I like the idea of a dark, shaped sheepskin pad. Foxhunting is terribly hard on white items! How do the sheepskin pads hold up for hunting though? I’d imagine you have to wash them quite a bit because they would get so sweaty. Also, it is tough to pick burrs out of them?
[QUOTE=CarrieK;7754348]
Here you go!
Reconstructing History Ladies Breeches or Jodhpurs
I grew up riding in those nasty things. Believe me you don’t want to wear them unless you make them from modern fabric, but then they just don’t look right.
I use a sheepskin pad often for riding (although I haven’t yet used it to hunt). Anyway, I use one of those brushes made of a paddle with thin wire bristles (I think they’re sold as puppy brushes in pet stores) and it does a great job of pulling out the dirt and any burrs.
The ideal tool to clean your sheepskins (when dried); http://www.osterpro.com/products/tools/078399-140-001.html#q=brush&start=1
A few years ago I found a wonderful book about hunting in Britain and Ireland. Lovely photos!
Having not read anything on hunting in decades, I was surprised to see so many horses not braided, wearing flash straps, and wearing anything but double bridles!
I also saw perhaps a majority of the riders wearing skull caps with covers that I had seen before only in racing and the cross country phase of eventing. There were also traditional velvet hunt caps, but it was probably at least 50/50, if not 60/40, skull cap crash helmets to velvet hunt caps (and at least two toppers!).
I also saw a lot of fascinating hunt colours including the coats so many COTHers seem to call red these days but I was taught to call pink.
FWIW.
[QUOTE=Wellspotted;7790165]
A few years ago I found a wonderful book about hunting in Britain and Ireland. Lovely photos!
Having not read anything on hunting in decades, I was surprised to see so many horses not braided, wearing flash straps, and wearing anything but double bridles!
I also saw perhaps a majority of the riders wearing skull caps with covers that I had seen before only in racing and the cross country phase of eventing. There were also traditional velvet hunt caps, but it was probably at least 50/50, if not 60/40, skull cap crash helmets to velvet hunt caps (and at least two toppers!).
I also saw a lot of fascinating hunt colours including the coats so many COTHers seem to call red these days but I was taught to call pink.
FWIW.[/QUOTE]
This was my thought! I’m all for tradition and a well turned out pair, and I’m very keen on proper manners however this ‘glory days’ idea that everyone seems to refer to - when and where was this?? Because I’ve seen pictures from different countries and decades and it’s seldom identical turnout anywhere! Skull caps, square pads and various rain coats in UK seems to be the norm while figure 8 bridles, mono flap saddles and carbon-fiber everythig seems to dominate North America.
I hunt in Ontario in a skull cap. I like the fit, I like that it doesn’t hold rain like velvet and I like that worst thing a low branch will do is steal my cover, not rip my velvet making the helmet unfit to wear in public. I nearly always hunt in a fitted pad but I use flat cotton, not fleece because it’s easier to wash. And I use whatever bridle, martingale or saddle my horse goes best in. I have the utmost respect for senior members, but if they waive me forward leaving a check then darn right I’ll move up the field! If that’s not good enough, then so be it. Take me or leave me 
[QUOTE=La Chasse;7740929]
Try hunting in WA after hunting in VA forever…etiquette nazis would KEEL OVER.
Forget about cubbing season. Forget about velvet helmets, ribbons up, correct glove color, field vs dress boots, flat vs rolled tack.
They have people in cowboy hats, full length oilcloths and western saddles tagging along. Fully support for roading hounds or in the summer, but for formal season?! Umm…[/QUOTE]
Haha! Same here in CO after coming from MD. They all commented on my turnout the first time I showed up. Later jokingly teasing me about attending a horse show every weekend, not a foxhunt. Someone once called it a trail ride with hounds and alcohol. Accurate. Arapahoe was the most traditional in the state I’ve seen. Just to not offend them. But you know what? It’s fun, you meet a ton of people you never would have rode with, and when it’s 5 degrees and snowing, they don’t hunt. Lol. It’s been a nice break at times. Although I’m pretty set in my ways and only let the huntsman talk me into wearing a scarf and my winter parka over my coat once. :lol:
So, I have a question on manes. I haven’t hunted yet but want to. I ride and show (just lower schooling level) a Morgan horse with a long mane. When I show dressage/event or hunter I do a long running/French-type braid. It looks neat and tidy. But I have found having it loose is really handy for trail rides and hunter paces when galloping or going down hills 
If I do the long braid and grab hold it comes undone which, obviously, looks bad. So, do any of you hunt horses with traditionally long manes? What do you do?
