Equestrian Archives - Conversations through the middle

Fashion – Musto SS13 collection

October 5, 2012

This is jut a quick taster of yesterday’s Musto launch. As you can see the lineup is a Who’s Who of Olympians and sporting prowess. That’s before we get to the great sporting outfits for equestrian, and sailing fans, as well as casual country chic for lovers of the outdoors. More later.

Equestrian chic – fashion and fragrance

August 2, 2012

There’s been a severe lack of horsey posts on 40s Chic lately, which I intend to start putting right now with a personal pick of fashion and beauty for us equestrian types who, no matter how much we love the smell of horse poo, hay and shavings still like to look a bit glamorous away from the yard.

So let’s start with these new Hunter wellies. Yes, I did say wellies, but as we all know, this is not your common or garden rubber boot, this is the queen of wellies. Hunter has launched The Original Tour, a foldable rubber boot that can be squished down small for packing and which is 50g lighter than the Original Tall version. The weight saving isn’t that much but the foldable element is handy when you are transporting lots of horse and rider kit, (or when you’re off on holiday or muddying it up at a rock festival). They come in traditional green, black, navy or red and price-wise are on a par with the Original Tall. www.hunter-boot.com

Not long ago I saw a beautiful horse scarf – a light and flowing design, not a heavy keep-the-freezing-cold-out variety. I decided to buy it for a friend’s birthday, but now of course I can’t find it. However, while searching online I came across the following equine examples – is the horsey look going to be a big trend this autumn/winter?


Great for the cooler days of autumn, this snood is £6.99 from New Look www.newlook.com

This lightweight scarf is pretty in pink; a bargain at £5.99 from Internacionale www.internacionale.com

This Whisper horse print scarf at Ollie and Nic is currently £10 in the sale www.ollieandnic.com

Going up in price is this Horse Shoe & Stirrup silk scarf from Aspinal of London. At £67 it’s a little on the expensive side but you could put it on your Christmas list or buy it as a present for somebody else www.aspinaloflondon.com

Finally, totally out there on the wish list (at least for me) is this gorgeous Gucci silk scarf in black and green, or black and pink, at £269 www.saksfifthavenue.com

Talking of designer fashion, aren’t the dressage outfits worn by Team GB at the Olympics stunning? So smart yet they really capture the contemporary vibe, not stuffy at all. I think Stella McCartney is the designer behind them, but I couldn’t find much on the internet to back up my belief – am I right or is somebody else behind them?

When I first saw the designer outfits of the British team on the news back in March I wasn’t that impressed, however seeing them in action, that’s a different matter and now I think they’re really stylish. Except for the white and gold tracksuits of the opening ceremony that is. But Stella McCartney didn’t design those.

I love these fragrances from Ralph Lauren (designer of the US Olympic team outfits, incidentally). There’s a series of four, each with a different fragrance. I have sniffed and tested them all and I think my favourite is number 2 (I was in a London department store at the time and it was a couple of weeks ago so not sure). One of them was a little overpowering, but I couldn’t tell you which one.

I’ve just heard today that The Perfume Shop is giving away a Ralph Lauren tote bag with purchases of the fragrance up until 22 August.

A few weeks ago I was at Christmas in July for Amazon, part of which was a sports display of things they sell. Now I know you can buy almost anything on Amazon but for some reason I hadn’t realised you could buy equestrian kit – for horse and rider. This is a photo I took at the time, which I’m told displays only a tiny part of what they stock.

What do you think about this? I’m in two minds – on the one hand it’s great if you can save money on essentials such as joddies and saddle pads, but on the other hand it’s taking business away from saddleries. Again, it is handy to be able to shop without leaving the house, but who would buy a hat, say, without trying it on first? I wouldn’t. I won’t even buy boots online now because each time I have in the past I’ve always had to return them (at my cost) as the sizes don’t seem to be what they should.

Another thing Amazon and other online retailers can’t give is the personal attention, advice and knowledge that the staff at local saddleries can. Mine for example has advised me on wormers in the past, as well as supplements, feed and overreach boots! I can ask for advice without actually buying anything and the owner fits saddles in his spare time, as well as offering a reflocking service.

I also love browsing amid the lovely smell of leather, rugs and plastic. It would be great to have a few other opinions…

Finally, I took this photo of children’s wellies as they demonstrate something I think would be a great idea on grown-up boots – handles! How many times have I struggled to get my wellies on and how much easier would it have been if I’d had handles to hang on to. Such a simple idea yet so effective.

Camping out… almost

April 14, 2011

The horses at our new yard live out during the summer and, thanks to the lovely weather we’ve had this month, some of them have been living out for a few weeks already. Now, I have never left John out all night and I have no idea if he lived out before he came to me, but one reason for moving yards was so that I could try it. Everybody I’ve spoken to about it says their horses love it and of course, living outside is natural for horses in the wild.

Nonetheless, for us it was another one of those big steps we seem to encounter regularly, and I was prepared for a night of camping out at the yard with a sleeping bag and flask of coffee to hand, to keep an eye on him.

Except my friends refused to stay with me and as I’m a bit of a baby when it comes to being outside in the dark, on my own, in the middle of nowhere, I bottled it. I went home and worried instead.

When I went to see him the next morning he was a picture – I have never seen a horse look so tired, his eyelids were drooping and his head hung down heavily as if he was about to drop. I guess he hadn’t gotten much sleep the night before.

The second night was better – he still looked tired but seemed happier.

The third night I decided to bring him in for his supper and a hay net, and if he seemed content, to leave him in his stable for the night.

I had convinced myself he was unhappy out in the field and preferred the creature comforts of his own space, with soft shavings to sleep on. Well, he polished off his supper no problem, then he started to call for his field neighbours. His calling became more urgent and he began to pace around his stable. At that point I got the message. He didn’t want to be in, he wanted to be out.

So I led him back to the field and since then I’ve stopped fretting about him. He spoke and I listened.

Trotting on

February 7, 2010

John and I rode out this morning with another couple of girls from the livery yard and their horses, we were out for around an hour-and-a-half, the longest hack we have done so far. He was tired when we got back to the yard because we did a lot of trotting, more than we have done for ages.

Again, he was brill in all ways. We went a new route and he handled it really well, even though for some reason there were lots of cars around (on a Sunday morning can you believe, why weren’t people still in bed?) We met several dogs, joggers and cyclists – the only one he seemed to be wary of was a very large poodle with a quiff.

I lost a stirrup manoeuvring our way through apple boxes stacked up either side of the path at one point – he did take a dislike to them – but he went through at a jog so didn’t disgrace himself by taking off with me, and I managed to hook my foot back into the stirrup pretty quickly.

Another great step forward for us I think.