Will plaits ever be fashionable again?

The two bits I'm about to quote say it all, I think.


"When I was a child," said Mrs. Pyke, "I was the youngest rider to hounds in the county. I remember the MFH once lifted me on to my pony himself, and there I sat in my litle habit with my long fair curls hanging down to my waist. Children had the loveliest hair in those days."


Personally I thought (a) it was impossible to picture Mrs. Pyke as a child at all, and (b) that curls down to your waist must have looked pretty awful all waving in the breeze like floating cork-screws. I'm sure Mrs Darcy would have had something to say about it. I mean, there are always plaits."

[Jill's Gymkhana, Ruby Ferguson]

and

"Jess turned to see Vicki, the owner of the riding stables, standing at the open stable door. Jess secretly hero-worshipped Vicki. She was everything Jess wanted to be when she grew up. Tanned and slim, with thick dark hair and stunning silver-grey eyes, she always looked amazing. Vicki was living proof that you could work with horses and still be glam. Even in muck-stained jeans and a grubby hoodie, she always managed to look good, although she often had to work a fifteen-hour day."

[Katie Price's Perfect Ponies - Here Comes the Bride]


Sigh, sigh. Deep, deep sigh.

Comments

haffyfan said…
Sighs all round I think.

I love this snippet, which was posted on a forum a few months back, and sums it up perfectly...Introducing the modern Jill and Ann!

http://ponybooks.proboards78.com/index.cgi?board=ponybooks&action=display&thread=1194810816&page=1#1195072873.
haffyfan said…
Oops link dosen't work...it's the 11th comment on thread, if you copy and paste into browser.
Jane Badger said…
Oh I did like that! I'll ask Claire if she'd mind if I put it up as a post here so more people will see it. It's excellent.
I always remembered that quote whcih made me giggle. I still feel a bit Susan Pyke's mother-esque if I ride without tying my hair back!

However, there are impossibly glamorous women who I know who are 'proper' horsy women and they can muck out, groom and ride while wearing a white top which remains unsullied at the end of the day.

Unfortunately, I am not like that!
Jane Badger said…
M&M - yes, I have known a couple myself. I have a theory that they mysteriously repel grime, whereas I attract it. Maybe our fairy godmares cursed us at birth....

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