No, we’re not discussing pets. We’re discussing women’s hair, helmets, and what is supposedly a sport.
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On a horse forum… horses are an expensive sport pet, which makes all the discussions here associated with those pets, including how we do our hair at horse shows, is very much a first world problem.
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Since this thread popped up, I will note that Brianne Goutal showed in the Grand Prix tonight in Wellington with her ponytail hanging down out of her hat, but when I’ve seen her show hunters lately, I believe she had her hair up.
The beauty of a BB is that people can call their animals sport horses or pets, depending on their own preference.
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Well, I’ve found the discussion useful. I have hair. I ride jumpers. I need a way to keep my (very long) hair neat and out of the way. The OP was asking for tips on how to manage her hair in way that was safer than stuffing a bunch of it under her hat, but still looked good. How is that a problematic request?
Yes, it’s a sport but how is that even relevant? All sports have a certain style to them, because we are human and (in general) like to look good. And, again, the hair needs to be managed for safety and to make it less irritating (in my case). I rode the other day with a ponytail because I was just hacking out and it drove me nuts.
Usually I do a braid, coil it in a loose low bun thing, cover it with a RWR hairnet, and it sits nicely contained below my hat. I think it looks sort of hinky to have a bun, even a braided one, and would rather it fit under my hat but it doesn’t so this is my solution.
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If they want to invoke 'tradition" women should be riding side saddle.
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I noticed that last night but thought over the summer I had, on some livestream or other, seen Brianne Goutal with hair down in a hunter class or two.
On the flipside, I also thought I saw hunter hair on a young European rider, I think that talented kid from Belgium that made the jumpoff. I thought “oh! She’s assimilating!” 
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Whilst wearing a silk hat with a veil–and long hair in a bun.
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Maybe she just has short hair. Lol.
Brianne definitely showed some hunters last year with her hair down in a ponytail, and won on them.
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My hair is very curly, what I do is do a low ponytail have 1 hair net cover my head secure it with the pony tail and then do another hair net to keep that first hair net from moving. I usually also try to keep my hair shoulder length so it’s easier to maintain and to put in the helmet
THANK You! The last time this thread flared up, I went down the Google Images rabbit hole trying to confirm that I did not hallucinate that
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I thought I posted this picture or a similar one at the time of Brianne showing in the hunters at Lake Placid last summer.
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Well I’ve had long hair forever that I’ve hunter haired up into my helmet ever since I came out of pigtails and bows in the late 70s and in a fit of…something…I just chopped it all off to a chin length bob. Now what the heck do I do with it under my helmet. Should have thought this through a little better
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Semi-serious question:
A lot of fox hunters wear their hair out of their helmet but neatly netted below the helmet with a heavy duty hairnet, even a friend of mine with waist length hair. It looks neat and tidy and fairly traditional.
I wonder with this hasn’t been adopted for the show ring?
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The low bun used to be the norm and then showhunter hair was developed (not sure by whom, I feel like it was in the 80s), and then the norm was a swoop of hair over the ears with the rest swept up under the hat. It was easier back when hunt caps were just a cap with no harness (the elastic band with the plastic chin cup doesn’t count!), but people figured out how to do it with the new helmets.
When mine was this length, I just used a hair net. I used a no-knot one so that I could just put the net around my neck, bend over so my hair was standing off my head, then slip the net over it.
The little bits at the base of your neck might still come out though, depending on your length.
Yes, @McGurk, I’m a history nerd, and I’m sure you know, the “braided bun beneath the hat” style is traditional, if you look at old hunting prints of sidesaddle riders! Keeping Victorian or Edwardian-length hair under a hat would have been near-impossible.
@foursocks I heard once or twice that the obsession started with George Morris’s Hunter Seat Equitation in 1971, because of the model’s straight blonde hair stuffed under a patey being upheld as an ideal.
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Omg. I have not opened that book in quite a long time, but that picture took me right back.
I have to say that hat does not look like it will stay on her head very long if anything begins to go the slightest bit wrong. Lol.
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I was thinking the same thing! I mean, it’s a staged photo, and the safety value of that helmet is pretty much nil, but still this is clearly “fashion before function.”
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That is for sure.
I know there were definitely a lot of pictures of actual riders in that book, but I don’t know if that was the case here, or if it was just some random person who was supposed to look the part.
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She does look the part–slight, blonde, willowy, and the fact her hair is well-suited to the hairstyle Morris evidently preferred for women.
It’s interesting to see there is no saddle pad–in my old British pony books, many of the ponies don’t have a pad as well, with the note that a truly well-fitted saddle doesn’t need one. Just wipe off the sweat afterwards.
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