Goodness. I completely forgot until JUST NOW about how my breeches used to ride up under my boots or lay in a weird way that made it incredibly uncomfortable. I have crazy high arches, but relatively slender calves. When I was a kid, I had downright skinny calves. I cannot tell you the number of boots I tore pulling them on and off with my foot alone. The advent of the boot zipper was an absolute life saver for me, and ultimately, for any boots unfortunate enough to become mine 
.
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More questions.
Why don’t breeches come with elastic stirrups? Wouldn’t that make all the sense in the world to keep them from riding up?
How is it acceptable to wear smooth half-chaps over paddock boots when showing? I’m not criticizing this AT ALL. But I think back 20, 25 years and how a judge, taking one look at that, would have eliminated. I mean, was some kind of official declaration made?
Does anyone else find GM’s “Hunter Seat Equitation” impossible to get through? Just a big yawn, start to finish?
Finally – and I need to be really careful here – what is the enduring allure of hunters? Not a criticism, but genuinely curious.
I got bored with it so long ago. Where I live, actual hunts are a mere shadow of what they were, and they barely existed when I was riding as a kid 40 years ago. How many people competing in hunters have actually participated in a hunt, even a drag hunt? How many of these six-figure horses have raced across an unmowed field, with all its divots and stray rocks and 100 other hazards that I cringe to think about, in an age when your coach gets nuts about potential for a stone bruise while walking a trail?
Toward the end of when I stopped riding more than 20 years ago, I was struggling to identify why, precisely, I was bouncing around the ring on a horse that COULD be suitable for hunting IF hunting, you know, existed. We weren’t even on an outside course. I mean, it’s fenced sand rings, for heaven’s sake, and not a single hound in sight, let alone a pack of them carrying on. I had spent all this money on braids so the animal’s mane and tail wouldn’t get caught on anything – if we happened to be in wide-open country. I was heading for jumps that didn’t look remotely like anything we’d encounter in the wild. Heck, I was never in an actual hunt myself. The closest I got was pitching in on the ground as a kid. And if I had the opportunity, would I ride in one today? Setting aside my distaste for the chasing of the poor quarry, I’ll say this: Not on your life. Simply too much injury risk.
Is this the draw: Hunters exists to connect us with a tradition from long ago, with standards that have remained more or less timeless? I’m thinking of, say, the most ancient of the Olympic track and field pursuits --> “We run because we’ve always run.” Do we judge hunter performances of 50 or even 75 years ago by more or less the same standards now? Or inwardly do we snicker – or perhaps ache with the longing of yesteryear – and say, “That would never fly today.”
And then what I come back to is “timeless.” The hunt caps no longer are strictly velveteen. The boots can be paddock shoes and half-chaps. Tack rules change. We debate white shirts or barely pastel, with pinstripes. The stock tie – whose initial purpose was as an emergency field bandage – is gone, as is the stock pin [which frankly always terrified me because I was certain it would undo itself and stab me in the throat] and now, from what I gather, the monogram is over. We spent decades in utter discomfort, bound up in wool jackets, long-sleeve shirts and unvented helmets, because this was our sport, and by God, we were soldiers marching through good conditions or bad – and now we embrace performance fabrics.
I am stunned to see the fall of institutions that were our base for, in some cases, 100 years or more. Miller’s and Beval. Other independent brands snapped up by venture capital and merged under one owner. Still other brands that have maintained all of the name and none of the quality. Further, the emergence of super-high-end saddle makers in a trade that once touted their products’ decades-long durability, and now are proud of materials so delicate that the use of chaps voids their warranty. I recall when $5,000 would buy not one, but two saddles that would last a lifetime and then some.
Sigh.
Your turn.
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Because this would require the pants to be almost exactly the correct length for your leg, and how often does that happen?? (Speaking as someone who is 5’2" and has to fold up the bottom hem on most of my breeches, and get my nice slacks hemmed… )
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I assume most people are drawn not by the tradition, but rather the pursuit of perfection. Some people genuinely enjoy putting together 8 perfect jumps (or at least striving for that).
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That’s the allure of hunters for me. Not the show ring and it’s $$$$ and politics, but the feeling of finding the jumps out of a rocking horse canter on a horse that likes its job is AMAZING. It’s very like dressage in the ‘harmony’ aspect. And it’s ridiculously hard to do properly.
I like jumpers, and evented, and actually focus on dressage right now, but when I jump I’m still looking for the smooth round and perfect distances- much to the frustration of my coach. She’s telling me how everything went great and the decisions I made were correct, and I shoot back with “but I had to really work to get the oxer done, and had to pat the ground there and my leg got loose”. AKA perfectionism to a ridiculous degree 
. She says I belong in the hunter ring if I’m gonna be like that .
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The USEF jumper rules specify that half chaps may be worn with paddock boots as long as they are the same color as the boots. There is no mention of boots at all in the USEF attire rules for hunters and equitation.
The smooth half chaps with paddock boots are usually quite unobtrusive, especially if the person is wearing spurs, which obscure the bottom of the half chaps a bit.
