BE ban coloured tack

[diet2ride]

For me personally I like to see a smart turnout, and as much as I love the colour pink and think the pink tack is fun. I don't think it looks smart.

I also think that it actually has a negative effect, from the fleeting pic I saw this morning of Mark Smith, all I remember is the tack, I cant tell you anything about his horse or how he was riding as a horseman.

it also smacks of the 'look at me brigade' which I dont have a problem with in the right context. such as my beach ride where I wore the fuller fillies Rosie posy breeches. although on the day itself it wasnt a case of wanting the people on the beach to notice me -not that they could miss a fat girl riding a horse- it was more to do with where me and the other rider had met.

i'm all for fun etc. but when it comes to professional competition i expect to see the riders looking and behaving professionally.

 

[Dovorian]

So does this mean that the coloured seat on a saddle (thinking Mark King here) will not be allowed? OK not to my taste, but then I am sooo utterly boring I prefer brown tack to black!

 

[Sugar_and_Spice]

For me, half the fun of competing (in any discipline) is getting to dress up in smart traditional clothes in a well presented horse. I don't understand why people wouldn't want to :/ I've seen people compete at local shows in skull hats with no cover, pink wellingtons and jeans, on a mud covered pony. I think coloured tack is the start of all this. It looks messy.

In the soundness trot up for eventing, isn't it compulsory to groom and plait etc? Perhaps they should just start pulling the horses out of the stable as they are, complete with eye bogeys, poo stains, messed up manes and straw in the tail. After all, its only soundness being judged, not appearance.

 

[pip6]

My horse has to trot up & have vet inspection before every ride, after every ride & at vet gates during ride. Whilst I do try for clean (plaiting optional) at former, horse can be varying levels of grubbyness for others. If you're trying to vet against clock tidyness not a consideration. At Golden Horseshoe though the 100 milers do go OTT for pre-ride vetting with loads of plaiting & often ribbons. Could you imagine that at BE trot-up??!

http://www.goldenhorseshoe-ride.co.uk/PhotoGallery.php

Photos of Mary King trying endurance:

http://www.goldenhorseshoe-ride.co.uk/PhotoGallery2011.php

 

[copper100]

Interesting thread..

For me personally, I would always match my tack to the horse and have so far never seen a pink or light blue pony.

Doesn't matter what you like to dress them up at home, but then maybe I am a traditionist and proud to be one..

 

[Shantara]

So long as you're tasteful with it, why should it be a problem?
Pink reins, orange browband, light blue noseband and dark green saddle would look just...yuk...but coordination looks great, in my opinion.

I think me and Ned look rather swishy in our red/black!

 

[LeannePip]

Interesting thread..

For me personally, I would always match my tack to the horse and have so far never seen a pink or light blue pony.

Doesn't matter what you like to dress them up at home, but then maybe I am a traditionist and proud to be one..

this ^^

i've just skimmed through this and it would appear to me that it is mainly endurance riders who are against the ban of coloured tack in BE? as some one has said it is the norm for coloured tack in this area of the sport but the norm in BE is to conform to tradition, up untill not long ago the norm was to go x/c in your tweed as you would hunting! BE and endurance are compleetly different aspects of the sport if i were to go endurance i might possibly wear more colour to conform with their norms - and going eventing i'd conform to theirs and wouldnt go eventing in my endurance kit - i wouldnt like to stick out like a sore thumb! its like i wouldn't go to my two different jobs in eachothers uniform, just wondering as lolo said who in BE here would acctually be affected by this ruling? the way i see it BE are just drawing a line

 

[EstherYoung]

Spud A:

Spud B:

I didn't choose the pink, but personally I think Spud A is far more practical for going XC.... And I have to admit it suits his personality.

Just for good measure, here's Wolfie's blue bridle:

And a couple of H's black bridles (so you can see my reins):

H is very sensitive to his tack and when I used to use leather tack I'd have to wrap everything up in dead sheep. I haven't needed since discovering the biothane as it's dead soft.

 

[HashRouge]

Spud A:

Now THAT looks fantastic...it's the sort of get-up I aspire to own

 

[EstherYoung]

ps A friend of mine gave me some old EHPS mags from 15-20 years ago. There was a bit of a scandal going on in the letters pages about a slightly eccentric woman who...shock horror...rode in pink and even dyed her horse's mane pink.... The comments were exactly the same as what has been said on this thread about eventing.....not traditional enough...bringing the sport into disrepute.....cheap and tacky.....shouldn't be allowed.....

