Like @SillyHorse I recall classes back in the day (maybe the appointments class in regular or conformation hunters) where people wore shad bellies, or at least the women did. More recently, they are an option in hunter classics and hunter derbies, which are offered at a variety of levels from International Hunter Derbies (4’+ fences) to National Hunter Derbies (3’ fences with higher options) to the classic in divisions ranging from the junior and amateur owner hunters (3’6") to short stirrup (2’).
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The appointments classes I remember called for hunting appointments – hunt coat with colors, sandwich case, flask, crop, extra gloves under the billets, etc. I don’t remember anything about shadbellies, because AFAIK people didn’t hunt in shadbellies. But sometime more recently (1980s?) show hunters became a different class from actual hunters. So maybe that was when the shadbellies came in? They wouldn’t be very practical out in the field!
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No, this was earlier than the 80s. This photo is from 1964, Sallie Wheeler on Isgilde. Looks like an appointments class.
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Ironic that USDF lobbied to ban the top hat in competition but has decided to keep the top hat in its logo for “historical integrity”.
They would if they were invited to attend Ascot in the Royal Enclosure. 
https://www.ascot.co.uk/what-to-wearssss/what-to-wear/royal-ascot/royal-enclosure/gentlemen
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True. Good point. 
(Although that is morning dress. top hats and morning coats, not shadbellies or tails 
).
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A morning coat is a form of tail coat. It has “tails”.
Reading these types of threads I’m always surprised at how entrenched the “Americans are the most litigious” myth truly is. The US gets (and self-generates) a lot of global news coverage and Americans have a certain reputation (some earned, some not) and people are often too lazy to check these things out and just fall back on comfortable, unchallenged stereotypes. But none of that makes it accurate. It makes me chuckle especially to hear people say that tendency to litigate would get the US kicked out of competition when, in actuality, Europe dominates the top ten.
In pertinent part, " There is a common misconception that the U.S. is the most litigious nation in the World. This is simply untrue. While it’s true that the U.S. has a large number of lawsuits crowding its courts each year, it barely cracks the Top 5 of most litigious countries in the world. In his book, “Exploring Global Landscapes of Litigation,” Christian Wollschlager notes that the litigation rates per 1,000 people shows that European nations top the list of the world’s most litigious countries. Here is a list of the top 5 most litigious countries by capita: 1. Germany: 123.2/1,000 2. Sweden: 111.2/1,000 3. Israel: 96.8/1,000 4. Austria: 95.9/1,000 5. U.S.: 74.5/1,000 . The Top 10 also includes the UK (64.4); Denmark (62.5); Hungary (52.4); Portugal (40.7); and France (40.3)."
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Now - type “shadbelly” in to that search box.
Count me as a continuing believer of the “Americans are the most litigious ‘myth’”.
The article you quote is put out by a lobbying group attempting to encourage European companies to do business in the US, and therefore has an agenda of attempting to destroy unsavory “myths” about the US business environment.
By googling “comparative litigation rates” I instantly stumbled on a study from Harvard which has several metrics of degree of litigiousness and it superficially seems to confirm your numbers that the US has “only” about 75% more reported lawsuits per population than the UK. However, unlike your chamber of commerce piece, before presenting the numbers, it points out that most litigation in the US occurs at the state level, and reporting of state court lawsuits is incomplete— perhaps as little as 10%
of state litigation activity is included in that number due to non reporting.
The numbers you cite are probably a very, very low lower bound on the amount of litigation in the US.
If you look at other metrics (number of lawyers per capita, % of GDP devoted to litigation), where does the US rank?
If you are chuckling at my statement that the FEI might chuck the US out of the FEI, I said that a liability suit for rider injury or death was more likely to come from the US than from Europe, since the US is more litigious (you have not altered my belief in this), and a SUCCESSFUL liability suit would cause the FEI to be unable to insure competitions in the US. However, it was also my position that the waivers we sign absolving the FEI and other governing bodies of liability would hold up, so the “cost” of all the litigation is not paying out the award, but just the expense of the insurance company defending against the claim. Not that that is an insignificant expense.
