I honestly envy the people that look so put together at the barn. I’m the type that wears my “bad” clothes to the barn so I look pretty sloppy lol. But I don’t feel there’s much changing it now. I just admire others fashion
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Pretty much as soon as I wear my “new” horsey clothes to the barn, they become “old” horsey clothes. I can’t do any work at all with any farm animal and not look like I got down and rolled in the hay and shavings 
I’m really perplexed by those who can.
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Me too Lunabear. My horse doesn’t care about the occasional small hole or stains on the t-shirt. I am very time limited to get to the barn and back home (I am my 94yo Mom’s caregiver).
Half the time I don’t bother with my half chaps. I am the bag lady rider and I don’t care!
Susan
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To whoever said that saying “it’s not my taste/style” is some sort of quiet dig - it’s not. It is not my taste because I could never pull it off, or I personally don’t like it. That has no bearing on whether someone else can do either or both of those things, and have me recognize the same.
Another example - body clinging leather pants are not my taste. There are some people who look SMOKIN’ HOT in them, and that’s awesome.
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Agree. “Not my taste” means I would never wear it. And I may or may not like how it looks on someone else. But that’s not a diss, just a statement of my own personal preference. Just because I don’t like how something looks doesn’t mean I think nobody should wear it. I personally don’t like Friesians; that doesn’t mean I think nobody should ride them 
There are many ways to make dressage more fun. If cool clip jobs, patterned boots and unusual combinations make someone enjoy their showing experience, then it’s a great thing, in my opinion.
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I personally love to see people enjoying themselves. I am not a flamboyant person at all and never will be. But I know some rock all kinds of looks and enjoy doing it!
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Love to you. Those who have never had to do something like this have no idea of the toll it takes on you.
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The rider is amazing; the judges obv can see beyond the clip job and garb. I personally would have LOVED the clip job with conservative garb; or the garb without the clip job. The two together–not for me–it’s a little too Alice in Wonderland (Tim Burton version, but might have been great in a freestyle with that music). It took confidence to do it because you are going to call attention to yourself, and lots of props for that!!!
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Purina horse show numbers were not limited to 9 squares - legacy Purina branding was a bit different. Honestly, Purina came to mind for me, but I’m also a global brand director in a marketing department. I also thought we were a few shapes away from a giraffe…
Not a single square of that clip job falls anywhere near to Purina brand standards … otoh, one of their blues actually shows up as a completely different colour and leads to designers wtfing all over the place, so maybe the diamonds are closer to chequerboard than I think
I agree with that regarding their CURRENT brand standards. The brand wasn’t born yesterday, and I specifically referred to their “legacy” with this in mind. It wasn’t always a perfect 9 box square pattern…
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I wasn’t referring to the perfect 9-box square pattern, but rather the angle/s and fading of the diamond (rather than square) pattern.
Love the giraffe. My old Paint horse was a chestnut and I always called him my giraffe on crack for dressage when we evented.
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Oh man, this has been a funny read. I was in the pharmacy (straight from the barn) a couple weeks ago. Full winter barn coat, arctic Bogs…the whole thing. A woman comes up to me and goes, “did you come from a BARN?”. I laughed and asked what gave it away? She said her daughter got a horse this year and the mom was killing time shopping while the daughter was at the barn. She seemed thrilled she identified another horse person 
. My husband said I should have said “no” and seen her reaction LOL. AND. When I have worn makeup to the barn with my hair nice, I have not been recognized 
.
About the clipping. I agree with those that say her boots were the worst thing going on. To each their own though.
A certain fjord was very vocal with his reiki practitioner a few weeks ago (she also has a knack for communication) and while this one comment could have been pulled out of thin air, there was a lot that couldn’t have been. So I’ve decided to indulge it. Anyways, he told her he wanted Pegasus wings. And that he likes to “be seen”…no shocker there! So I tried a couple days ago and he was a riot, he kept necking around looking at what I was trying to do (which is totally not his thing, he usually falls asleep when I clip). Between already having a modified blanket clip that needed a refresh and only having one set of yak specification clippers, I need additional equipment to make a better attempt 
Most people could benefit from more fun and more creativity in their lives, especially as adults. Some more than others. If this was child’s fun, they would have had to doodle in sharpie on the horse.
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That post is incomplete without photos!
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I purposefully didn’t take photos during
Here’s final NON Pegasus fjord tax…not very exciting and had to go a little high on the hip to cover up my bad job.
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I love the shark fins on the mane.
I used to ride a fjord and I never thought of doing that. We had the white shorter than the black part of the mane.
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When you spend all of your free time and disposable income on something you should definitely have fun with it!
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Thanks! It ended up suiting him well and he does do a Charlie-Shark move! There is one goofy horse in his group that he just doesn’t like. He keeps him at about a 20 foot radius and if the other horse comes into that, the ears go back and snoot goes out and it’s kinda of like Jaws when he backs him out of his space 
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It wasn’t all that long ago that those saddles did not have thigh blocks. The only block they had was in front - which made it not so comfortable if you were a woman. The leather was doe skin, I believe, as were the breeches the riders wore. We would use a sponge with a little bit of water and wipe it on the saddle to make the leather a bit tacky. It helped with the airs as the breeches would stick to it. The mounted airs were never done with stirrups.
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