Come 2027 and you might be where we are

 

[Amaranta]

I loathe and detest coloured tack, just looks tacky and cheap, I love a bit of bling but plastic/webbing tack? Urgh!

 

[DGeventing]

And I thought I was OTT with my love of pink! (link as although I have full permission from the photog, who happens to be one of my closest friends, apparently that isn't enough here )

I think any more than that looks tacky. Sorry to anyone who has posted their colored tack but I think it's all hideous!

 

[ClassicG&T]

Hmmm, i think black/brown tack should be used for dressage and sj'ing phases, as we are wearing our smart jackects etc..and it looks elegant and smart.

But for XC i cannot see why not, it would be fun, having XC colours beyond a hat silk and t-shirt

 

[Malibu_Stacy]

Hmm, I must be an utterly cruel owner according to a lot of the posters here, only using synthetic tack - my horse must be positively embarrassed to leave the yard in such cheap and tacky stuff :rollseyes:

eta apologies for mahoosive picture, its not following the resizing on photobucket!

 

[Flame_]

Hmm, I must be an utterly cruel owner according to a lot of the posters here, only using synthetic tack - my horse must be positively embarrassed to leave the yard in such cheap and tacky stuff :rollseyes:

No, you're fine 'cause its black. You can go eventing. Yey.

 

[Malibu_Stacy]

No, you're fine 'cause its black. You can go eventing. Yey.

For the first and only time *ever* I want pink tack. Just to be contrary

 

[cptrayes]

I think that tradition is important, too many traditions are going by the wayside in so many things. I'm not in favor of coloured tack. As has been mentioned much of what you see available is poor quality & I would question the safety aspect of using it.

As tradition seems to be under attack, lets all compete in jeans or track suit bottoms & a hoody!

Actually competing in casual clothes would completely fit with the original purpose for "posh gear". The only time riders used to dress up was to show off to the neighbours. In the early days of hunting, the gents wore pale breeches to prove to everyone else that they had servants to get them clean again. The farmers whose land they hunted over wore their work clothes when they went out hunting on horseback.

The whole kit and caboodle was for no reason but snobbery, and we have inherited pale breeches, the stupidest things ever to wear near a horse, which top the list .

I hunt in a plastic bridle. It's top quality. It is much stronger than leather, won't degrade with constantly being wet and dried and it cost more than my leather ones. It's immensely practical as I have much better things to do with my time than washing and oiling leather half an inch deep in mud.

I think it's time we realised that we are in the 21st Century not the 18th

 

[Bogmonster]

I know Mark Smith quite well and train with him reguarly - he is all about pushing the boundries!! It is always in the interest of the horse though.
And the pink reperesnts Breast Cancer awareness - surely that can't be a bad thing?[/QUOTE]


Absolutely. OK - Mark is a bit of a nutter, but then the world is a much better place for the odd nutter here and there. And he is a truly inspirational instructor for whom I have the utmost respect. So if he wants to compete in pink tack, Hawaiian shirt and Speedos, then that's fine by me.

 

[cptrayes]

I agree completely with you and I won't run and hide about it either.
Coloured tack is downright tacky and cheap looking just what you expect gypsies to have, let alone makes the rider look very amateurish. Is that the impression you really want to give out?

I am an amateur and I don't care who knows it When I evented, the only impression I cared about was how big the number was at the end of the score line.

 

[cptrayes]

No, you're fine 'cause its black. You can go eventing. Yey.

That's a relatively recent rule change, if so (last 10 years). It used to have to be leather, and I once saw the Fredericks team competing lower levels in Libby's webbing tack (they were sponsored) and thought that anyone who wanted could get them eliminated by complaining.

 

[armchair_rider]

I wonder what was said when people started wearing coloured shirts for BE? Does anyone have a stack of suitably aged H&Hs to look it up? I think that part of the problem is that XC kit has gradually got more colourful as more coloured stuff has become available and that drawing a line is bound to be controversial.

Personally I don't think that brightly coloured tack looks very nice (although some of the more subtle stuff does, the green stuff somebody posted upthread is very nice) but that doesn't make it any less suitable for a particular discipline. I'm inclined to join the 'only allow coloured tack in the XC' brigade.

 

[ClobellsandBaubles]

Actually competing in casual clothes would completely fit with the original purpose for "posh gear". The only time riders used to dress up was to show off to the neighbours. In the early days of hunting, the gents wore pale breeches to prove to everyone else that they had servants to get them clean again. The farmers whose land they hunted over wore their work clothes when they went out hunting on horseback.

