Western Show Shirts

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Permalink Reply by Jess Brown on October 7, 2009 at 12:32am

Haha I agree, they should be in plaid! Growing up on a farm, I certainly never saw anyone wearing lime green sparkly shirts. However, it seems that currently most people wear more conservative colors like black, brown, and dark blue, but accent them with rhinestones or the like. The effect is usually eye-catching but not an eyesore.

I had to borrow an old show top from my trainer for my first western show...unfortunately I didn't see it until I had to change into it half an hour before my class...it was pink and sparkly. And I'm not just talking Crayon "tickle-me-pink" pink. We're talking VIOLENTLY pink. Neon pink. Highlighter pink. The pink your vomit would be if you drank sparkly Pepto Bismal. It even had Elvis-style cuffs and collar, which were black pleather and accented with rhinestones. I seriously considered showing in the dirty t-shirt I showed up in. Even worse, the trend of wearing neon shirts that hurt the eyes has gone down (thankfully), which meant I was the only one wearing an 80's-inspired getup that screamed louder than a death metal band. I stood out to the judges, and it wasn't because of my riding! Even worse, pictures were taken. Then leaked to facebook by unscrupulous characters, forever documenting my shame. I've never lived it down.

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Permalink Reply by Zoi Smutz-Gee on October 7, 2009 at 9:52pm

LOL BAH Ha Ha Ha! I love your description of the pepto vomit colour...and this is exactly what I'm talking about. I'm glad the trend of having those violent colours has gone down, yet WHY does hobby horse still have TONS of these swirly eyesore patterns like the one mentioned above...Seriously, take a look at their online catalog. Anyway, thank you for clearing this up for me~!

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Permalink Reply by Jess Brown on October 14, 2009 at 11:24am

I think it might be for the younger riders...little girls would probably look cute in bright colors and enjoy sparkly tops, but once you hit 12 it should be an automatic deduction!

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Permalink Reply by A_Sassy_Temptation on November 10, 2009 at 8:05pm

the shirt for western pleasure, western equitation, horsemanship, showmanship and some higher end trail stakes classes are those shirts.."At the Farm" I wouldn't expect those clothes. AS a western pleasure rider..and I am 18 years old in a few months and WEAR THOSE COLORS I am offended.. For bays, blacks, and dark liver chesnuts (along with certain paints/pintos/appys) purples, pinks, lime greens, neon pinks, and bright orange are used. For me my favourite shirt is swirly pattern of blues, blacks, beiges, and creams..its beautiful. Colors such as lighter chesnuts, lighter bays, sorrels, red duns ect ect its more browns and earth tones.

as for barrel racing/penning/reining/ranching/sorting/roping/cutting plaid shirts are fine. But be more specific as to what type of showing as this could be taken to insult to someone, and I wouldn't be caught dead wearing a plaid shirt in my western pleasure class(I was wearing one a few seasons ago in a open show and was so embarrassed I sold it the next week).

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Permalink Reply by Terri on December 2, 2009 at 1:29am

Amen to that.

In many of the western classes like pleasure or horsemanship or whatever, you tend to be going into a right with 30 other horses that look fairly similar to yours. The clothing, I think, is used to help differentiate between the 5 bays in the class. Pleasure is a very competitive class, especially in the upper levels, and people will use different things to help themselves stand out, clothing is just one of the tools used.

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Permalink Reply by Karen Dallimore on December 8, 2009 at 8:48pm

I'm not a fan of bling - I heard a judge once comment that it should be outlawed and I would tend to agree. What matters most though is the time and effort that go into the outfit and overall presentation, regardless of the colour. I showed at a local fair this year for the first time in a long time and I was shocked to see some of the other competitors showing english with their shirt tails hanging out, no tie or collar, and just overall shabby turnout. That's more of a shame than being a bit flamboyant. And yes, if you're looking to get noticed you'd better be aware that your mistakes will be noticed too, so your performance better be up to par.
A couple of friends who went to the QH Congress this year said the fashion in western was to long fringes on the blouses, so let's see if that comes north of the border. They said it was really distracting to the performance to have the fringes bobbing back and forth.
Personally I like to stay traditional, with a navy or burgundy on my bay & white paint. I like the look of an all-beige or black & white outfit too, and that has the benefit of being timeless - twenty years from now you could still probably wear it.

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Permalink Reply by sheena on February 12, 2010 at 2:26am

Zoi, what level of showing will you be doing? At schooling or local shows, you can easily wear a clean, pressed, western button down shirt. You want to look clean and polished but you don't have to be blinged out. If you moved up to a regular club level show, you will probably come across more people wearing the sparklier shirts, and chaps, and bling belts. If you were to show at the breed level (AQHA, Paint, Arabian, etc.) then you would see a lot more bling and colors. And lots money spent on such items :)
:I saw a few shirts on the Rods site today and just love them. Not too fancy, not too plain :
http://www.rods.com/Rods-Exclusive-Navy-Beaming-Rhinestone-French-C...
http://www.rods.com/Rods-Exclusive-Purple-Showtime-Scroll-Blouse,12...

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