What is your interpretation of why equestrian sports are so much more expensive in the US than in Europe? Mine is that at every layer— trainer, barn, vet, shoer, hauler, show manager— everybody in the industry is paying liability insurance so that the insurance company either pays the award or defends against the suit. Even if actual suits are rare, the possibility of the suits means everyone has to get insurance and that cost is baked into the fees we pay for everything.
You’re going to need more reliable data before you convince me it’s a myth.
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And nothing comes up?
“Shadbelly” is a word in American English, while the Cambridge English Dictionary reflects British English.
No one owns a language, not the French Academy, not the British.
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I was disappointed to see Carl Hester’s name on the list of signatories. He has been riding in a helmet in the recent photos I’ve seen, but I remember him sporting a top hat at London 2012 despite Charlotte Dujardin’s very public discussions of her own head injury and the reasons she would never ride without a helmet.
Anyway, this week I received my Nov. 5th copy of Horse & Hound and he’s explained his position in his column. He says it’s because while he has been wearing a helmet for a few years now and will continue to do so, he thinks adults should be able to make their own choices.
It seems to me that he literally did this for the publicity - sign the petition, get your name in the news, then write a column in Horse & Hound explaining that you really are doing the right thing. While I have admired his contributions to dressage, there is a little bit of the “Carl and Charlotte show” that is getting over the top! The same issue of H&H has Charlotte’s ride Gio on the cover with the caption “He could win gold”…
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Sure, it is a tailcoat, but it’s not a shadbelly, nor a weaselbelly, nor a dress coat 
They interviewed him in their podcast also. I got more a vibe of, he didn’t want to tell big wigs what they can and can not do, but he said he himself and everyone at his farm wears a helmet 100% of the time. So yeah, bit of a back boneless opinion I guess.
He also talked a lot about social media and how he doesn’t agree with people bullying others as a way to get change. I guess this helmet debate was something that was bringing a lot of vitriol online.
I think his position is entirely reasonable: for himself and as policy at his facility everyone wears helmets without exception; he will choose to wear one in high level competition, but he is declining to impose his choice on other top riders like Isabell Werth.
@Jealoushe : I don’t see why that is a position without backbone.
I was just looking at the way they got seatbelts implemented, and the very effective anti-smoking ads in the 80s that linked smoking to ED. Did it end smoking entirely? No. Does everyone wear a seat belt? No. But all of the efforts shifted public opinion so that more people wear them than not. Helmets are, sadly, similar. I’m in the every ride camp, and do not understand in the least people who won’t protect their noggins due to some notion of “tradition”. Football players used to not wear pads or helmets either, but they discovered that that was a really bad idea and as new safety gear gets invented, they continue to implement it.
Tradition discussions are probably best kept to the realm of saddle pad colors and bling. Riding is a dangerous sport. So why do we equestrians get dragged kicking and screaming into making it safer for ourselves?
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That’s kind of a straw man argument though because nobody ever asked him, or any other rider, to impose their personal choices on someone else. It’s the FEI’s “choice” to create and enforce the rules.
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According to the Institute for Legal Reform, liability costs as a % of GDP are 1.66% in the US, 0.63% on average in Europe, and 0.4% in the Netherlands.
In the numbers you quote, what does 123/1,000 even mean? Does it mean that 123 Germans out of every thousand are sued PER YEAR? That most Germans will be sued at least once in any ten year period? It’s difficult to be alarmed or comforted by these numbers without knowing what they refer to.
No, but someone asked him to sign a petition urging the FEI to permit top riders to continue to wear top hats as a matter of choice. It was probably someone he has a lot of respect for, like Isabell Werth.
He signed it, Laura Graves did not.
I am 100% for wearing a helmet for myself, and 75% in favor of the FEI eliminating the choice for Isabell Werth with the mandate, so I would not have signed it.
But no one asked me to sign the petition, since I’m not a top international rider!
The FEI has ruled on this, and all my respect for Isabell Werth, Laura Graves, and Carl Hester is intact.
