Conversations through the middle

Life from a (slightly) more mature perspective

Equestrian chic – fashion and fragrance

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.

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Olympics 2012 – dressage at Greenwich Park

Zara Phillips and High Kingdom on top form for the dressage at Greenwich, Olympics 2012
 
I have never seen such beautiful horses. Of course they’re all beautiful in their own way but these are a cut above – toned, muscled, immaculate and majestic sports powerhouses that effortlessly glided around the Greenwich arena.
Yes, Dotty and I were lucky enough to be at the dressage on Sunday and boy, was it brilliant. For those people not into horses or equestrian sport, dressage can look a bit tame – where’s the blood rushing excitement of the cross country fences or the sharp intake of breath when a horse clips a fence in show jumping? Dressage isn’t like that – what you see magically conceals the skill and physical effort of both horse and rider happening right before your eyes, the discipline of years of training, sweat and tears; it may look tame to you but that’s because the horse and rider are so fit and at the pinnacle of their sport, that they make it look easy. Believe me it’s not.
As anybody who has struggled to get their horse into extended canter, to execute a flying change, even to leg yield in my case – God it makes your thighs ache – will tell you, dressage makes you sweat. Using different parts of your body individually – legs, seat, hands, shoulders – yet together at the same time, in a series of movements that communicate to the horse what you want, is a feat of mind over matter and not easy at all. 

Riding hats off to all those combinations taking part – they were all brilliant. High points for us were seeing Zara Phillips who is just fantastic, and Tina Cook who had to perform her test under lashing rain and wind – horrific conditions for any rider and the dread of many riding lessons. 
Horses are not machines, they are flight animals and as such will follow their instincts if frightened, to flee, so it’s testament to the horses’ training and riders’ skill that despite the awful weather during much of Sunday spooking was kept to a minimum. 
At one point the plastic roof topping one of the judges’ booths was flapping about in the wind, about to fly off – it was repaired otherwise it would have been chaos in the arena! The worse spook I saw was caused by a camera operator who turned one of the TV cameras towards a horse just entering the stadium and even then it was mild. I’ve suffered worse out on a hack.
Tina Cook and Miners Frolic up for their test just as the heavens open
Tina Cook and Miners Frolic salute in the driving rain
Despite the fact that Dotty and I were soaked to the skin – twice – we had a great day. It’s something I’ll remember forever and hopefully a day that Dot will look back on with affection in years to come. Her first Olympics and her special time with her horse-mad mum.

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