Velvet hats. Advice please!

[astridday]

I am new to showing and at my first attempt at hunter classes I was very aware of how amateurish I looked in my charles owen h2000 hat. The placed horses' riders all had patey style hats and looking at the photos afterwards my hat looks huge on my head! I don't really want to go to the expense of a patey and would really like to keep a harness on the hat so I was wondering if there are any other makes that would look smaller on me with a neater profile. I realise that this is unlikely to affect our chances in the ring as my horse isn't really a show horse but we did have fun and I'd just like to look more the part.

 

[humblepie]

There is the Charles Owen Fiona which is supposed to be a slimmer style. I haven't got one but may look at it for my next purchase.

 

[hayinamanger]

Velvet covered hats are all pretty massive looking these days, your CO H2000being one of the neater ones, but the C O Fiona is neater apparently.

 

[FMM]

More and more shows are insisting on strap hats, so you will gradually see fewer classes where Pateys are worn. We have all got Fionas which are slightly less bulky than the other velvet covered hats - but make sure you try one on as they don't fit all heads that well.

In a ring where non strap hats are allowed, you will rarely find anyone wearing the strapped variety - having said that, the hat you wear bears no relevance to where you are placed in the class!

 

[nikicb]

I bought a Fiona after recommendations on here when I was looking for a 'competition hat' (dressage and possibly showing). I really like it and it looks smart and more elegant than a lot of the other types of hats around.

 

[bliss87]

CO Fiona was designed for the showring so thats what most people nowadays go for, I unfortunatly I have very weird shape head so have CO showjumpers as its the only one that would fit on my head and it looks like a bucket (the size difference between that and my patey is ridiculus) so until Ive got the spare cash to get the saftey patey made it will have to do.