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The Hunter rules do not say anything one way or another.
Jumper rule say “Half chaps are permitted as long as the color
matches the paddock boots being worn” (JP111.9.a)
Dressage rules say ". For tests or classes at Fourth level or below, riders may wear tall boots or
paddock/jodhpur boots with half-chaps or garters, matching the color of their boots, and made of smooth leather
or leather-like material. " (DR120.1.6)
Eventing rules say "Boots. Black, brown, or other dark hue, modest piping of a different color is permitted. Full chaps are not
permitted. Half-chaps must be black or brown and full grain, smooth leather with matching leather boots. " (multiple places under EV9 Dress)
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Hello! I just started riding again after a 20+ year hiatus. I am also riding on a different coast now, which comes with differences as well.
Surprises & Delights:
-My body actually remembers what it is supposed to do on a horse. Granted, I was a little rusty the first time back (and very out of shape) but it has come back very naturally.
-Young trainers sitting on their phones while teaching a lesson (Grrr!) We didn’t have phones back then.
-My pair of customer chaps w/fringe with my name needle-pointed on the back are no longer cool??? boo.
-Technical fabrics - praise the lord! I still have my old wool hunt coat and my dry-clean only tailored sportsman breeches in my closet. Relics.
-Zippered semi-custom tall boots that accommodate a runner’s calf. I still have my boot pulls though!
-Emphasis on safety - helmets, safety vests, etc. Finally. My old junior pony helmet was just made out of thin plastic covered with velvet. I used that helmet for years w/o replacing it. Remember how it was cool when the velvet changed colors - purple or yellow.
-Importance of saddle fit for each horse.
-Heavier emphasis on pole work now from what I remember.
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Thank you, @MHM, for the factual response. Though I’m not wild about the look, I love the idea. Growing up, customs for me were unattainable and stock boots came nowhere near fitting in length, so I looked ridiculous showing.
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One more thing - technical stirrups that are super light and sloped to help keep your heels down. 
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As my pro rider, who did almost exclusively jumpers, put it,“hunters are a lot harder, because you can screw it up with one late lead change, or a light rub. Something minor but major”
It’s the pursuit of perfection
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I recall reading somewhere that showing hunters terrified Conrad Homfeld.
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I recall offset stirrups from waaaay back.
@ChickChickleton, you and I are in the same place at the same time, minus the switch of coasts.
I’m looking forward to returning in the cell-phone age, because last time around I didn’t have anyone in my life to take photos, and never considered asking my coach. Years of good riding – or what I think was good riding – and no evidence of it. Now I can get photo and video from almost everyone.
That plastic helmet with the half-inch elastic strap saved my life in 1983 or so, and I hung on to it for years, with its velvet ripped by hoof, as a reminder to never go without. When I was a teenager it was the height of cool to ride without hunt caps, by students and coaches alike, with the only nod to their necessity if one was lessoning. When I returned in my 20s, I still was the sole person at two barns wearing a helmet at all times when on a horse, even if bareback to graze with a halter and lead line.
I didn’t care what it looked like. I had felt my brain hit the front of my skull and lived to tell about it. Having recently been through a serious brain trauma unrelated to horses, I’m really looking forward to buying the safest helmet, and an air vest probably will follow.
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@fivestrideline, I like your inclusion of “a horse that likes its job.” In my screed I never considered that the animal may be enjoying everything about it, from the fuss of grooming and braiding to the “We-go-bye-bye-in-car-car” trailer ride to the jumps themselves.
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Yes, I have a pair of Miller’s Heels Down sneakers I bought off of eBay! They are so comfortable!
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I hadn’t thought about the fear-of-injury aspect before now, but you could have a point. Back when I was riding hunt seat and kids were jumping 3’6" in pelhams and hard hats, we also rode our bicycles without helmets, rode in our cars without seatbelts, played out in the back yard without shoes on, and swam in pools with 12-foot-deep diving areas and high boards.
And when we rode bareback we rode bare back, not on “bareback” pads.
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I rode bareback a lot in my youth, but absolutely never with a “bareback” pad. My mother, a lifelong horsewoman, thought they were tremendously unsafe.
I will say that on the rare occasions I have ridden bareback in the last decade or so, I’ve been much more cautious. Lol.
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I had a nice, round QH as a kid and I don’t think I owned a saddle for at least the first year (maybe 2) I owned her. We went on all day rides galloping around the hills, even jumped. She was super smooth and the best bareback horse! Now I ride a TB - on the rare occasions I ride bareback it is with a pad for cushioning (unless it’s just a walk around the property).
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I was born in the 90s and I love my full chaps! Found them in a consignment store brand new, made by Ovation and fit me great. They’re warm, grippy on baby horses and I get tons of compliments on them. Every year I tell myself I’ll buy a custom pair for myself and then something more pressing comes up but… someday.
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I usually use a plain baby pad if I ride bareback, mostly to avoid the classic dusty butt look. Lol.
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