Category: Reviews

I’m so excited to finally be able to review this shirt. I got it over a year ago, right after we got home from Coconino, but then Henry got hurt and then show season was over and blah blah blah, so it ended up being forever before I could actually wear it. But now I’ve finally worn it a few times and gotten a decent picture of it in action, so here’s the review… better late than never?

I hate stock ties. A lot. As far as stock ties go, I love the one I have from Style Stock, but it’s still a stock tie and I still hate a) tying things b) having a big floof under all of my chins. I just can’t get into it. I tried.  I feel like a rooster. When I get to the level at which a stock tie is required, I will wear one. Until then I will #resist.

But I also don’t really like the plain boring all-white look of just a show shirt, nor do I like the weird ruffley shirts that a lot of anti-stock tie DQ’s have adopted. I like show shirts with just a little bit of unique detail to make them different, and the May shirt from Mrs. Tutton’s really hits it out of the park in that department.

The May shirt is available in a long sleeve or a short sleeve version. The long sleeve is available in navy or pink, and the short sleeve comes in pink or white. The navy (which is really a very thin navy pinstripe) has navy faux-leather detailing, and the pink and white shirts have brown faux-leather detailing. I got navy of course, because I’m nothing if not dedicated to my color scheme.

I really really LOVE the look of the faux leather around the collar and sleeves. It’s just enough to be interesting without being “in your face”, so I think it looks extremely classy and high end. The fabric itself is a nice Japanese cotton that breathes well but isn’t thin enough to see through. It washes up nicely and doesn’t require any kind of special cleaning, just machine wash.

Mrs. Tutton’s is an Australian-based brand, specializing in the “stable to street” style. Many of their clothes could easily double as work wear, and all of it is made in Australia out of high end fabrics. It’s a brand that was developed by riders, FOR riders, and I think that really shows in the thorough attention to detail, fit, and finish.

Normally these shirts are a little on the pricey side, around $200AUD, but right now they’re actually on sale for $115AUD, which is only around $90 USD! The available sizes are a bit limited, but if they have yours, it’s definitely a great deal for a high quality shirt like this. As far as fit, I found that the Australian/US sizing charts were accurate in this case – it all seems to run true to size. It’s worthwhile to take a look at all of their other clothing too… it’s all gorgeous and much of it is on sale at the moment.

If you’re looking for something a little different, but still elegant, definitely take a look at Mrs. Tutton’s!

 

As a Texan, I pretty much live in sunshirts 9-10 months out of the year. They’re an absolute staple down here in the mega-hot-death-ray-sun South, and I own a ridiculous number of them. I’ve tried just about every brand by now, and figured out exactly what I like and don’t like. And since I already have so many, it’s a challenge to find ones that are different and interesting. Enter It’s a Haggerty’s.

I’d seen this brand on Instagram for quite a while, with all of their fun custom patterns and trims and colors. But I’m picky about sunshirt fabric, so I was hesitant to take the plunge on ordering anything custom for fear that I’d end up hating it. I finally was able to see them in person at Rolex and was pleasantly surprised to find that the fabric, while a bit thicker than my favorite Kastels, was quite nice – almost silky feeling. I nabbed one from the Plaid Horse booth to take home with me to test out.

I was glad that I was able to see them in person, because the sizing definitely runs a bit small. I normally wear a medium Kastel but needed a large It’s a Haggerty’s. I quite like the sleeve construction – they have some extra length in the arm and a true cuff, for good coverage and a nice slim fit. I’ve found that if there isn’t a true cuff I’ll end up pushing the sleeves up out of annoyance, which kind of defeats the whole point of a sunshirt. As spring turned into summer I found that the shirt performed admirably in the heat. Not quite as “cooling” as the fabric of the Kastel, but certainly better than the Bette & Court, Ariat, and Riding Sport shirts. The fabric has held up well to my abuse, and the construction is solid.

