Sorry; it’s because I didn’t get to nap!!!
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You are in the arena for a few minutes…wear the damn coat. If your horse can jump around a course in the heat, you should be just fine.
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I was impressed that Spruce was letting people show in rain coats last weekend! You know its a monsoon and freezing when that happens! lol
P.
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I just got an email that the dressage schooling show I was planning to attend this weekend is going to be rescheduled due to the weather - forecast is upper 90s in a non-humid area. I was planning to wear a polo, since this is a very low-key show (though looking at past pictures many people do seem to wear coats).
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Then, again, the horse isn’t wearing TWO extra layers. 
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I only noticed the waiver of jackets because of the all white combination that (I believe) the winner of the class was wearing. It looked odd to me, rather like an ice cream vendor’s uniform.I think the monochrome look isn’t the most attractive, however everyone has their individual sense of style.
It’s a bit nit picky for me to complain about style when someone puts in such excellent rounds as did the winner of the class.
I think that the waiver of jackets is a good thing (I remember being much too hot back in the day as well) and you can look quite nice with a little consideration ahead of time about how you will look if you don’t wear your jacket.
The prize list did include the rule that “riders may choose to wear protective vests in lieu of or in addition to a show jacket. All other attire rules will still apply”. So it seems that jackets did not need to be specifically waived if a body protector was worn.
Those of you saying you’d never show without a coat and it’s only a few minutes - do you live places where it gets hot and humid in the summer? As I said upthread, I’ve only shown without a coat in a GP twice that I can think of - but both times, it was in the 90s and incredibly humid. I am less heat-tolerant than my horse is, especially since I couldn’t afford to buy a new coat in a tech fabric until toward the end of the time I was showing at that level. So I was showing in a wool coat, when coats were required - and yes, that makes a difference. Especially since you have to have your shirt collar closed. I had a lot of classes where I’d strip off the coat as soon as I came out, along with my choker and the top 3 buttons of the shirt, and I still felt like I was going to pass out. My heat-tolerant horse seemed okay, and on those really crazy hot days if we were showing, she’d get sponged with Vetrolin right before we went in and right when we came out (non-FEI classes).
I just feel like in a video of a GP, if all you can notice is the lack of coat, maybe you’re not focused on the right thing/what’s important.
JMHO.
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I was wondering the same thing, as I sit here looking at the weather forecast for my showing at Loudoun tomorrow (that is the same showgrounds as Upperville, the show referenced by the OP). It’s supposed to be 85 with 80% humidity, and that’s pretty “nice” weather compared to what we’ve been having here lately. And it’s well in to that “danger zone” of heat/humidity combo on those charts that go around every summer about safe riding temperatures and not riding above a combined 150. If people in the midatlantic went by that, no one would ride from mid-May to mid-September, because it’s 80 with 65% humidity today and feels glorious not Danger Zone-y. It’s regularly hot and humid at Upperville, and quite often coats are waived on both sides, for hunters and jumpers.
Synthetics and technical materials can only do so much when it is so humid there’s nowhere for the sweat to evaporate to. Its also not as easy as saying it’s only 3 minutes in the ring, either–what are you doing with that coat before and after you walk in the gate? My trainer is not a coatrack, she’s got other students and rides of her own, I don’t expect her to carry my coat around for me to put on at the gate, and I’m pretty sure she’s laugh at me if I asked her to–and tell me to ride without it if they’ve been waived.
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I apologize, I did not read past the first page and a half.
I couldn’t drum up the interest. There are a lot of things in the horse show world that make me cringe and go, “REALLY??” but jackets being waived and then worn or not worn is not on that list.
Our righteousness, indignation, and concern should be focused on issues like cheating, the use of illegal, experimental or untestable substances to attempt to gain an competitive edge, overmedication, and other inhumane training or “prep” practices.
Jackets vs. no jackets? Please, not an issue. Taking off your jacket in extremely hot weather (when allowed) is a perfectly acceptable and reasonable way to gain a competitive edge by not overheating during an athletic performance. Let’s get our attention back on the real issues, please.
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I haven’t read the 6 pages of commentary, but with all the questionable training, riding, teaching and horsemanship out there, this seems like a silly thing to get outraged about. If you don’t like showing without a jacket, by all means wear one but that doesn’t mean everyone should when they are waived due to heat. In fact I think there’s a great argument to be made in favour of riders dressing like athletes for competition, rather than butlers.
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As a beach-living Californian, I’ve learned I get very little say about extreme weather conditions. 
I do live where it is regularly 100+ in the summer, but you know, it’s a DRY heat*, so… 
*And yes…that dryness makes a YUGE difference. I can handle a coat for 3 minutes in dry heat. Yet even so, and despite my odd shape that means I look better in a coat, I sometimes go without if they are waived. Usually only when there is no photographer at my ring.
For jumpers, sure maybe. If you’re showing a hunter in a couple divisions that run simultaneously, you could be in and out of the ring for an hour just completing 5 o/f trips. In for 2 trips, out to rotate with 1 or 2 other people, in for another 2 trips, out again for the couple other riders, then back in for your classic. You never leave the ingate and the jacket stays on. I very nearly got heatstroke in this exact scenario a few years ago when my 5 trips took close to an hour to complete in the sweltering sun.
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Wow…are we really whining about this? How many of you are jumping Grand Prix? A jacket doesn’t make the ride - sorry if you think that. Ridiculous.
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My favorite line in the entire thread. And perfectly on point, too. The “wear the coat for 2 minutes in the ring” argument is cute IF you’re lucky enough to have an entourage to hold the coat for you while you warm up, wait around for your round, come out, wait more if you’re doing multiple trips and/or hack, etc. The “2 minutes” easily turns into 45-60 minutes if you’re either on your own or your trainer/helpers are going back and forth between rings.
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It is TOTALLY INAPPROPRIATE for ladies to wear tail coats. Get over yourself.
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In Show Jumping, the rider is not judged.
Nor should they be.
Thank Dog!!
Hunter might be “Fashion Over Fences” but please don’t think it applies to Jumping.
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They’re nowhere near as fit, that’s a laughable claim. Professional soccer players are FIT. They are almost all under age 35 and they train hours and hours every day on fitness. Go ask Nick Skelton or even William Fox Pitt how he’s hold up against a professional soccer player on fitness and they’d laugh their heads off. Riding fit, yes, lots of core strength, yes. fit for their age, absolutely. Good muscle memory? sure. But I doubt the average showjumper could run 400 yards in the summer heat, never mind play a running game non stop for 90 minutes.
At no point–ever–did I claim that the average professional show jumper was as fit as the average professional soccer player. In fact, i specifically said the opposite. It’s cool though, because this will give you the opportunity to re-read (or read, as it were) the thread that you just bumped up after more than a week.
So, horse people aren’t as much of an athlete as soccer players so they need to wear stuffy coats?
Also, the shadbelly was for MEN ONLY for years and years, so bringing that up basically negates your point totally.
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