A running braid would be appropriate. There is a youtube video that shows how to do one that you tie in to keep it in place. When I have a moment I’ll look for the video and provide a link.
[QUOTE=Equibrit;7773343]
I grew up riding in those nasty things. Believe me you don’t want to wear them unless you make them from modern fabric, but then they just don’t look right.[/QUOTE]
I’ve got some in bottom-weight fabric and in pajama flannel and, well, I love my puffy pants.
Also, I’m plus-sized. And I’m middle-aged. :: strikes a Scarlett O’Hara pose, fist raised :: And as God is my witness, I’m never stuffing myself into breeches again!
When I am an old woman I shall wear purple…
Well, I don’t know from nuthin’, but I’m guessing that’s probably why everyone says check with your hunt.
My hunt tradition says puffy pants!!
Here’s the link to the video on how to do a running braid that will stay in!
If you feel the need for something to grab, use a neck strap. My horses have thinned manes, so still something to grab, but I still use a neck strap.
[QUOTE=Corky;7792816]
This was my thought! I’m all for tradition and a well turned out pair, and I’m very keen on proper manners however this ‘glory days’ idea that everyone seems to refer to - when and where was this?? [/QUOTE]
I realise you are mostly being facetious, but the “golden age” is the British Isles, particularly Southern England from some time in the 19th Century through to about World War I.
That’s a time where industrialization brings significant wealth to some people as well as a harkening for country life. It’s also the spread of railways that enables travel of people and horses and it’s before significant incursions of wire fences and fast moving motor vehicles.
Thanks for the link jawa. That is how I do it, though my mare has a tiny fraction of that horse’s mane! But, I’m glad I watched to the end, since that is where the secret is If that doesn’t work, I guess a neck strap is the next step.
[QUOTE=horsejuli;7799550]
Haha! Same here in CO after coming from MD. They all commented on my turnout the first time I showed up. Later jokingly teasing me about attending a horse show every weekend, not a foxhunt. Someone once called it a trail ride with hounds and alcohol. Accurate. Arapahoe was the most traditional in the state I’ve seen. Just to not offend them. But you know what? It’s fun, you meet a ton of people you never would have rode with, and when it’s 5 degrees and snowing, they don’t hunt. Lol. It’s been a nice break at times. Although I’m pretty set in my ways and only let the huntsman talk me into wearing a scarf and my winter parka over my coat once. :lol:[/QUOTE]
There is a BIG difference in rules and tradition after you cross the Mississippi, westward. I spent most of my life hunting in Ct., NY, NC where the emphasis was on proper tradition and turn-out. Out here in Ok. and Ks. there is a lot more interest in “hunting”, safety and comradery!! I still “turn-out” properly, though I do wear zippered boots since an injury has made it impossible to get non-zippered boots on. It is common to see fellow fox (coyote) hunters on ranch horses with full western gear and long maned TWH’s with saddle seat saddles on (I don’t know how THAT works in our extreme terrain, but at the end of a rousing day of hunting, everyone is talking to “everyone” it seems. The master has patted my back, thanked me for coming and commented on how well my horse is hunting. I don’t remember ANY of that from my “Back East” hunting!! The term, “different horses for different courses” applies to hunting in various parts of the country/world!! I’m liking hunting in the west, BEST!!
In the UK the etiquette for turn out will vary. Hunts today run on much tighter budgets than in the past and the followers are ordinary people. Post 2004 and the Hunting Act, many hunts no longer wear scarlet coats. Even the most traditional of Shire hunts now accept safety harness on head gear and the number of top hats is in rapid decline. In less fashionable company, to be found over the rest of the country, rubber boots, synthetic saddles etc are widely used, as necessary. Going out with Capt Wallace on Exmoor several years ago, I was initially surprised to be told that it was perfectly acceptable to wear waterproofs, head to heels, and that included the hunt staff. BUT having ridden over the moor in rain that was simultaneously vertical and horizontal (gravity in one direction and a gale in the other) it made excellent sense and allowed people to enjoy their sport.
P.S. Just thought of an excellent reason to wear boots with zips: the water drains out of them. Of course, the zips allow water in as well…
