Friday, February 26, 2016

New Show Clothes

I'm getting all ready for the show this weekend. Lots of stuff to do getting ready since I work Saturday and I literally have almost the first ride on Sunday morning. 8:07am. Ugh. They're running the classes really out of order so Intro goes last and training 3 basically goes first. Sigh.

Today is clean and pack the truck and trailer day. My little checklist:
  • Fill gas in truck
  • Fill air in trailer tires
  • Clean back of trailer
  • Fill hay bag
  • Load tack in trailer
  • Clean tack
  • Ride Misty
  • Wash Misty
  • Print out my tests (Training 3 and First 1)
The only thing I've done so for is get all my show clothes cleaned and ready. So thinking about show clothes... what are your favorite breeches/shirts/coats for showing?

I'm super excited to use my new show coat and shirt this weekend. Amanda (she gets allll the blame for making me blow my budgeting) posted about a Luxe Eq sale and I ended up buying a new coat and shirt. My super nice black show coat is too tight now, no sports bra could squish me enough to fit in it nicely even though everything else fits perfectly :(

So new show coat it was. I got an Esperado Parade jacket in black with a cream trim on the collar. I was super nervous about buying this because I'd never heard of this brand, I couldn't find ANY  information whatsoever about sizing, so I just went for a large. After I bought it, I searched a bit more and then got even more nervous when I found them on ebay (new) for not much more than the sale price I paid. I was worried it wouldn't be very nice quality - all I ever seem to like are show coats in the $300-700 range (which is way, way out of my budget).

But I must say I'm super in love with it. It fits perfectly and is very nice quality. And for $99, I could not have gone wrong. Plus the cute bit accent is adorable and unique.

It even goes perfectly with the shirt I bought. I got the Equiline Fae show shirt. I've always admired the shirt but the price tag was ridiculous for my budget for just a shirt. I was, again, tentative about the sizing (a 46 = XL) and really a large would've been better. It's a tad bit large, but also it's going under a coat and I didn't want it to be too fitted anyways. I was also nervous about the coloring - it's an "off-white" - but it actually works out perfect because of the cream stripe on my show coat plus the fact that I wear light grey breeches instead of white. The collar's a bit loose and was a bit stained (it was a demo item I believe) but washed up perfectly. The material is super silky and I'm so in love with the mesh floral design. And it couldn't have been at a better price than $50.

So for the normal price of $597, I got them for $150 total = a saving of $447. Not too shabby if I do say so myself.

Dang. Spendy

Then these will go perfectly with my favorite show breeches, my dove gray FITS full seats. I love, love, love them. Also another sale price purchase on a demo pair for $90. What can I say, I really do love some sale prices!

FITS Breeches

Good excuse to share old pictures!

Other favorite show clothes include:

Pikeur Skarlett show shirt - navy with black velvet collar. I love how this jacket fits except for the shoulder pads are excessive and I may end up getting it tailored to remove those. Yay for yet another cheap ebay purchase.

Romfh Tempo short sleeve show shirt. I love this shirt and it is definitely my favorite. Again, bought off a sale rack for $30 (it's on sale at Smartpak currently!) in the white/mint, since the mint is close to my favorite color of aqua blue. It's a nice material, not thick and heavy, not too thin and see through. While it's certainly not as silky as the Equiline shirt, it's still a nice quality for the price. And I'm in love with the magnetic collar. I love magnets. (Dunno why I do, but I also have a horse cooler with a magnet closure and a raincoat with magnet buttons. Love magnets).

I have some various other show shirts that I use on occasion (RHC, tailored sportsman, essex classics) but they don't get used too often.

TS breeches



I have two other pairs of show breeches that I love. My pewter Tailored Sportsman for cross country and tan Ariat Olympias for H/J shows.

Ariat Olympia breeches


And then all of my polo shirts are from Aeropostale. They only have teen sizing, but if you can fit in them, you can get them usually for a few dollars a piece when they go on sale (which happens often).

What are your favorite show clothes?




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