Style at the [Local] USEA Horse Trial

This past weekend I volunteered at the USEA Horse Trial at Pine Hill. I worked as a stadium timer, so I got to see all the riders go through the course. The course was fairly straightforward, no crazy turns and only a couple of combinations. Most people had no problem with time, and there were only a few refusals/stops all day.

There was a lot of variety in attire though, which I thought was kind of interesting. (I'm sorry to my co-timer, since I commented on the fashion choices of riders all day...). Most competitors were beautifully turned out. Nice jackets and horses braided well. There were a few riders who lived on the edge and didn't braid their horses, including one rider who chose to braid in the western style (I've avoided a lot of opinions of others on this blog, but why???):

Most of the braids were classy hunter braids or dressage button braids:

Dressage buttons

Most people did not braid tails, and I think there were several trimmed docks. Several people wore bonnets, and lots didn't bother. Many horses wore a five-point breastplate and I didn't see a single horse without boots. There was not a consistent boot that people used, most were some neoprene-like material, easy to hose off after galloping through the water.

Onto rider apparel! With the exception of one rider, everyone wore a coat. The exception showed in a polo. The coats were mostly the new soft shell type instead of the traditional wool blends. It was only 70-75 and partly cloudy, so not a hot day by Texas standards. There were a couple of really interesting jackets:

Similar, from Smartpak

The navy/brown jacket had brown side panels and the rider had lovely brown tall boots. It was an interesting look! The other interesting jackets were a bright cobalt color. Exciting.

Most riders had white breeches, and many of them were this pair of Kerritts:

I didn't pay close enough attention to helmets, but most riders did not have skull caps, most were more hunter/jumper esq styles. Anyways. I hope you enjoyed this brief look at some of the cool fashions I saw at the show this past weekend.