Colored yarn apocalypse?

[Soaponarope]

Am at an A show with DD this weekend. We do about six A shows a year and just love it - special indeed to participate in the AOs and national derbies.

It’s been a few months since our last show. Our regular braider is not available this show :no: (BTW, I know how to braid and DD has rudimentary knowledge so please don’t jump on us in the usual hunter apocalypse manner! I promise she wraps, lunges, picks stall, feeds!) But we admit we are rather addicted to exquisite work of regular braider. As in braiding version of Faberge eggs, Tiffany lamps, etc. She’s addictive. We are ruined for life.

Anyway, showed up today to find big guy braided in blue yarn! And something weird going on with forelock like a unicorn bump thing. These are sub-par braids. Fake tail put in improperly and I did redo that myself at 6 this morning. Good times.

But I’m thinking this braider is following a trend? What is up with this? What do you think of it? We requested black yarn for tomorrow. Don’t think the blue is flattering to the big guy.

Anyone else noticing colored yarn? Where and when? Would love to hear more about this. Feeling like Rip Van Winkle. A few months off and suddenly it’s colored yarn apocalypse:eek:

[OnDeck]

Dark blue is very very common now, sometimes even dark purple. I haven’t seen a black mane braided in black in a long time. It’s easier to see and cut out at the end of the day. Braiders don’t want to have to re-braid a mane that was massacred with a seam ripper.

[Nickelodian]

My boys are typically done in some fun color. For derby day more conservative navy, but for non derby day it’s fair game. Of course I encourage my Braider to do so, and if it was requested he wouldn’t. There is a pic of DC in baby blue with a head puff on this blog:

http://theworkingrider.blogspot.com/2014/07/colorado-day-7-rain-rain-go-away.html?m=1

And one of TJ With navy yarn and a red white and blue 4th of July puff on this one:

http://theworkingrider.blogspot.com/2014/07/colorado-day-8-4th-of-july.html?m=1

DC has been in lilac, blue, gray, navy, dark purple, just to name a few. Tj mostly gets navy and dark purple.

[lauriep]

Don’t know where you are, but colors aren’t common around here. Navy in a black mane is acceptable, but not much else. Not supposed to distract from the horse…

[Sarah616]

Colors are very common these days. For a grey to be braided in blue is not uncommon. Was it navy or baby blue? Typically, pastels get done on grey ponies, where it looks cute. Depending on the horse, a pastel can look ok on a grey horse - we had a giant white equitation horse that was typically braided in navy or baby blue. He looked silly in light purple, but ok in deep purple.

As said above, very few braiders will do black on black anymore, because the yarn is so hard to see. You almost never see white yarn because no matter how clean the grey horse’s mane is, it will look dirty against the white yarn.

We had one dark bay get braided with navy that had sparkles in it, which turned out fine because the amount of yarn showing was so small. However, this horse also got braided in multicolor pastel yarn for easter, to do the big eq, and looked ridiculous.

I will say, the last show I was at, our normal braider didn’t do one of our horses, and we wound up with poorly done green braids on a chestnut, which looked horrendous. If you’re going to do a contrasting color, your braids better be damn near perfect. For example, two friends did their bay and chestnut in turquoise once for the equitation, but they were so uniform and perfect and gorgeous that they looked great.

Don’t be afraid to request a yarn color, or something you don’t want. Also, I hate those pompoms, even on ponies (Sorry, Nickelodian), so don’t be afraid to say no to those too!

[Nickelodian]

That’s ok. You don’t have to like it. I do. it’s fun and I always get lots of complements.

[MHM]

I only have two colors in my braiding bag. Black and brown. Period.

I think I remember doing a little red/white/blue pom-pom a couple of times for shows on the Fourth of July, but I did a small one and put it in the forelock, not on the neck. I can imagine doing that for a show on Easter or Halloween or what have you. I would not put one anywhere other than the forelock. To me, it would break up the look of the top line too much.

