This sentence brings me so much joy, I cannot describe 
A sensible purchase that left you under budget to allow for frivolous spending as well? That is the stuff dreams are made of!
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The dull golds and moss greens on horses right now are absolute EYE CANDY. Doesn’t it feel like it took waaaay too long for the horse goods retailers (manufacturers) to roll out merch in any colour other than navy blue, red, or hunter green? No offense to anyone who enjoys dressing their horse in the aforementioned, but having ridden in the 90s when that’s ALL that was available, they’re on my “hard no” list 
Sadly my dark bay tobiano mare doesn’t get to wear pretty saddle pads or boots, but she does have a lime green halter that looks pretty sharp.
Grooming kit is a mix of lime green and dark purple. Hardly “muted”, but it works!
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I have my palomino mare in crimson. I originally wanted purple, but I found the headstall in the picture on sale and coordinated the rest.
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@Paint_Party What a good lookin bugger! I think the burgundy/pomegranate would be great on him. He has that red tone in his hind end.
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I show my bay roan in western dressage and we go with the plum/aubergine/mauve colors (solid shirt with no bling, black pants and hat), and the judges always compliment our color combination. My horse is more red bay than yours (who is lovely by the way), but just throwing that out there.
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i’d love to see a pic. Your horse’s colors sound really great.
I have a chestnut and generally stick with neutrals/muted semi neutrals. I love brown, burgundy, and navy. I like a soft or deep green too, as long as it’s rich and not bright. I do have my one “oddball” pad that’s a soft medium gray with white trim, it’s not really our normal style but it looks really sharp on him.
I’m semi hesitant to post this one because his knees are uneven and the internet can be a cruel place, but I always match my outfits to his outfits as well.
Here’s the gray pad I mentioned:
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Ugh. I remember those days and not in a fond way. Everything, from water buckets to stall guards and daysheets: blue, red or green. It was a creative scramble to select a coordinating accent color that no one else had so you could look a teensy bit different than everyone else.
This thread should have a sub-title: All the Pretty Horses in All Their Pretty Clothes.
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I will add that now!!
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I’m just admiring all the gorgeous horses.
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Beautiful photo. And the purple shirt does look really good on your roan. Hmmm… 
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Slipping really depends on the shoe and the specific terrain (how is that for a totally non-helpful answer 
). Steel shoes on pavement, for example, are often slippery but they are great on the rough rock you can find on many VA trails. Plastic or rubber shoes are wonderful on pavement, but they are slicker than snot on wet grass. Studs or small splats of borium/drill tec are often applied to steel shoes to help with traction. Borium-tipped nails are another option. How much and where depends on the horse and the trails you expect to ride, as too little is scary because nobody wants to fall down or slip and have the horse hurt. However, too much traction can cause cause injury, too.
For my personal horses, my farrier puts small studs on during the winter as the frozen ground can be slick for bare steel. For competitions, he will put small blobs of borium on each heel branch as just about anywhere I ride will have some pavement and some smooth rock (competition season is late march through early November, so generally not dealing with frozen ground then).
If you are down south and have mostly sand, you may see more barefoot people and probably less traction devices.
The chestnut with the blue is a National Show Horse (half arab, half saddlebred) and the dark bay in lime green is a Morgan. The rest are Arabs. Distance riding is so much fun - def found my niche!
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So cute and fancy! My sister had a Trakehner mare that was the same coloring and she dressed her in pink as often as possible.
My Trakehner mare was a dark bay and her color was pink. But you have outdone that with you AND your mare so tastefully in pink. You totally win pink on a chestnut, which I wouldn’t have thought of, but you proved worked so well. Love that you have pink on her bridle.
I have pink stirrup pads which I recently replaced with pink stirrup pads. They’re subtle enough that every one in a while someone notes “are your stirrup pads pink?”
Thanks!
A former coworker of mine was into makeup and fashion. She told me that just about everyone, no matter their hair or skin color, could wear purple and turquoise. I think it’s because they’re a combination of warm/cool colors. That should work for horses as well.
She is a deep-colored palomino. I “fought the pink” for the longest time, and had her in royal blue or forest green. Both of those look great on her, but honestly, she looks exactly like Barbie’s Dream Horse, and is a total Princess, so pink is really the best color on her.
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