Age-wise, or look of maturity, when should young girls on ponies make the change? Do judges think the braids and bows are distracting?
Braids and bows go away when the kid moves to tall boots, usually. It’s used to be when kiddo moved up to horses, but now we have a lot of littles doing ponies AND horses so that dividing line has faded away.
When I was a kid, you went to boots at age 13, or when you were just too tall for paddock boots and garters.
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Tacky, but I used the necessity of wearing a bra as the dividing line.
If the girl in question needs to wear anything other than a training bra, time for hair nets and tall boots. No bra needed, braids, bows and paddock boots are fine.
I remember when you still saw girls in paddock boots and garters on horses in the Children’s and Juniors, but that no longer happens. Everyone on horses is in tall boots.
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When I was a kid it was “no boobs, no [tall] boots”.
I think hair should go up once you get tall boots, and that really depends on how tall the kid is. You see a lot of kids on larges and even medium ponies in boots because they’re older and/or also riding horses.
Taller kids will need tall boots sooner because they start looking gangly in jodhpurs even if their upper half isn’t mature yet, while a shorter kid can go a lot longer even if they’re older. Like right now where I ride we have two kids the same age, where one has been in tall boots for two years because the child is all legs and on horses and the other wears bows and jodhpurs because she’s short and on a pony. The pony kid would also look fine in tall boots at this point but they’re $$ so her parents are more than happy to let her stay in paddock boots another year. The taller kid, however, would not look great in jodhpurs and paddock boots regardless of how physically mature she looks - the tall boots make her look less gangly.
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Please just make sure the bows do NOT obscure the rider’s number. At all. Ever.
Thank you. 
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This is what I’ve heard too.
I think there’s an old post somewhere here on COTH with the simple rule – Boobs? Tall boots. No boobs yet? No tall boots.
I read somewhere that braids and bows can cover the entry’s number. I imagine that would irritate some judges lol.
Bows for pony kids are sort of a cottage industry in hunter land, and they can be big and distracting.
Yes, I have heard from multiple judges that if they cover the number, it’s a problem.
This is an example of what’s popular, and can be a problem:
On that last one, I promise you, the judge couldn’t see the number!
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We tuck those long ones under the number string, or double up kiddo’s braids so the bow sits higher off the number. It is a HUGE problem!
But kids with long braids and bows are so dang cute 
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Reminds me of Danielle Goldstein’s feathers.
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But Danielle Goldstein is not wearing her number on her back since she’s showing jumpers. The number is on the saddle pad. So that aspect is not an issue for her, anyway.
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Is that your kid? If not, I feel like it is a little inappropriate to post a picture here that shows her face when it is attached to a criticism, even for demonstration purposes.
Just my opinion.
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Oh gosh, if that were the case I’d still be in bows and jodphurs at age 30 
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I’d have pretty much had a drivers license before moving to the tall boots 
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Not my kid, but showed up in a Google image search when I searched for short stirrup rider.
I take your point, I’ll obscure the face.
Thanks.
Call me cranky, but I hate the massive bows (even on a small child) and really prefer the smaller, normal hair ribbons like you see on the girl in A Very Young Rider. I think it depends on the child–and also what the child wants. Even if the kid had, em, a little boobage and wanted another year in short boots, bows, and garters on a pony, I don’t think it’s the end of the world.
What I’m not a fan of (again, cranky pants on) is the “mix and match” of adult/kid styles, like garters with a shadbelly or bows with tall boots. If the kid wants to do jods on a pony and tall boots with a horse, again, that’s fine, but (personal preference), short boots and a formal shadbelly look weird to me (plus the bows).
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But in the words of a mentor horsewoman, seeing small and medium pony riders in a shad and tall boots made her think she was at the circus.
Yes, I think the best look is small bows that match the color of the kid’s jacket or the yarn in the pony’s braids.
I am also nostalgic for the days when girls aged out of ponies, and showed in the Children’s or Junior’s in jods and garters, so you know I’m a crusty old curmudgeon.
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Haha! The circus image is so true! It’s like, why rush them into shadbellies at that age, especially since the whole point of the look is tradition?
I’m not bothered by older kids on ponies (since I’m short and ride them myself), but in terms of the ideal of pony turnout for a kid riding hunters under 12, I guess this will always be my mental picture!
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me too… EXCEPT I once left both regular bra and sports bra in my gym locker and went to go ride… erm let say these itty bitty things I have on my chest that are truly not even A’s had some movement that I NEVER experienced before…
nipple bounce is a thing
im v flat chested - I think this sports bra is padded
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Oh, I know…this just reminded me of Danielle G. Not an opinion whatsoever. 
