I probably show 5 times a year. I do all-around, which means halter/showmanship, English and western. I’d be embarrassed to reveal how many western show shirts I have. My closet is a rainbow of jewel tone colors and rhinestones. Plus I have three hunt coats. Three!
I justify this by telling myself, “Hey, they’re all multi-day shows, and a gal can’t be seen wearing the same outfit twice at the same show… right?” 
Of course not! I used to do local fair/4H horse shows that would have a morning session and then an evening and I’d change between them! I can’t tell you how many different colored show shirts I still have in my closet.
Three? That’s downright minimalist
I’m at four but one’s for sale which I will replace (it’s a hair on the tight side 
)
I’m sure there’s always been some because #horses, but if we are looking at the wayback machine, a lot of those horses showed maybe once a month and had a whole lot of Dr. Grass in between shows. The prevalence of gastric conditions has that modern problems feel!
I was thinking along these lines the other day. What’s changed? I grew up riding what I lovingly call “swamp horses.” Mostly grade (a couple TB) horses that lived out 24/7 in a huge pasture. I don’t recall them ever being lame or sick. 
Too much time on the road/micromanagement?
My experience is a little different. Riding in the 1960s, our horses (QH, TB x QH, TB, , pony) were out in the pasture at least 12 hrs a day, showed at most once a month, and were not micromanaged. We still had lame or sick horses- bowed tendon, bad arthritis, brain tumor, being the most serious. The TB was seriously accident prone in the pasture.
Interesting idea. I wonder whether gastric stuff could have a stress component as well.
:checks calendar and realizes 2002 was 20 years ago and joins @2DogsFarm in crying:
I lived for the show ring fashion threads here on COTH in that era.
I believe it is getting harder and harder for saddlers to source good quality leather.
Or harder to source good quality leather at a price people will pay. There are not many companies left that produce top quality vegetable tanned leather, using natural tannins, as this ancient method takes many months. It can also be very stinky so a tannery has never been a popular neighbour. Chrome tanned leather, using various chemicals, generally produces an inferior leather but it is far quicker and so far cheaper. The two largest leather producers are China and India, neither of which immediately springs to mind as having livestock agriculture. 87% of British produced leather is bovine and most comes from extensively grazed cattle in Scotland. Ironically, the UK exports much of this to Italy, famed for its leather work. Cheap tack used to be dyed black to hide the blemishes in inferior leather.
As others have said, this was a very fun trip down memory lane. I’ve only been back riding about 6 months and haven’t been to a show yet but just browsing Dover and the like here are a few things I’ve found:
No more thick, plush velvet helmets (minus like one Charles Owen). Makes me sad:( I found a Charles Owen that is velvet like. However, the wide brims are certainly more flattering to my face! I don’t think Samshield was even a brand when I was riding but EVERYONE seems to be in one these days.
Softshell/mesh jackets. I was WAY confused when I ordered a jacket online. I guess I didn’t read the description well enough since it was very much a soft shell jacket. It had a zipper - which was pretty slick. But I still wanted that traditional look. I felt like I was wearing a sweatshirt. So it got returned! (I went to a brick and mortar store and found a happy medium - classic looking but with some stretch/softer fabric).
The zippers on tall boots are nice but the ELASTIC is the real game changer. I don’t recall pull on boots ever having elastic. Perfect for those days when my calves are “chunky” feeling:) I remember in college my lower calf/foot pretty much feel asleep before my class. Probably wasn’t my prettiest round…eeeeek! I laid off the cheeseburgers and beer for a little bit and they fit nicer by our next show!
Question - are the hunters/eq riders still all showing in Tailored Sportsmans? Or are their other brands that are “in fashion” now?
First show (just unrated) is coming up this summer. Can I even remember a course?!?!?!?
I’m trying to think what those breeches are with the awful little black tags on the seams – it looks like a stain or a tear to me – that’s what I’ve seen a lot of at the ‘real’ shows.
But don’t let that stop you on the TS. I’ve acquired an admirable secondhand supply as a returning rider that I could never afford the first time around. I don’t mind the older material a lot of people hate. I get multiple wearings out of a pair and they seem like they can withstand a nuclear event.
I don’t really like the zippers on jackets but discovered I don’t mind the “it’s a jacket - no, it’s a sweatshirt!” feeling. I bought a used AA Motionlite to see how I felt about mesh (was skeptical) and holy #$%^, love it. Jackets sometimes fit me weird through the shoulders and arms so the softer, stretchier material worked for me. And then there’s the miracle of not having to dry clean it.
That’s not to say I’m not wearing an old-school colored shirt underneath!
You’ll surprise yourself on the course memorization. As an adult ammy, I regularly embarrass myself in lessons where we have to memorize things. So I was pretty worried last summer, for my first o/f trips since the 90s. I shocked myself at the in-gate, getting it down in a minute or two and actually correcting my trainer. Something came over me. (you can do some dry runs, watching livestreams on CMH or wherever; see how fast it takes you to figure out and memorize a course. I’m a dork that way and will happily sit and play that game for hours).
Equiline
I would kill for several pairs of TS in my waist size. So disappointed about that, and too depressed to see whether there’s any chance at all that the 25-year-old pairs in storage have any waistband stretch. As I recall, they don’t. Sniff.
Ah, YES!!! Thank you,
eBay and Poshmark,
The best-worst thing to happen ever.
Happy Hunting, my friend.
When did saddle pads start getting very uphill in the withers? And what is the reasoning for the design? They didn’t exist years ago and when I came back to riding I thought they looked so unusual. Not criticizing, but wondering how they came about.
I cant tell you exactly when, but it has been a while. Maybe 20 years.
The reason is because the horse’s back goes up at the withers. If you use a “straight” pad, you either pinch at the withers, or create a crease under the saddle further back.
You can pry my Ogilvy high wither cut pads out of my cold dead hands 
.
The thought is that the horse’s back is shaped that way, so why on earth would you put something flat square on there? It’ll just crank down on the withers or bunch up - usually indicated by a wrinkle behind the flap or worse, hidden under the saddle directly under the rider’s weight. The more anatomical shape prevents bunching, pinching, and sliding (I don’t need a nonslip pad, or girth loops anymore! If the saddle fits of course).
Think about the navajo blankets we used years ago. Well, some of us used them. (Including me 
). Unless and until they became rather limp with use and washing, they were just a flat rectangle. And like others have said, that shape didn’t conform to the horse’s back. The more shaped pads follow the shape of the horse’s back without creating potential pressure points.
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