The whole kit and caboodle was for no reason but snobbery, and we have inherited pale breeches, the stupidest things ever to wear near a horse, which top the list .

I hunt in a plastic bridle. It's top quality. It is much stronger than leather, won't degrade with constantly being wet and dried and it cost more than my leather ones. It's immensely practical as I have much better things to do with my time than washing and oiling leather half an inch deep in mud.

I think it's time we realised that we are in the 21st Century not the 18th

I'm rather on the fence about this one.

Equestrian sport is probably one of the last remaining sports to uphold tradition, we always look smart, reserved, elegant. Hair in nets etc. I like this, I can't really tell you why, I just do. I think it is a sign of respect to the sport, and to the horse. What was that quote from Thelwell? "A scruffy rider is an insult to his horse".

On the other hand though, we are in the modern day, and I can't really see a problem with individuals wearing coloured tack. In a sport such as eventing, surely it doesn't harm safety or performance?

I can see your dilemma, I like a lot of the traditional tack because I think it doesn't detract from the horses and that is after all what horse sports are all about BUT....
Maybe it's because I used to compete in athletics but why on earth would most sports want to maintain tradition when the essence of sport is about performance. Your kit and turnout should enhance and aid your performance I definitely would not want to hurdle in the kit they had in the 90's or use outdated training techniques. Sports evolve with new technology why shouldn't eventing, it isn't showing after all.
I find many other sports much more friendly and inclusive than equestrianism and maybe that is because of what we wear and how we are viewed by those outside? Take the Olympic dressage for example people where confused by the top hats and tails do we want to encourage better understanding and participation or keep people out. I think different colours for different teams looks great and means you instantly recognise your home team from a crowd, like the show jumpers with their jackets.

Ok so I may have gone a little far in my arguement but I think we need to realise it is JUST personal taste if you think it looks tasteless so what, thats your opinion and entirely different to being clean tidy and safe. One persons gaudy and hideous is another's elegant bling or matchy matchy.

 

[Elsiecat]

I can see both sides, so I sit on the fence.
I like the tradition of it all and would hate for us to lose it. But then on the other hand, what does it matter if you're parading around in a pink bridle?

Certainly for dressage, higher level stuff in general and more-appearance based showing I'd hate to lose the tradition. But for XC I really don't see an issue!

 

[cheeryplatypus]

I couldn't care less what colour the tack is however I would be worried about webbing and biothene bridles. I'm not convinced they would break in an emergency situation.
I have a biothene bridle but only use the headpiece as I'd prefer it to slip off if there were a problem it seems very strong stuff (I only use it for wet weather and not for competing).

 

[EstherYoung]

cheeryplatypus - the better makes of biothane bridles do have break points inbuilt into the stitching. And they do work because I've had them break.

 

[pip6]

I have been in the situation where biothane reins got caught, & yes they broke. You see no matter how strong it is, it is held together with thread which breaks.

 

[cheeryplatypus]

cheeryplatypus - the better makes of biothane bridles do have break points inbuilt into the stitching. And they do work because I've had them break.

That's great to know. I like being able to have it on when it's pouring and dunking the whole thing in a bucket to clean. Which makes are good?

 

[FairyLights]

I've done endurance but biothane and other non-leather bridles freak me out. Saw a horse with a very badly cut lip due to a non leather bridle and it standing on its reins. horrific. just wouldnt ever risk it.

 

[EstherYoung]

We've never had an issue with Zilcos, and Steve from Performance Equestrian has started making his own now to a very similar design. The clips are all break points as is the stitching.

Some leather bridles don't break very easily either....

 

[tallyho!]

My thoughts entirely. One of the reasons the rest of the population thinks horse people are strange is the propensity to dress in edwardian garb. Tweed jackets, stocks, veils, hair nets, etc, etc. We think it's upholding tradition -they think we're trying to perpetuate a defunct class system.

Not read rest of thread yet but I so agree with this! I think in any sport it is up to you to be smart and professional and why can't colour be those things?

If it were not such a stuffy sport, perhaps it would invite more people to get involved and more support from the public. In general, the equestrian community bemoan that fact we have such little coverage on national tv but, even to me, it's so boring!

SJ & XC is about all I will sit and watch if it's on. Dressage (unless very high level with music) is practically like watching paint dry - particularly to non-horsey people.

Nothing is going to change anytime soon, as long as everyone is upholding "traditions" and keeping the whole shebang completely inaccessible to the masses, simply by being incredibly dull.