Putting More Colour into our Sport: Terribly Trashy, or Totally Fabulous?!

Austrian International rider Margit Appelt’s cross country colours created quite a stir at Blenheim, and here’s why. She really does go for the entire ensemble, with her jazzy silk and top, plus the rather mind-boggling breeches and matching saddle pad, all in her ‘canary yellow with black stars’ colours, even adding the horse’s custom-made XC boots and the 2nd pair of reins, in yellow.

While some people were fairly vociferous on Twitter about not approving of this look, there’s no denying that it got everyone talking, and apparently it was very popular with the crowds at Blenheim!

It’s not the first time her startling choice has made the headlines, Eventing Nation picked up on it earlier this year, at Saumur, in THIS report.

Many of us gave up this level of dedicated hoof-to-nostril colour-coordination when we were kids (yes, I had plaited red reins and a red girth on my 12.2, okay) but maybe this sort of thing is exactly what eventing needs? Apparently her lorry is in the same pattern and colours. Matt Ryan did this with his distinctive brown-and-white-checked lorry, of course. Instantly recognisable, and most importantly find-able, amidst a sea of lorries. The alternative is to go for the Biggest Lorry In The Park look as William Fox-Pitt does, with his huge black Jeep-sponsored leviathan.

8 years ago in THIS article in the USA’s Practical Horseman Magazine, when suggesting ways to make Eventing more popular with the masses, Jim Wofford wrote:

“Lose the pink coats and toppers. The minute a picture pops up on the TV of some kid in a white stock tie and top hat, Joe Six-Pack hits the remote. Allow the athletes to choose their competitive attire, within reason. Let’s allow one-piece riding outfits, preferably in spandex and shall we say close-fitting.”

I was fairly reliably informed (at Burghley this year in fact, while discussing exactly this with a rider) that Jim might well have written that article while under the influence of a few bottles of good wine, which could explain non-PC comments such as “Anorexic waifs in body condoms will draw them every time”, but he has a point. In fact he has a lot of really good points, particularly the “rename it as Equestrian Triathlon to make it clearer to the masses” one, so the whole article is definitely worth a read.

It is an inescapable fact that we desperately need to get away from the ‘Toffs on Horses’ image, and prove that Eventing, although nobody can deny that it is expensive, is in fact really NOT elitist.

Top hats and tails, although elegant and traditional, should probably be the first thing to go, if we want to show that eventing is purely about being a good rider with a good horse and good training, and not in any possible way about class and snobbishness. Sports clothing would show that riders are real athletes, not toffs who just sit up there looking pretty while the horse does all the work.

99.9% of top riders are mega-fit (one way or the other, or both) and yet they are pretty much covered up in fairly antiquated clothing styles, most of the time. Maybe we need to be making the most of our Adonises and Aphrodites (or should that be Dianas?) If you’ve ever seen a top rider changing between phases (I’m no voyeur, I’ve just been in the right place at the right time, and riders in a hurry – or hot and sweaty after XC – are usually totally un-self-conscious about such things) then you’ll know what I mean!

BE rules state implacably that jackets at the higher levels should be “Black, dark blue or red”. I can think of one top rider who interprets this rule slightly loosely, wearing a graphite grey show jacket, but it is very smart, so he’s gotten away with it so far (as he should!)

With modern technical fabrics and new designs, show jackets are now available in a huge range of eye-catching colours & trims. In fact, British Showjumping attempted to have a major clamp-down on jacket colours last year. However, it backfired, and the following Rule Change resulted, which allows owners, sponsors and riders to register a particular colour and piping combination. Perhaps it is time for BE to ‘get with it’ and allow a similar amount of leeway?

Animo, and Spooks make beautiful jackets in a huge range of colours, while Horse Pilot and Flying Changes have fully interactive Design Studio pages which enable to rider to play around with colours, materials, trim and styles.  These will make any rider stand out. Surely this sort of thing would only add to the sport, not take anything away from it? A show jacket that is a variation on the rider’s XC Colours, basically, for easy of identification of ones personal eventing heroes, and perhaps to keep sponsors even happier.

The FEI, surprisingly, is more flexible on jacket colour than BE. It does not in fact stipulate colours at all, referring only to “Hunting dress or uniform of a riding club”, which could be a very interesting loophole if anyone fancied exploiting it!

Riders at WEG wore all sorts of colours for the SJ phase: the American riders in red, Dutch riders resplendent in orange, and the Irish in dark green, but the Finnish rider Sanna Siltakorpi really stood out, although her beautiful raspberry pink jacket received criticism from commentator Ian Stark, who said, “I’m about to sound like a boring old you-know-what, when I say that the colour of the jacket doesn’t do lot for me.” Eventing Nation, on the other hand, loved it as much as I did, and devoted a whole article to it!

Ideally top riders need to be instantly recognisable, in all phases, to draw the public. Who but true eventing aficionados can tell one rider from another at a distance when they are all in navy or black tails or short jackets? At present it is only on the XC where their true colours are allowed to show, and although some riders have always exploited this (who can forget Ginny Holgate/Leng’s purple, or Lucinda Green’s primrose yellow) and many continue the trend (Lucinda Fredericks’ bright pink, including over-reach boots and gloves, Mary King’s green, and many others), not many of the men play the colours game as enthusiastically as the women.

Paul Tapner sticks to his bright red, including gloves, the seat of his WOW xc saddles, and his overreach boots (to the extent that, seeing him in Australian white and green at WEGs gave me mental whiplash!) although his ‘Ruby’ truck is perplexingly dark red.
Francis Whittington’s Royal Blue-White-Orange is noticeable and classy, but most of the guys at top level pretty much wear black, or black and white, the same as their Team colours (e.g. Andrew Nicholson, Sir Mark Todd, Harry Meade). Ludwig Svennerstal wears Swedish Blue, and Nick Gauntlett wears yellow and black, but the majority of the men are pretty dull in the wardrobe department.
Making notes on the riders’ xc colours just before XC at Badminton two years ago, in an attempt to be able to tell them apart at a glance while frantically tweeting in real-time, I was shocked by just how many riders at that level wore black or blue for xc.

So, given this level of reluctance, is there any chance that they might be prepared to go for Jimmy Wofford’s suggestion of spandex and, shock-horror, all in ones, to make the sport more approachable and TV-friendly?

Imagine a neat Dressage top, with breeches (I’m not totally sold on the ‘spandex all-in-one idea either, I’m not sure they’d be practical or flattering, and ‘budgie smugglers’ would be nauseating), in the rider’s XC colours. Perhaps a tight-fitting top or shirt with coloured sleeves would do it? Would co-ordinating breeches, instead of the traditional white/cream/beige, be Too Much? Other breeches colours have been allowed elsewhere for a long time. American riders go XC in dark breeches, and of course military uniforms have dark breeches.

I think if it were done right, it could still be very smart. Does anyone else agree, or is the thought just too horrifying to contemplate?!

 

Photos of Margit Appelt at Blenheim by kind permission of Katy Vincent.

Photos of Spooks jackets used with full permission.

Photo of Francis Whittington by kind permission of Will Baxter.