Ask and ye shall receive! Although you’ll probably be disappointed, because I am certainly not anything close to a style icon. There were a few *chef’s kiss* pieces that were really pulling their weight though, and they deserve some kudos.

First Jog

I hope you guys aren’t expecting some kind of fancy fashionista type content when it comes to my jog outfits. For as much as I value and appreciate nice riding clothes, I’ve always been cheap AF when it comes to regular clothes. And while I did have to go shopping for this particular occasion (I tried real hard to come up with something I could wear out of the clothes I already have, and I was able to use a few pieces, but my closet in general is sparse), my budget was low. I was looking for a pair of pants that could do double duty for both jogs, and a couple tops. That’s it. And I had to go to the mall. THE FREAKIN MALL.

Anyway.

The first order of business was finding the pants, and the ones I went specifically in search of actually materialized directly in my line of sight the moment I stepped into Dillard’s. What are the odds? The shopping gods were really doing me a solid there. I was looking for the Spanx faux leather leggings that have been a popular jog outfit staple for lots of people over the years, and I ended up trying on the regular ones and the shinier patent ones. Mostly because the patent ones were on sale. Naturally though, I didn’t like how shiny they were, but I did like the regular ones. They were comfy, they were flattering, and they would go with a lot of different things. Sold.

Also, listen, I’m gonna need y’all to pretend you don’t see the absolute disaster situation that was happening in my bedroom when I took these pics. I was trying my outfits on literally the day before while I was packing, sending pics to my friends to ask if they were acceptable. I had no intention of these photos ever seeing a public space. Alas, here we are, so whatever you’re thinking just… shhhhhh. I know.

The sparkly silver flame sweater was an absolute banger of a find, snagged at Forever 21 off of their clearance rack for $10 (it’s a couple bucks more online, but still cheap!). No joke. I love that sweater, too. I mean, is it itchy as hell? Sure is. But I thought it really went with the whole Presto vibe. I’m sure I’ll wear it again in the winter (with a shirt under it to stop the itchies).

As for the shoes, long-time readers have actually seen them before. I mentioned them in a post in 2020 when I got them, saying “I originally wasn’t gonna post these since they’re a non-horse item, but I’m so in love with them that I’m thinking I might need to do a 3Day JUST so I can jog up in these bad boys.“.

Well what do you know, the glitter combat boots DID eventually make it to a jog, 3.5 years later. They were like $25 from Walmart and I still love them just as much as when I found them. I only wear them for special occasions, but they’re magnificent.

As for Presto, he wore his dressage bridle for the first jog, which is this (minus the bonnet):

It’s actually a complete Frankenbridle. The crown, cheeks, and throatlatch are Henry’s old Eponia dressage bridle. The noseband was custom made for me by Dark Jewel Designs, to go with the gorgeous light blue plaited browband that I got from her last year. It’s a black leather crank, no flash, with black glitter padding and gunmetal glitter piping. I love that it’s sparkly but not garish.

The bridle’s coordinating light blue browband didn’t match my jog outfit or my shad, so I borrowed a sparkly silver crystal browband from Hillary instead. My reins are the Correct Connect 1″ Sure Grip reins, which I really like for dressage. His dressage bit is a Herm Sprenger WH Ultra Sensogan Loose Ring (did I have a slight panic moment an hour before dressage and text one of the stewards to make sure it was FEI legal? Surely did.).

I would not put this level of flash on a horse’s head if they weren’t steady in the connection, but that’s one of Presto’s strengths so I figure we can show it off.

Dressage

For this phase I was outfitted largely by Luxe EQ (the mobile store I work for in the winter when it’s here at WEC). Specifically, the shad, the breeches, and the gloves are from there. First and foremost, lets talk about the real showstopper – the shad.

If you’ve never been to For Horses’ website to play around in their Custom Lab configurator, you’re missing out on a good time. Short coats, tail coats, all kinds of colors and collars and pipings and buttons… it’s fun. My coat is the Jenni, in dark deal with black collar and points and silver glitter piping at the collar, points, and around the tails. I am obsessed with her.

Big huge thank you and credit to Luxe EQ owner Megan as well as For Horses on the shad… they really did me a huge huge solid, getting it to me in just a couple weeks – A COUPLE WEEKS – from Italy. When I have more time I’ll get it tailored a little bit… I ordered a medium to account for my shoulder width and it needs to be taken in a bit at the waist and in the arms, but the fit was pretty darn good, considering it’s a stock size!

It truly is a dream coat, and I was so excited to be able to rock something like this at my first FEI. I got several compliments, and I love how the color looks on Presto. I wanted something a little bit different from the normal navy or black, since I am fortunate enough at this point to have a horse that’s pretty good on the flat. I can stand out a bit and have it be in a good way rather than a bad way. But I also didn’t want something super garish, or that leaned into the realm of tacky. Originally I was hoping to find something in a dark purple, but when I saw the little sample fabric square for the dark teal, I knew that was it. The online configurator is great, but if you ever find yourself near the Luxe EQ store, I highly recommend going in and looking at their big sample book thingy. Putting all the stuff together in person really helps you visualize all the options and how they’ll look. It was hella fun.

