My background is saddleseat but I’m intrigued by old hunter styles and I’m trying to get a bead on this: In old pictures I’ve seen hunter riders - at shows and fox hunting, apparently - ladies wearing a shirt and tie with their hunt coats (and flared breeches), and derby hats instead of hunt caps. This was in the '30s & '40s as I understand it. When did the change from derbies to hunt caps occur? And how about the fashion of ties instead of ratcathers/choker collars? I’ve read some accounts of gals wearing ties with men’s shirts in the '60s as a trend - so they showed in ties with hunt caps? Does anyone have any more concrete dates on these trends, or better yet dated pictures to share?
I can’t help with the show ring attire question since it’s all before my time, but currently ties are still sometimes worn during cubbing by ladies who are actually foxhunting. That and colored stock ties are the most popular choices, with regular show type chokers being the least popular, at least at our local hunts.
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I’ll preface this by saying that my parents were not diligent photographers so there are few photos and many long gaps in the photo record of my childhood horse life, so it’s not a comprehensive record.
I have a photo of myself at a horse show in 1969-ish wearing a shirt and tie with a hunt cap. In horse show photos taken before that I’m wearing a ratcatcher and in a few others around that same time and after, I’m wearing a choker and hunt cap. So, yes, apparently there was a brief time in the '60s where shirts and ties for gals was a thing.
In photos taken in the last few years of the '70s, I’m wearing a green jacket a shade or two brighter than hunter green with a bright green/orange/yellow plaid choker. I looked pretty sharp! 
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As a kid in the 80s in the UK we all wore ties to show and hunt in. I wear a tie for stadium but I’m an eventer so nobody cares.
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My mom wore a bowler hat a lot in the 70s (maybe late 60s) and even hunted in it up to the the mid-80s. I don’t remember any pictures of her wearing a tie though. I was born in 1979 and my leadline show outfit featured a light colored ratcatcher with a navy velvet choker with a big shiny horseshoe? pin in it and at some points a tweed jacket and rust jodphurs and a “helmet” with an elastic chinstrap. I’m not sure how much of this was fashionable and how much was just thrifted though. My brother had a regular Oxford shirt and tie and what I think was a seersucker jacket-- white and light blue striped (we shared the helmet, which we only wore at shows!)
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I helped edit a small book about the history of the Devon horse show and if there were bowlers and ties on women it was shown in scant photos, so it must have been a brief trend. I can look for the book and give you rough dates of when those photos are from next week, if you want me to.
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Bowlers or derbies were considered correct formal attire in the hunt field until safety headgear became more predominant; that carried over to the show ring.
So for a Classic, Derby, Corinthian or Stake class, you would see riders wearing derbies but always with white stock ties.
A man’s tie with a man’s dress shirt worn under a tweed coat is considered correct informal or ratcatcher attire for women or men, however, it’s always seemed more prevelant in the UK than the US. It’s also acceptable in the UK Pony Club and you’ll see it in informal jumper classes as well. Several ladies that I hunt with rock this fashion, and if jackets are waived, it’s a better look than a stock tie. If we’re truly going old school, pre-safety headgear, you wore a brown derby with your ratchatcher attire, along with brown field boots and tweed coat. I’m not sure I ever saw full hunting ratchatcher turnout in the show ring, but I could be wrong.
If you look at the fabulous COTH article about Eliie Wood Baxter, you’ll see she still wore a bowler with her formal hunting clothes in the 2010s.
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Thanks for all the info @McGurk! You even answered another question I had about the color of the derbies.
You would wear brown with ratcatcher attire, black with formal attire (black coat and dress boots/tan breeches/white shirt and stock tie). Field boots were only brown in those days.
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Here’s a great photo of Jackie Kennedy, perfectly turned out in formal attire -
This was taken in 1976.
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True! I had forgotten that! Before zippers, black field boots became a thing when show ring riders wanted a really tightly fitted, skinny silhouette boot.
Still trying to find a photos of ladies in ratcatcher with a man’s tie. A correction to what I posted earlier - the tie is worn with a button down, collared shirt, not a dress shirt.
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I’m confused about terminology, so this probably sounds like a stupid question, but does “ratchatcher” here just mean informal attire?
Yes, exactly.
Ratcatcher = informal attire.
I’m not exactly sure how the term evolved to also mean the shirt we wear with our show jackets, but perhaps it was the distinction of not wearing a stock tie as for formal attire.
So you can “wear ratcatcher”, that is, tweed coat, brown boots, colored tie or colored stock tie, or you can “wear a ratcatcher” shirt.
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Here we go; ratcatcher with a man’s tie, not coincidentally, from a UK site:
And the more common in the US, ratcatcher with a colored stock:
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Got it, Thanks!
I love the look of the tweed coat with the collared shirt and tie.
When I started showing in 1966/67, all us kids wore ratcatcher shirts, which had a stand up collar with an attached tie of the same color as the shirt that was maybe an inch, inch and a half wide. The tie was tied in a bow in the front.
And in the category of little things that it’s weird you remember, when we bought my first ratcatcher shirt, they had two colors, white and ivory. I wanted white but they only had ivory in my size so my Mom bought the ivory. I was sad. 
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yes the traditional hunt cap was part of the staff attire and was something that made staff visible in the field. Ratcatcher for informal cubbing days. Ratcatcher became the dominant show ring attire into the 60s and hunt caps for all became a safety choice. Ladies aside, these days, remain an elegant appointments class with classic dress. I always love their attention to details.
Formal classes including tails on children are a recent affectation that seems to have the aim of selling more stuff to compliant participants. I can remember whispers behind the hand over a rider turned out for one of our top judges in perfect hunt member kit; colors black coat stock tie. The judge was thrilled with her riding and noted her correct turn out. She was good and didnt need to rush to having the latest trendy outfit.
LOL I had a white one as well and remember when I dyed it blue. It came out a pale blue which I paired with a darker blue choker which I made myself. Everything was on a shoestring budget ( that shoestring had knots in it) .
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I had those ratcatcher shirts with the self tie in the 60s as well! I also have photographic evidence of the unfortunate contrasting choker fad; though not, thank dog, the velvet collar on the tweed with a matching choker for the ratcatcher.
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I paid a compliment, out of my car window on the way out to fence judge at a recent Event, to a rider who was wearing a tweed jacket and man’s tie, on her way from dressage towards the show jumping before going cross country. Same clothes all the way through the competition: save on money, save on time, perfectly ‘legal’ and she looked really sharp. I’m sure all the fashionistas, influencers and sport clothing companies would hate more people to be like her.
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