What level test is it socially acceptable to wear a top hat instead of a helmet? I’m not looking for the safety argument here, just the fashion argument.
Also, USDF rules allow for a derby at lower levels but I have seen what looks like top hats so is there really a difference?
Personally, I think Top Hats look tacky unless you are in a Shadbelly.
I used to snark at people wearing a topper without a shad, but then I realized alot of people are doing it. Now I just think the toppers look classy and around here, most people don’t wear helmets unless they are on a greenie (don’t flame me, it’s just something I’ve noticed). I don’t care for the look of a derby on me, so when I got out of training level, I went with a topper. No one has said anything negative, although I know there are people out there who don’t like it. I like how it looks, and I may never make it to wearing a shad!
Barn/Trainer Rule: You get to wear a top hat once you’ve WON a third level class. Anything lower and she has the right to confiscate it.
I think it looks really tacky to wear a top-hat unless you’re showing at the FEI levels. BUT, there are some cases where trainers are showing both FEI and lower levels at the same show on different horses, and in those cases, I don’t have a problem with it. A top hat used to be something you earned, now it’s just a fashion statement.
Thankfully in NZ you can only wear a Top Hat at our Equiv to 4th and above. I think people out showing at 1st would look so tacky wearing one… that’s just me.
I like Ibex’s trainers rule… You have to earn your top hat IMHO
Whats “tacky” about a top hat? I think they are beautiful. If you feel that you are safe wearing one then I think they look very elegant and polished. I wear one for the FEI Young Horse Tests and have had great remarks for turn out from many judges. I guess its all personal opinion, but if someone was wearing a top hat at a lower level I wouldnt think that its wrong or even funny looking. But thats just my opinion.
[QUOTE=TDDDressage;3422825]
Whats “tacky” about a top hat? I think they are beautiful. If you feel that you are safe wearing one then I think they look very elegant and polished. I wear one for the FEI Young Horse Tests and have had great remarks for turn out from many judges. I guess its all personal opinion, but if someone was wearing a top hat at a lower level I wouldnt think that its wrong or even funny looking. But thats just my opinion.[/QUOTE]
I repectfully disagree…I think a short coat and a top hat just looks tacky.
I like the look of the top hat with short and shad.
However, I’ll only and always wear a helmet, because I LOVE my brain :).
You have judges commenting on your turnout in the young horse classes? seriously? 
That seems a bit “off topic”…
[QUOTE=Surviving the Dramas;3422792]
I like Ibex’s trainers rule… You have to earn your top hat IMHO[/QUOTE]
We had the same earning rule in the hunter/jumper rings:
“you had to earn your customs!” boots that is:)
Some years ago people started wearing a very short top hat with a short coat, they were really short little hats. It was quite the thing for a while. Supposedly the concept came over from Europe.
I bought one, because of peer pressure. I thought I looked like kind of a Hobbit Mary Poppins in it. To complete the picture all I needed was a basket of fish to sell in the streets of London. I thought that putting it on automatically made MOST people look like they needed a basket of fish to sell.
On some people, it looks like the little hats the Wayans Brothers wore when they did the ‘Men on Film’ skit on their tv show.
For a long time (and I think still, in most countries other than the USA) the correct clothes are a bowler or hunt cap with the short coat, and the tophat is reserved for use with the long coat. The rule was changed in America, ‘so everyone won’t have to buy so many hats’, supposedly. The only thing I could figure out was some big shot on some committee wanted to wear one, and wasn’t going to get to FEI any time soon. Given all the fees they were jacking up at the time, buying a hat looked like a real bargain.
Given how much people like bowlers, and their opinion of how good they look in one, the short top hat must have been invented to keep people from the ultimate horror - wearing a bowler.
I think a regular top hat looks really bizarre with a short coat. It says to me, ‘I am dying to wear the top hat, I don’t care if I’m not up there doing FEI yet’. I think the short tophat says, ‘I am dying to wear the top hat, but I can’t afford a real one, so I got this little tiny one’.
Why would you ever waste the money to buy one when you don’t show. Do you practice in it when you take your driving rig out ?
I was always taught that you EARN it by competing at FEI, same as when you earn your shad. But that once you earn it, you can wear it at any level. (Though I do see many who start wearing at third or fourth, not FEI).
Most of the top hats I see at lower levels are on trainers with younger horses, not people who bought one just because they wanted to wear it.
[QUOTE=Tiligsmom;3423190]
I like the look of the top hat with short and shad.
However, I’ll only and always wear a helmet, because I LOVE my brain :).[/QUOTE]
Ahhh, now THIS I totally agree with. :yes:
I personally think the top hat with short coat looks a bit… pretentious. Unless it’s an absolutely fabulous horse and rider.
A not so great rider doing a test above her level looks pretty darn silly in a top hat.
I used to say that top hats were okay starting at 4th level, since that’s when most people starting using the double bridle. But now with double bridle at 3rd level… ugh. I hate that rule change, but that’s a whole other topic…
I still think it looks a tad tacky for someone to be in a short coat with a snaffle and a top hat.
I am a stickler for helmets anyways at the lower levels.
I actually really like the classic look of a hunt cap (with no chin harness) with a short coat. To me that is humble elegance. To shows I wear a helmet with removable chin harness and just unsnap it before going in the ring… I think that’s a good compromise between looks and safety.
I don’t know if too many people do it, but one can show at FEI in a short coat.
It’s a hat. It doesn’t matter.
I’m a huntcap person, myself. Much easier to keep on, one less thing to worry about…
Top hat is permitted by rules at any level and can be worn at any level as well. It’s not like whips or spurs that rider needs to earn, since they can affect horses negatively. If your horse is safe and you are over 18 years old - you should feel free to wear a top hat at any level.
I never met any judge who cares what riders wear: top hat or helmet. It seems to be a rail birds game, to have an opinion about when, how and where to wear a top hat.
I personally like a top hat look, since most riders seem to look like 8 years old kids in helmets. Unfortunately, since my mare can be quite exuberant in her flying changes - I did wear my working helmet for the whole '08 year showing and at times even winning at 3rd level. But a top hat would be so much cooler than my helmet at triple digits temps during the show - that one aspect that smiles at me when wearing a top hat.
http://www.dressageart.com/Zena/zena_2008_cc6.jpg
I vote for shadbellys at the lower levels too. :lol::lol::lol::lol: They have no negative effect on your horse either, except maybe the embarrassment he may feel with his horsie peers laughing at his rider. :lol:
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