I don't have the big Show Jumping boxed set from Britains, it tends to attract a pretty penny, and most of the contents are available loose, but there are a few bits which were unique to the set, not least the jumps, fortunately, Britains anticipated some wanting to extend their set to a full competition ring (circuit?), and made most of the bits available separately, so by way of introducing a short season on jumpers and jumping, here are a few bits from the Britains line, which I have here - we will return to them and look at the whole range of riders another day, as they are in (back-in!) storage.
The add-on Brush & Rail fence as sold separately, you get three units of fence, basically wooden boxes with faggots of brushwood, or twiggy-twigs, stuffed into them. While the boxed area underneath the backing-card, contains a standard Post & Rail fence, two marker-flags and a spare stand for the horses which were only, otherwise available in the big set, the riders when sold separately coming with/attached to a five-bar gate, to jump over.
How they all go together, and the various components, the brush is made from horsehair, which was curled (probably under heat, a hot water dip maybe, or hot-air?), then dipped in a rubber-solution or latex before being compressed into sheets or 'bisquits' (Yes, I like to use that incorrect spelling, it's fun Panda Bear talk), and cut to shape. It was a forerunner of modern foam packing, and had been around, commercially, for some time.
The extra stand, replacing the gate the seperate riders came with, which could also be added to your show-jumping display, this enabled them to face-off against the various other jumps in the set/line. Some place it the other way round, with the base to the rear, but it balances either way.
Early and late versions of the 'Captain Mark Philips' character, he also came with as the gate jumper, but is here on a different horse, as either an early Herald/Eyes Right/Swoppet era figure (white horse) or in a Deetail iteration, black horse, rubber-band reins.
There were actually several riders who performed in uniform back then, a German (whom I think is behind the mind of this figure's sculptor), an Argentinian (I think?) and maybe a couple of Spaniards, among others, I well remember watching Show Jumping (and tennis, and the tedium of 1960/70's Test Cricket), because with two, latterly three TV-channels, there was often bugger-all else on, especially in the mid-afternoons! Phillips usually performed in the No.1 Dress uniform, a blue-black affair, known as 'Blues'.
12-03-2022 - It was the Italians I was thinking of (see FitzjamesHorse comment below), and I remembered I'd scanned this from the 13th October 1973 issue of World of Wonder magazine, expressly to add to this post, back in March '22! Honestly, the filing system is breaking down under the weight of stuff! Given when the Britains figure first came out, it was probably these guys behind the Military rider?
7 comments:
Back in the early part of the 20th century Three Day Eventing was referred to as Military Equitation and most European countries competed.
Within Show Jumping, there were also some riders who were military people.
As I am now 71, I remember some quite well from the 1960s
There was a Swiss rider from that era but I cant remember his name. Perhaps the most famous were two Italian brothers Captain Piero and Captain Raimondo DInzeo (sp).
The Irish did have big winners also Ringrose, Campion, Ledingham, Mullins.
There is still an Irish Army Equitation School but mostly they only compete at national shows as Show Jumping is now professional and the horeses cost too much so its mostly about preparing horses to be sold on.
John
It may be the two Italians I'm thinking of, I was very ickle! Cheers for the background bit as well, John!
H
Rubberized horsehair is/was apparently used in furnace filters in the UK, and has long been used in the model railway and wargames communities to make foliage. It would have been readily available to Britains, ready-curled and rubbery.
Yes Gisby, we found a bunch of old mine-detector crates dumped by the engineers on the heath when we were kids, and they had various packing dividers and pads made from rubberised-horsehair, plain compacted horsehair and felt, but not your actual craft/Fuzzy-Felt, but thick 2cm pads of the stuff, which barely flexed.
H
Yes FitxjamesHorse, it was the Italians I was thinking about, cutting added to the post!
H
Happy to help...
John
Thanks John, I sort of thought "Didn't I have a picture of one of them jumping a fence somewhere?", went deep and found the whole scan!
H
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