Hello everyone! I would love to get people’s thoughts about a coat that I recently ordered for the hunters and eq. I’ll insert a picture here of the coat, and also one of my helmet. I have one of the suede samshield miss shields, however, it does have five crystals on it, imo it isn’t too much for the hunters but I would love to get a judge’s thoughts or just someone more experienced than myself. I’m not showing in anything crazy, I’m just going to this show as a warm up for getting back into showing after a few year break, but it will be an “A” show. Thanks!
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Love that coat, it’s super pretty. If it were me, I’d probably save it for the jumper ring, but nothing in the way the rules are written now would get you eliminated for wearing it. But you will definitely stand out for better or worse. That could help you in a sea of bay horses…or work against you because if you make a mistake you can’t hope to vanish into the crowd. Some super traditional judges might use a detail like that (or if your horse is braided or not) as a tiebreaker to determine placings in otherwise equal rounds. But I’ve never found that it’s my jacket that keeps me from pinning, it’s usually an awkward distance or pace.
Bottom line, if what you want is to have a nice picture in a stunning jacket while getting your horse some good miles, go for it. If you’re trying to be competitive in a big division, then maybe pick something more traditional. From what you said, if you’re using this show as a warm up and just want to have fun, I wouldn’t stress about the jacket color.
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Just be the best. I honestly do think people pay too much attention to colors and styles and not to riding. Ride your ass off find all the jumps with beautiful changes you could win.Rode with a lovely rider years ago who wore a light blue jacket. Almost looked grey it was so light. She was a queen. Laid it down.
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Pretty coat. Not inappropriate for what you’ve described. If you ever show in formal classes, like a classic or derby, that wouldn’t be as appropriate as a darker color; so if you were looking to own just one coat I’d stick with navy, black, or hunter green so you could wear it for everything.
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There’s an amateur at my barn who shows in the 3’3 A/Os and has a ton of coats… burgundy, light grey, even a greyish greenish blue. She wins and tricolors a ton (she has incredibly nice horses).
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Love the coat!! It’ll be totally fine. What brand is it?
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If I ever do anything more serious what you said totally makes sense. I already have a navy and a black coat but I wanted something a little bit interesting without being out there. I’m thinking I’ll probably only wear this coat for some of the open classes and then switch to my navy or black for the more serious ones.
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It’s a Cavalleria Toscana, I found it on tried equestrian for 100 dollars basically brand new, so can’t beat it! I wouldn’t spend the normal price of like 900 for a grey coat, but since it was on sale I decided I had to have it. They have a sale going on with some supper amazing stuff! If you want to look on there it’s in the link in their bio on instagram.
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Hunter judge here…99% of us do not care what color your coat is.
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I had a CO helmet with some snakeskin trim that I loved, and wore in the hunter ring, and I remember out of curiosity asking a friend who is a fairly traditional big R judge, who had judged us in the past at some shows and gave a clinic I participated in, whether she found it distracting. Her answer was “wait, does your helmet have trim??? I didn’t notice!” So that answered that question 
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It’s gorgeous! I’m keeping my eye out for a chocolate brown coat for a decent price … fingers crossed, haha!
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Eons ago I used to show in a chocolate brown coat and a brown velvet helmet. It was a nice combo. Hope you find yours!
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I’m on the hunt for a brown coat as well! They are so cute!
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I’ve seen Grey shads in the Derbies several times. They do stand out so you have to consider if you want to stand out or not. This horse came in 2nd out of 29 so the judges did not care
https://winslowphoto.photostockplus.com/album/4865843/photo/1052586541/
Every time something like this comes up I think to myself,
If I trot into the ring for my courtesy circle and the judge notices my stirrup leathers or my helmet or the brand of breeches I’m wearing, then I am not sitting on the right horse for this division.
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I’ve seen custom gray shads too. I think they’re pretty. The ones I’ve seen are mostly charcoal like that one, plus or minus contrast lining. I would show in a derby in a gray tail coat, or a dark gray hunt coat, but I wouldn’t in a light gray hunt coat. That’s a little more cocktail attire than black tie optional!
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While I totally understand the business aspect of it, it’s sort of a sorry state of affairs the way the photographers have to put such extreme watermarks on every picture they post online.
I mean, I don’t blame the photographers for it at all. I totally get it. It’s just sad.
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… Followed by: “What am I even doing here and maybe I should just go to sleep on a few hay bales in the extra stall. Does anyone need a braider? I need a peanut butter banana smoothie. Uh-oh! Approaching jump!”
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Exactly. I figure if THAT is what the judge is noticing, then either my trip was so perfect that there was nothing else to pick on or my trip was so horrendous that they couldn’t look at us any more and had to focus on my attire instead
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