New to competing - What colour jacket, breeches and boots?!

[Rmarshmallow]

Hey everyone
So I have finally settled in with my fairytale horse of my own after many years loaning and sharing other people's. we are now getting ourselves ready for the 2017 season and hoping to get out and about soon for a bit of everything showjumping, dressage, Hunter trials and maybe the odd ODE, all unaffiliated for the time being. However I am in a bit of a conundrum over what colours I should be wearing? I wondered whether there is any unwritten rules or faux-pas and what other people's opinions are?
I have a red and white mare who currently has brown tack. I currently have a black hat silk which can obviously easily be changed if I needed to. What colours do you think would be best for the following?
1. Hat silk
2. Jacket
3. Shirt - when do I need to wear a stock? Just dressage?
4. Breeches
5. Long competition boots

TIA

 

[be positive]

I recommend a tweed jacket, navy silk, beige breeches/ jods, shirt and tie with black long boots, you can do everything in that set up, even hunter trials although most wear xc colours, all the riders on my yard do a mix of competing and none of them ever wear anything other than tweed, they do use a stock at times, they always look smart and are correctly turned out for all they do, I don't like the current trend of black and white at the lower levels and prefer the more traditional look of a smartly turned out rider in tweed, especially with brown tack which always looks good.

 

[sarahann1]

Agree with the above, you really can't go wrong with a nice Tweed. You can wear tweed for almost (apart from some showing classes) everything. Whereas wearing a solid colour for say a ODE would be frowned on.

I'd swap your black silk for a navy one as navy tones in better with tweeds.

Black for long boots.

A pale beige for jods.

You can't go very wrong with a stock (again aside from some showing classes), I interchange a stock for a tie purely depending on what shirt is clean at the time! Colour wise, it was pointed out to
me just this week, matching your shirt colour to your beeches or jacket looks much smarter than say a white shirt with beige jods.

 

[rosiesowner]

Unless you're showing (which I know nothing about!) I always feel navy with light beige breeches always looks better on a lady. With a navy hat silk, and I feel as though the silks made of material which looks like, well, silk always look smarter. You can pick them up for eight quid on equestrian clearance. Black long boots work well with any colour of tack. A white/off white stock will always look better than a tie on ladies (in my humble op) unless showing. Though if you do go for tweed, unless showing a coloured stock which compliments your jacket is lovely. I used to wear tweed till I was recently converted to the dark side of dressage

 

[iknowmyvalue]

I don't do a lot of showing, but I can give you a run down of what I wear! (current horse is dapple grey in brown tack, previous horse was skewbald in brown tack)

I actually do wear a black hat silk usually (just because I have a lot of them and they're easy to get hold of) but do have a navy velvet silk which I use if I want to look especially smart, also have a silk in my XC colours but that's not necessary if you don't want.

I like navy jackets with brown tack if you want a solid colour (black also looks fine, but navy is my preference) but as others have said, you won't be at any disadvantage if you want to go for tweed. I actually have both, tend to wear my tweed in winter because it's warmer and navy when it's not quite so cold! If you're wearing tweed you'll need cream/beige jodphurs, with navy you can use cream or white (white might not be your best choice for hunter trials/xc phase, but nobody will say anything, just be prepared for them to get muddy, haha)

Shirt wise, I'm not sure about stocks I usually just wear one for everything if I'm not sure! However, I have the advantage of still being in pony club, so a lot of my events are run by them, so I wear my PC tie. For XC I much prefer to wear xc colours (any kind of long sleeved polo shirt/baselayer will do if you don't want to get your own) because I find shirts too restrictive (and all mine are short sleeved anyway) but again, if you want to run in a jacket or just a normal long sleeved shirt, nobody will really mind.

I wear black long boots, though you do see plenty of brown around. Even with brown tack and navy/tweed I've never thought they stood out too much and I prefer them. But again, that's a personal preference, some people love brown boots, I think either look smart.

Good luck and the main thing is just to enjoy it!

 

[Shazzababs]

Oh and don't forget gloves.

For dressage if your horse is dark coloured you should have black gloves and if you have a grey you should wear white ones.
For everything else just go for black, they stay clean longer.

If you have long hair you will also need a hairnet.

Don't forget for Hunter Trials you need need a medical armband & body protector, and some events a number bib.

 

[JulesRules]

For Dressage, tweed or plain dark jacket is fine. I have both and wear whatever I'm in the mood for.

With a plain dark jacket (navy or black are most popular ) you should wear a stock shirt and white or cream stock. Don't forget your stock pin. With a tweed, shirt and tie or coloured stock.

I like beige breeches but that's cause they are more flattering IMHO. Goodness, nobody would want to see my big bum in white or canary!

Hat silk to best co- ordinate with jacket, again stick with black or navy. I have navy as my show jacket is navy and my tweed has navy running through it. My tack is black but I don't think it matters.

I wear black long boots (although I had to wear my brown Grasmeres in an emergency last time out as I broke the zip in my boot!!)

White or cream gloves for dressage and a plain white dressage square. As others have said hairnets keeps long hair tidy.

Hope this helps.

 

[mcnaughty]

Black silks are traditionally thought of as a man's hat colour and blue for ladies. A lot of tweeds also have blue velvet on them so this will match. Velvet silk for your hat and not silk or nylon etc. Dark brown gloves are also a must in most disciplines but you can wear white in dressage - personally I prefer to hide he fact my hands are not perfect rather than advertise the fact with bright white gloves LOL! When competing at showing or dressage you want the bling and colours to be at a minimum or zero! Show jumpers dont usually give a hoot!

 

[EventingMum]

If wearing tweed and a stock the stock should be coloured not white/cream. I'm personally a fan of tweed as it's so versatile and can be worn for the lower levels of most things. A major plus point is tweed does show marks nearly as much as a self coloured jacket!

 

[LegOn]

I was told never were white gloves for dressage unless your hands are perfect! As the white draws attention to them - so you should only wear them at higher grades!!!

Black gloves for a black jacket & navy gloves for a navy jacket. Honestly - once you are neat, clean & tidy & have shown to make the effort to respect the judges, then anything you wear will be fine