Who cares? If they fit and you like them, what difference does it make? 
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So many things! I read through this whole thread nodding and thinking, “Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.” And half chaps and tall boots with zippers are truly life changing.
Another thing that really surprised me was the plethora of lower level classes at low fence heights. Now, I’m not complaining because as an old lady getting back to serious hunter riding, 3 ft fences look like an insurmountable obstacle, but wow, what a change from when I started riding in the '60s.
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I came back 17 years ago after 25 years away. Changes I saw:
No more dandy brushes. They were now called “stiff” brushes.
Horses no longer had a near and an off side. They had a left and a right side. They also had changed out their forefeet and hind feet for front feet and rear feet.
Hunters no longer hunted.
Green hunters were now divided into “Baby Green” and “Green.”
Courses for children had disappeared, replaced by a simple circuit of the arena taking the fences in order.
Coops and brush oxers and Aiken fences and stone walls had disappeared. Along with outside courses.
Pelhams had disappeared because children’s hands had devolved into being too small to hold double reins.
Corinthian and Appointments classes had disappeared, because, hunters no longer hunting, no one had appointments to show with.
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I wonder about lower jumps quite a bit. Is it fear of injury to horses/riders? Insurance risks?
As a teen in the ‘80s, the more talented kids my age were schooling 3’6’’ without a thought, often without an instructor around. When I returned to riding in my 20s, it was a super-big deal if anyone was lessoning at that height and God help you if you schooled 2’ or even 18’’ without your coach around, even if you were more than capable of handling far higher. Meanwhile, in Europe, tweens do enormous jumps on complicated courses.
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Now the only acceptable colors for show shirts (at least the visible part) is white… or white. You can also wear white if you want.
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I have wondered if that is related to the newer materials. Is it harder to make those fabrics in colors other than white? Other than that, it does not make much sense to me.
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Wait until you got to a rated show. Trainers taking very fancy WBs over multiple 2’6 hunter courses for their clients. It’s un effing believable.
Back to telling kids to get off my lawn.
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They make sunshirts for non-show use in every color and pattern on earth so I don’t really think it’s a lack of fabric. I think it’s more of a fashion thing.
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They will never know the exhilaration of planting one foot on a friend’s butt to try and yank off a boot.
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Oh, there’s a trainer near me who schools the crossrail ponies in the crossrail warmup before a client gets on. These are not green nor naughty ponies, it’s just protocol in that barn. I can’t get over it.
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Very bizarre.
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I think it’s a combination of things. The risk of getting sued is vastly greater today. The cost of buying and maintaining school horses has escalated and good ones are increasing difficult to find.
Most kids today aren’t as good. Wait! Don’t burn me at the stake. When I was a kid, we had so many more opportunities to ride. We rode a lot. We rode wild around the countryside like feral children on our backyard ponies. We were barn rats, picking up rides on anything anyone would let us sit on. It is very rare for kids to have those kinds of opportunities today and their riding abilities do suffer for the lack of it.
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So agree with this statement. Many kids are in VERY structured programs with little time to, “horse around”, if you know what I’m saying. I would say owners are also less inclined to let anyone ride their horses given the risks of injury/liability, so there are less opportunities for juniors, overall, to develop more skills.
I did not start riding in a “structured” training program until I was in my late teens, and prior to that, used to set whole jumping courses without ever having taken a formal jumping lesson in my life, along with many, many other entertaining horse-related endeavors! 
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To be fair, half the house community thinks adult jumpers run their six figure 1.30m horses over 1.10m jumps without actually riding. There have even been several suggestions from BNTs to make adult classes optimum time because no one is willing to tell clients they are riding dangerously.
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I have a bootjack by my front door, my back door and one travelling in my car for pulling off wellies in a muddy yard. Wellington boots don’t have zips, so far…
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Well, this is a relief. My arms, like the rest of me, are ridiculously long. Way back when I contemplated cutting a pair of cuffs off one shirt and sewing them to the jacket’s sleeve ends, to create the illusion of a shirt with appropriate sleeves. Sort of my own personal fake hunter tail. If shirts are always white these days, I stand a better chance of finding something that fits reasonably well. Actually, who am I kidding.
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This was standard when I traveled to shows more than 20 years ago. Not to bash the young riders, who certainly lessoned enough, but these animals were schooled so well by the pros that barn cats seated on their backs could have come home with ribbons.
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I have actually seen jackets like this, so the rider can wear a short sleeve shirt under it. Lol.
Also, what about the mesh jackets now? And the machine washable jackets? Crazy! In a good way.
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No lesson program can afford new semi custom saddles for all the lesson horses. But the better programs do what they can with getting second hand saddles professionally fitted and restuffed. The horse fit gets priority over rider fit.
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Okay, this sentiment— and the clever way you worded it— makes me laugh. 
I’m waiting for the first daring, fashionista hunter princess to don a show shirt made of techy fabric that includes a tiny pinstripe or maybe (gasp!) a window pane check.
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