When there were requests for sunshirts with the Presto logo, I went straight to It’s a Haggerty’s. Not only do they have a million customization options, they also offer cheap embroidery. Typically for large orders they do big batches of the same shirt for barns or teams, so I felt kind of guilty when I sent in my cobbled together order of 11 different Presto shirt and embroidery color combinations plus 2 sBs shirts. I’m sure that was a nightmare, but fast forward a couple months and everything arrived looking great.

The shirts are $60-65 depending on solid vs patterned, and embroidery is $15 (although there are discounts for bulk orders). There was no extra set-up or digitization fee for the logos I sent. Overall they’re very competitively priced for the market. There are so many color and pattern options that it almost becomes impossible to choose just one or two combinations. On one hand I wish there was a fun little configurator on the website to make it easier to envision what it’ll look like, but on the other hand I’m glad there isn’t or I’d probably own a dozen of these things by now.

I’m reserving my Presto shirt – navy with yellow plaid cuffs/collar – mostly for cross country at shows, so that Presto gets to “ride along” with us. Yeah, I’m cheesy. I also ordered one with a Willow Tree logo on one side and sBs logo on the other, which gets tons of compliments every time I wear it. If you’re looking for something custom, or some fun patterns and color combinations, I would definitely check out It’s a Haggerty’s. I haven’t been disappointed!

Ask and ye shall receive! A full review on these will have to wait a little while, but since several of you wanted to know, here are my first impressions.

I specifically wanted new brown boots for schooling, and wanted to stay under $400. Since Karen’s Ariat’s fell apart in a year, and the Mountain Horse don’t come tall enough unless you also have a slim calf, that nixed both of those. I liked my Mondoni’s a lot, but wanted something a little bit higher quality and darker brown this time around. When I saw that Ego 7 was coming out with chocolate brown, they immediately shot to the front of the line. I first saw Ego 7 a few years ago at AETA and quite liked them. Makes sense, since they’re designed by Franco Tucci, and I love my Tucci’s.

The first obvious difference between these and the Tucci’s is of course the price. The Tucci’s are closer to the 1k mark, whereas the Ego 7’s run more like $500 USD. Which, yes, if I had bought them in the US that would have put them out of my budget. But in Europe they run about 299 Euro, which is around $350 USD. Thus why one of my biggest missions for Europe was finding these boots. Granted, you don’t have to actually fly all the way to Europe just to buy them from Europe… there are plenty of online shops that will ship here and you’ll still come out ahead.

For the price I paid, I’m satisfied with the quality. Not blown away, but satisfied. They are not the fine Italian leather of the Tucci’s, but at the price that should be obvious. They still seem well made and I like the materials and design a lot. They have all the design features of the higher end boots: nice tall spanish top, close fit through the ankle, snaps at the top and at the bottom, a padded “tongue” inside the back of the ankle, and little tab at the top snap to thread the zipper pull through so that it doesn’t fall down. It’s not as innovative and awesome as the snap system on the Tucci’s, but it works. I also like the E-Tex material on the calf. It’s pretty grippy, and blends in perfectly to the pretty chocolate brown color of the leather. We’ll see how it wears over time. I do think that a more squared toe would really take them up a few notches in the style and class department.

I like the little spur rest design that these have, with 3 different “levels”. When I first saw that feature I was worried that it might end up kind of acting like a spur, but I think unless you really ride with a seriously clamped heel then that’s not going to happen. The little nubs are pretty small. I do ride with spurs most of the time, so this particular spur rest design definitely helps keep them in place with no sliding around.

Fit wise, I’m glad I was able to try them on first. The foot seems to run a bit big, IMO, and the calf runs SMALL. Like go up a size from whatever the size chart says you would be. Really I could have ended up in a bigger calf size than I did, but I was limited to what the store had with them, so I’ve made this work. It did require some stretching, and they’re still not quite there yet, but we’ve made a lot of progress. If anything, these first couple weeks has definitely been a testament to the hardiness of their zipper.

To me the instep seems to run a smidge high, I have some extra room there. The ankle is very well tapered though, which gives these a nice slimming look. I also was able to get the regular height, and they’ve dropped to be pretty perfect.

