I was a a HJ show this weekend and have noticed more and more at other shows as well, that children are no longer wearing jods and paddock boots. Every kid I saw were in tall boots. There was one little girl who couldn’t have been more than 6 or 7 in tall boots that were so big, they went over her knees! Is this a thing now? Little tots in tall boots?
The barn rule when I was growing up- for riders to whose body this applied- was “no boobs, no boots.” Exceptions made for those who, like me, were 5’6” at age 10, and looked ridiculous in short boots.
We have one rider in our barn who graduated to talls earlier than my mother would have wanted to pay for field boots. Other than that, in my area, I feel like I see more kids showing in the Younger Children’s in short boots and garter straps than I see kids on large ponies wearing field boots.
If it is becoming a thing in your area, it’s an awfully expensive thing.
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I haven’t seen this in my area at all. I can’t imagine that kiddo was confortable in those boots!
Tell me about it! Here in Europe our kids go straight to tall boots and to kit out a 10 year old who has big feet and skinny legs is expensive! Nothing off the rack fits her 
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They looked brand new and very uncomfortable, especially behind the knee.
What I see is parents do not know the “rules” and the tack shops see $$$ so do not let them know what tradition calls for.
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Very true, the parents ask the tack shop employee what they need and they point them at tall boots. Luckily, in my area we have a tack consignment shop where almost any day of the week you will see parents in there outfitting their kids for showing on a shoestring budget.
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I don’t think it’s a new thing. I think there have always been kids that skip the jods and paddock boots. But my own daughter was in jodhpurs and paddock boots until she got boobs last year (at 12-ish?). I would have made her stay in them longer if I could have! Seems like most kids in the pony hunter ring stick to the more traditional and more of the little kids in the jumper ring “skip” the outfit. But man, I thought it was a lot cheaper and easier to keep it to jods and boots!
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My tall boots were actually cheaper than a high-end pair of half-chaps and paddock boots would be. Tradition-wise, I agree that jods and short boots are the way to go, but I think with the rise of cheap off-the-rack tall boots in a variety of sizes, it’s no longer necessary to buy short boots to save money on a kid who is still growing. In other words, it’s no longer “keep them in garters until they are a teen and can justify the purchase of a pair of custom pull-ons that will last them until they have kids themselves.”
I grew up in the years pre-half chap when your choices were full chaps or pull on boots. My mom made us wear jods until we got horses (which for me was fourteen!) I got the worst rubs and bruises from hunting all day in jodhpur and I can totally see why kids skip that stage.
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I was thinking something similar. Half chaps were not a thing people did back then.
I was a poor lesson kid who was adult sized when I started riding, so my first tall boots were the ever so lovely rubber tall boots. Certainly not attractive but they did the trick at the 1 lesson show per year that I did and my weekly lessons.
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