tell ...
Best wishes
Intervention
Kay Lorraine
Many thanks for printing my letter and photos on your website (and for changing my own and my daughter's names!). I was most interested in your own and your correspondent's comments.
There is no doubt that I could tell you a number of riding mac stories but they might not be of much interest to other visitors to your website: I will write again later if you want me to.
However I was talking to a friend of mine recently who is slightly younger than me and whom I know to be fascinated by the whole riding mac scene - in fact by the equestrian scene as a whole. She still has two "proper" riding macs and she told me the following:
"In the early '70's I was at a boarding school in Dorset where the senior girls were allowed to ride instead of playing games. When I reached the sixth form I was thrilled to be able to spend hours riding, going to shows, events, point-to-points and even out hunting while I was at school.
There were about a dozen of us who were involved and when we were all out in the wet dressed up in our riding macs it must have been an amazing sight.
It was a very strict school and because they did not want to be frequently drying a lot of wet riding clothes we had to have two - yes, two! - riding macs each. These had to be of a certain make and model and were top-of-the-range with all the accoutrements of high collars fitted with storm tabs buttoning across the throat, leg straps, etc. We had to keep one mackintosh for best, such as when we were at shows or out hunting, and one for everyday use and hacking around the school.
I always adored everything about these waterproofs but particularly the smell especially when they were wet and became darkened slightly with the rain. Very new ones were somewhat boring and very old ones rather over-smelly but in between they were wonderful to smell, to look at, to feel and to wear. We had to do them up very tightly if we were out, either on foot or riding, in the rain and that meant drawing the belt very tight, buckling the knee straps on the last hole and not only turning up the collar but buttoning it across our chins or mouths. I simply loved doing that. I have to admit to adoring cantering across the Downs in the heaviest rain and if I had to give my horse an occasional slap with my whip I would often get hopelessly excited.
The school had a golden rule that we were never allowed to borrow any item belonging to another girl - for obvious reasons. A friend of mine had an especially glorious riding mac that I longed to wear. It was extra heavy, had an extra wide belt and sort of pockets which fastened round ones knees to keep them totally dry in the worst weather. It also had a very, very high, very, very stiff collar which bad a wide storm tab that buttoned across her mouth onto no less than three buttons - one was tight, the second extra tight whilst when the flap was on the third Mandy (that was her name) could not speak!
One day Mandy was ill: it was very wet and I surreptitiously took her riding mac off its peg, put mine on it and pulled on her mackintosh instead of my own. The feeling was fantastic. The cloth was heavier than I had ever known, the knee pockets gave a glorious feeling of protectiveness and the wide belt made me feel as if I was all tied up. When I did up the collar as tight as possible I felt absolutely fabulous. I took a long schooling whip with me and as the rain sheeted down and I encouraged the horse into the rain at a canter with a slap or two of my long thin whip I was in seventh heaven.
Unfortunately the riding mistress noticed that I was not wearing my own mackintosh when we got home and told me I must be punished for disobeying the school rule about borrowing but as she only made me wear both my own riding macs, one over the other, the next time we went riding, and as, luckily, it was raining then as well, it was no punishment at all. In fact with the older and smaller of my macs done up very tightly underneath, the belt too high round my waist and the leg straps too high up my thighs with the collar very tight round my throat, and my newer larger rubber mackintosh over the top, I really enjoyed that ride.
Some girls who took riding instead of games got punished in other more painful ways when they were naughty in the stables -perhaps I can tell you about them later.
Meanwhile I regret that I have no good riding mac photos from those good old days -I suggest you try and get some back numbers of winter issues of such mags as Horse and Hound or Pony etc. and re-print from them. There is no doubt that a lot of girls find real thrills in the riding scene - rubber boots, whips, tight breeches etc and it is just such a pity that the lovely old mackintoshes have gone."
I hope this may interest you and your readers. I wish I could speak to you about the whole subject of riding macs but as everyone in my family circle is not into the scene I cannot see how I can do so. Do please find some more stories and photos of riding macs - there must have been so many not very long ago.
Dear Fiona
Thank you for a fascinating letter. Only one thing I just can't understand, and that is why on earth you think that your own riding stories 'might not be of much interest to other visitors'. I can assure you they would! I do hope you will give them the chance!
As to the difficulty of speaking about these things, I know what you mean, though perhaps it's a bit easier now than it used to be -? Can't you e-mail from a cafe (you just need a hotmail account, surely. I will explain if you want)? Or give me your Post Office address and you could collect from there? It is weird being restricted to communicating via the web-page! (Weird but fun ...)
Do tell your friend that riding mackintoshes have not gone away completely! There are some in our shop!
I will be on the look out for old pictures, certainly. Horse and Hound it is. Do please pass on any you manage to find yourself. Maybe somebody else will be able to help here...
Hope to hear from you soon (one way or another!) And thanks again.
Best wishes
Lorraine
A Week in Wales by Fiona Hathersage
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