[flowerpot]

I love when my big grey horse gets braided in pale pink! And this gets done at A and AA horse shows! I am also an adult so really I am up for anything!!! When I was a kid we used to be able to choose one braid to be our lucky braid that the braider would do in our barn colors

[Sarah616]

Also, I apparently saw “grey” instead of “guy” in your original post, which is why I focused on greys in my post. I’m going to now guess a black mane? which changes my question to navy or royal/brighter blue? navy wouldn’t throw me for a loop, a brighter blue might. But not as much as the subpar braiding would bug me.

[Nickelodian]

True story, I had navy small forelock puffs on both horses for the National Derby this past Tuesday. I would think that I did not make the cut due to said puffs, but it was perhaps instead because of the jumping of a jump from a stand still on one horse and SLIDING into the very same jump on the second one.

I really can ride a jump in a spectacularly bad way when choosing to do so.

[Soaponarope]

Wow, this is all news to me! I saw our uber braider posted a red white and blue design on her pinwheels on Facebook last week and blue yarn in mane but I thought it was just a special 4th of July thing. I am going to have to wrap my head around this. Our horse is a 17+ hand blood bay with black mane and tail and 4 white socks and lots of dapples:) We didn’t think the blue flattered his natural beauty as well as black especially as his neck is a little less than hunter perfection. If he had absolutely perfect conformation and were dapple grey I might rethink. But I left my own black yarn and a note tonight and we have a different braider because of the quality issue. I never heard of anyone complaining that it was hard to see black on black yarn. I hope they don’t object! Brave new world! I do think colors would be very cute on a pony.

[Soaponarope]

[QUOTE=lauriep;7660442]
Don’t know where you are, but colors aren’t common around here. Navy in a black mane is acceptable, but not much else. Not supposed to distract from the horse…[/QUOTE]

We are in Alabama and show here and in Georgia. I haven’t seen the colors in Atlanta. Maybe the south is more conservative?

[Soaponarope]

[QUOTE=Nickelodian;7660629]
True story, I had navy small forelock puffs on both horses for the National Derby this past Tuesday. I would think that I did not make the cut due to said puffs, but it was perhaps instead because of the jumping of a jump from a stand still on one horse and SLIDING into the very same jump on the second one.

I really can ride a jump in a spectacularly bad way when choosing to do so.[/QUOTE]

Stuff happens! Interested to see what the forelock puff looks like.

[Soaponarope]

[QUOTE=flowerpot;7660588]
I love when my big grey horse gets braided in pale pink! And this gets done at A and AA horse shows! I am also an adult so really I am up for anything!!! When I was a kid we used to be able to choose one braid to be our lucky braid that the braider would do in our barn colors :)[/QUOTE]

I’ve heard of that. I’ve also seen charms for luck or for special holidays. Very cute.

[Kels]

Ok, I love, love, love the baby blue in DC’s mane!

Sometimes fun is OK. But only sometimes.

[Indy]

A lot of our black maned horses get braided in navy blue. One has navy yarn with sparkles in it. You can’t see it unless you look close but it’s super cute (and MUCH easier to take out).

I think colored braids have to be done very well, though. Mediocre braids with colored yarn can look sloppy but really tight, nice braids can look very cool.

[HunterMolly]

[QUOTE=flowerpot;7660588]
I love when my big grey horse gets braided in pale pink! And this gets done at A and AA horse shows! I am also an adult so really I am up for anything!!! When I was a kid we used to be able to choose one braid to be our lucky braid that the braider would do in our barn colors :)[/QUOTE]

Same! I am an adult amateur and show at AA shows, and my almost totally white horse gets braided in light blue. I love it and I have come to think of it as lucky. I believe we use the same braider as Nick, and i will definitely be asking for a pom-Pom at the next show, I love that! To each his own.

[Zuri]

I must be very old and very conservative. Yarn to match mane and tail. I am in Zone 2 and it is all I have ever seen.

[SnicklefritzG]

I knit professionally as a side business and so I always have yarn around the house. Most of it is what I dyed myself. So my horse always gets interesting colors in his mane.

[MyGiantPony]

I almost exclusively use navy, but a light blue for greys.