If you were ever lucky enough to make it to Miller's in NYC (I wasn't):
You wore Pytchley coats with velvet collars and gold buttons. I wish they would come back!
You showed without saddle pads.
You jumped outside courses in the hunters, straight up fences without ground lines. And you galloped!
(1964)
You rode thoroughbreds all of the time! They won everything!
Horse shows had classes only for 3 foot hunters and higher except for small and medium ponies. If you couldn't jump three feet, you didn't show. Those were the days! My how so much has changed!
Ahhh...those images take me right back! Yes, I was able to shop out of both the Miller's catalog (about 10 years before the one pictured) and at the store at 123 East 24th Street in NYC on several occasions. (I'll never forget their address.) Those were very special trips, and I still have the black wool Melton hunt coat and canary breeches my parents purchased there for my 10-year-old young rider self! It was a wonderful place and the pungent smell of new saddle leather always was heavenly! I think I recognize the 1964 photo of the grey horse, too - is it Rusty Stewart on Little Fiddle (a champion working hunter)? I began riding out of his barn near Albany, NY and remember Fiddle. Thanks for the fond memories!
ReplyDeleteLook at that Sam Savitt cover to their catalog!
ReplyDeleteAng
I loved those Miller catalogs...poured over them and made many a Christmas wish list.
ReplyDeleteThis is so me and why i love reading your blog! I showed w/o saddle pads and had a Pytchley coat that was brown with a brown velvet collar and gold fox head buttons. I thought i was so bad ass. I also had a farnley pony. Always loved the Miller catalog. My favorite outside course was at Tranquility Manor Farms in Monkton Md. I loved when we did hunt teams and rode 3 together on the course. Good times!
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