Overall I’m happy with them so far. For a schooling boot, or even a low budget show boot, I think they’re a good choice. I definitely like them more at the $350 I paid than the $500+ that I would have paid in the US.

I was going to wait another week or so to review these until they’re available online, but a) lots of you have been asking about them, and b) I will probably forget for a while because September is nuts for me. So – doing them now, lest anyone be left wondering when they come out.

I really really really needed new leathers when I got these; my last ones had worn literally all the way through to the nylon core. It was janky. Thank you Lund Saddlery for taking pity on me and letting me claim one of the first available pairs. But I’m also really particular about my stirrup leathers, while simultaneously being extremely cheap. And although I would love nothing more than to drop $200 on CWD or Devoucoux leathers without a second thought, it ain’t happening. At the same time though, I have some very specific “must haves” when it comes to leathers:

• calfskin: this is non-negotiable, I have french calfskin saddles
• nylon core: I haaaaaate when stirrup leathers get really stretched out and uneven
• reasonably spaced holes: either half holes or one inch spacing, because I am really weird about very specific adjustments. I need options.
• color – gotta match the saddle, yo.

I took a leap of faith with the Lund’s, being a new product, but the brand hasn’t led me astray yet AND the leathers ticked all my boxes.

Out of the box they’re quite orange, which is fairly typical of nice calfskin in it’s brand new, pre-oiled state. The question is always whether or not they’ll take oil and darken well. Boy did these pass THAT test! Two coats of oil and they were butter soft and perfectly matched to the Devoucoux.

As with all of my other Lund gear, the leathers are really well made and well constructed. There has been no stretch or wear so far in the first couple months of use, and they look just gorgeous. So far, two thumbs up.

The leathers are supposed to be available online hopefully next week (I’m sure if you want them badly enough they could put you on a pre-order list, or make sure you’re following them on fb for new product annoucements!) and retail right around $90USD. Considering I was ready to pay $150 for slightly used CWD leathers, I’m quite happy to have gotten my hands on these instead. They’re every bit as nice, but brand new and for a much more reasonable price.

 

 

I’m actually really excited about this review, because I think this is one of the best products that Lund Saddlery makes. I’m picky about girths (ok maybe Henry is the picky one) and it seems like it’s more and more difficult to find nice ones without spending exorbitant amounts of money. But if you want something budget-friendly that is still beautiful enough for even the fanciest show, these are worth taking a good look at.

Lund has a few different girth styles that will be hitting the market soon: a regular contour girth, an anatomic girth, and a belly guard girth. I chose the anatomic for Henry, because he’s a princess and will definitely let me know if he feels like a girth is restricting his movement in any way.

No one ever believes me when I tell them this, but Henry wears every inch of a 54, and the Lund measured spot on. The sizing is definitely true. Right out of the box the leather looked beautiful, the stitching was perfect, and the padding was nice as soft. I love the attention to detail with the pretty navy elastic on each end, fancy stitching details, dee ring at the center and on each side to clip attachments to, and roller buckles. It ticks all the boxes for the things I want a need a girth to be, and the execution is second to none.

I’ve been using it since December, and it has held up really beautifully. A quick wipe with a towel and everything looks brand new again. The stitching is still the same bright white that it was to start with, which is kind of a feat in and of itself considering that I don’t exactly baby my tack.

The shape of the anatomic style sits really well on Henry. He seems content in it and I’ve never had any issues with slippage. I like that the shape allows him plenty of room at the elbows, something that he seems pretty sensitive about, and the slightly wider style seems to distribute the pressure over a wider area.

The first run of the girths are COMING SOON to the Lund website, and I think they’ll do really well once they hit the market. As with all of their products that I’ve tried so far, the quality is there and the pricepoint is always more than reasonable. If you’re in the market for a new girth, I would definitely consider adding these to your list!

Now I just need them to come out with a monoflap version. Hint, hint. Wink, wink.