Dear Lorraine,
Somewhere I have got a whole lot of old copies of Horse and Hound. the winter ones of which have lots of photos of people of all sorts and ages wearing riding macs. In a wet week practically everyone has one on. At the moment I cannot find them -they must be in the loft but I will try and locate them.
Unfortunately at present I can only find an old copy of a year's issues of "Riding" dating back to before the war . Attached are some sheets from that. Not ideal but maybe better than nothing. Also an article that will certainly be of interest
I am now in my 6O's and grew up in the real riding mac era. Far more boys rode then than do now but there were still more girls at riding events and in my late teens I had a succession of girl friends who all rode horses and inevitably owned riding macs. I naturally always had one myself and can tell you a true story about them.
We had to have a "mackintosh" at my public school and as I already owned a riding mac I took that back to school with me. One day we were told to wear our waterproofs up to the games field as it was pouring and the only alternative that we had was a sports jacket Another boy who did not have a mac took mine and I had to go without one. I was seen by my housemaster and given a terrible caning for "direct disobedience". It was still the age of the cane and the mackintosh!
This happened just before half term and when I vvent hunting on the Saturday I was very sore behind and could not stop shifting around in the saddle to ease the pain. My current girlfriend noticed this and asked me why. I told her and she was fascinated. It was raining again that day and we both had our riding macs on. She looked thrilling in hers and I told her so. She wanted to see the weals on my bottom so we rode away from all the others, went into a barn and I showed her. The aroma of our wet riding macs was very exciting and when she slapped my already painful buttocks with her riding whip ... I will say no more. But when I eventually married someone quite different I made sure she rode and enjoyed wearing a mackintosh. As a result of this our life was always full of fun.
I will try and get you some back numbers of H&H. Yours well macked up.
George.
Hi George
Thank you for all this - exciting story, exciting pics, exciting promise of more!
It is wonderful to think that stupid cruelty can have such a happy outcome.
Hope you find that trove of House & Hound!
Lorraine
