by Imogen
By the early 1980's there were signs that proper riding mackintoshes were being replaced by waxed jackets and then by long waxed coats.
This was bad news for devotees of the riding mac and as they began to realise that the new waterproofs were not nearly as effective as rubberised macs a large number of mothers of teenage children started to worry about both the drab look of these coats and about ther ineffectiveness. Some had daughters who thought they looked increasingly out of place wearing a proper mac and started to fight against them. They were all too obvious with their whiteness showing up immediately against the navy blue or olive of the waxed garments.
When her dauighter put this point to her, however, one mother who hated the new fashion had a bright idea. Contacting a firm called South Bucks Rainwear she got them to make up a long riding mackintosh fo her daughter not in fawn or white rubberised cotton but in heavy shiny black rubber. It was very slightly larger than her daughter's old riding mac which she took care to make her daughter keep, but was a great deal heavier.
It had a very high storm collar fastening tightly on to two buttons, short leg straps, a wide belt and was lined with the same rubberised cotton out of which all proper riding macs were then made.
When it arrived she showed it to her daughter telling her that if she wore it she would no longer stand out in the crowd on wet days at Pony Club or at shows and gymkhanas and there was therefore no reason for the girl to object to it.
On the next wet day she made her daughter wear it out riding round the lanes and noticed how strangely keen the girl was to put it on. She even turned up and fastened the collar without being told to do so as was usually the case while she pulled the belt very tight indeed on her own. The leg straps were a problem as they were so short that they were rather restrictive - but the older lady thought the girl looked wonderful.
A couple of hours later the girl rode back into the yard flushed and exhilarated and told her mother she actually rather liked her new mackintosh.
A month or so later when she went to Pony Club camp she took both her old white mackintosh and hew new ultra heavy black rubber one with her. To say her mother was surprised is an understatement. However, when she was rung up a few days later after a very wet week by the chief instructress and told that her daughter had had a fall that day and they had been surprised to find the girl was wearing her old mac under the new rubber mackintosh, her mother at last knew the truth.
Like she had been as a child, and still was, her daughter had become a real enthusiast for the rubber riding mackintosh.
Like mother, like daughter.
Imogen
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