I opted for black collar/points with silver glitter piping specifically to go with my show helmet, a glossy black Harry’s Horse that has silver glitter up the middle. I’m obsessed with that helmet but it’s become really hard to find. I thought the coat details would look sharp with the helmet, and they did. THEY DID.

And the real icing on the cake was one I’d completely forgotten about – my Stockbubble stock tie. It wasn’t until I was putting the shad in my coat bag that I realized it, but my stock tie is a white fabric with silver glitter, and double piping in black and silver. I mean come on. The coordination factor was just *chef’s kiss*.

The breeches are what have become my favorite go-to whites: the Struck 2.0. These just fit me really well, are comfy, not see-through, and wash well, so I’ve stuck to them. Every time I venture out to try to find something cheaper I absolutely loathe them, so Struck it is. The inside of the fabric is tan so they’re so much more opaque than anything else I’ve found.

The gloves are my Cavalleria Toscana mesh grip gloves that I wear every day… they’re so lightweight and comfortable I just find myself always reaching for them. The boots are my trusty Romitelli’s with the black glitter top that I’ve had for a while now. You can’t see it in these pics but my belt was my favorite African beaded Zinj belt with blue/silver moons and stars that I always wear at shows.

As for Presto’s dressage outfit, he’s wearing my rehabbed Custom Saddlery dressage saddle (that thing has been a super purchase), an Engel sheepskin girth, a Mattes custom pad (white sheen with black piping, a row of rhinestones, and then another row of black piping, with natural sheepskin under the panels… thank goodness I got this before the Hufglocken fallout happened with Mattes), and the same bridle he jogged in. Oh, plus his sparkly mesh If the Bonnet Fits bonnet. True story, Strax got ahold of that bonnet a couple months ago and pulled a lot of the crystal edge off. Luckily Sierra was able to fix it for me and get it back in time!

Cross Country

We’ve talked about this pretty recently I feel like, and nothing is really new aside from the gloves, so I won’t spend a lot of time here. I put links to save anyone the effort of chasing me down to ask where to get something. And for the Riding Warehouse links I have a discount code there: BREVENT10, and for Royal Equine links my discount code there is presto.

Presto is wearing:

• Arion figure 8 bridle (an absolute angel gifted this to me and I love you forever for it)
• Beval bit
• Arion monoflap saddle
• Dark Jewel spiked browband (I have the gunmetal spikes)
• Free Jump irons
• Engel sheepskin girth (brown for jumping)
• Ecogold XC pad
• Premier Equine carbon tech cross country boots
• Lady Godiva ROM breastplate with a PS of Sweden running attachment
• a FLAIR strip
• rubber bell boots

I’ve got the same boots and breeches, just adding:

• a roller ball spur
• sparkly Samshield Ava shirt from several seasons ago that isn’t made anymore
• Champion Ti22 body protector
• Champion skull cap
• custom Tack Shack jockey whip (black and silver glitter with a little bit of purple and a lightning bolt on the popper)
• XC optimum time watch
• custom pinney holder from a lady that doesn’t make them anymore (sadly)
• Bender golf gloves (you have to buy left and right hand separately, but they’re BOMB) with skull and crossbones

The second jog

This outfit is really hard to see in the screenshots, so I hope you’re ready for another terrible mirror selfie that was never meant to see the light of day. Same disclaimers apply.

The top is a very shiny, super lightweight black and silver sparkle mock neck. I got it at Forever 21 for $4.80 on their mega super duper clearance red tag rack. I can’t even find it online, but it’s super lightweight and comfortable and I love it. Going forward I’ll probably use it as my hot-weather XC shirt since it’s thinner than the Samshield shirt.

The bottoms are the same faux leather leggings as the first jog outfit. The shoes are the black and white star sneakers (now that I went to get the link for y’all I see that they’ve added a lot more styles, including glitter ones. This is bad for me.) that I bought on Amazon last December to be my “casual but cute retail shoes” for working at the store during the winter season. They’ve already been worn a lot but are still in good enough shape and they’re the cutest more-casual type shoes I have.

Then I topped the whole thing off with my oversized faux leather jacket that I also already owned. Because we’re on a damn budget, people.

So technically, if we use girl math, this outfit cost me less than $5. Right? Right.

Showjumping

There’s not much unique about this phase’s attire, it’s mostly just a mishmash of dressage and XC stuff. It’s the same helmet, breeches, boots, bonnet, and gloves as dressage. Same saddle, saddle pad, breastplate, girth, whip, spurs, bridle, and bit as XC.

The only thing that ever really changes for SJ is which coat I wear. I was tempted to go with my teal Penelope one to keep the teal theme, but I just really like the juju that lives in my light blue Laguso coat and felt like I needed all the good juju I could get, so it was the winner.

I do tend to always wear the same show shirt for showjumping under my coat, the Samshield Faustina in black lurex. Sparkly black, ya know? I’m predictable.


And that’s it!

Which… is a lot. Lord. This sport is relatively absurd, isn’t it?