A Guide to the Equestrian Style: Riding Apparel and Grooming

There’s more to the equestrian style than riding boots and jodhpurs. Discover fashion tips to look your best horseback riding in the city or the country.

The Social Season is inextricably linked with equestrian events and the British love of horses. So as the Royal Windsor Horse Show returns and the flat-racing season launches at Newmarket at the beginning of May, we celebrate equestrian style.

Equestrian Outfits

Several iconic items of British tailoring owe their origins to horseback riding outfit practicalities. The long Regency tailcoat favored by dandy and Truefitt & Hill stalwart Beau Brummell, for example, was an adaptation of a gentleman’s hunting jacket with a pronounced center vent for ease of sitting in the saddle. The tweed hunting jacket, a mainstay for British landowners and aristocrats, is still very much de rigueur, partnered today with the latest innovations in fabric technology.

“Equestrian style shouldn’t just be thought of in the sense of one’s wardrobe but in terms of overall look, which very much involves what to add particularly to one’s hair to remain at the top of one’s game whilst on a trot, canter, or gallop.”

While equestrian fashion varies if you’re dressing for dressage, are equipping for equitation, or need show jumping jodhpurs, there is a familiar aesthetic to British horseback riding apparel. So, however you express your horsey couture, be it a t-shirt and blazer or a Ralph Lauren polo with high-end leather riding gear from Hermès or Gucci, there’s more to the look than just your outfit.

Hair for Horse Lovers

One’s undeniably stylish equestrian apparel ensemble will be undercut by inadequate grooming, particularly by flattened or disarrayed hair (a hazard of wearing a riding helmet). To combat this conundrum, consider using Truefitt & Hill’s C.A.R. Cream, created for the Royal Automobile Club in 1900. Equally helpful in achieving a well-groomed look in an open-top sports car or on horseback, it will keep the hairstyle with effortless, non-greasy elegance.

For other specialized hair management regimes that will help weather a day’s riding, try Circassian Cream Hair Management, formulated for gentlemen who prefer discreet, classic styles and a good hold with a natural, less shiny finish. It allows the hair’s natural oils to work with the product, leaving the hair looking shiny and discreetly groomed. It is best for short to medium hair.

Euchrisma Clay Hair Management is a perfect choice for the gentleman who favors a full, natural-looking, matte hairstyle that will last throughout the day. Mellifore Fibre Hair Management, on the other hand, is designed for gentlemen with thick and wavy hair, which might have a tendency to dry.

An Equestrian Look for an Equestrian Lifestyle

When you don your riding boots (no spurs required), have well-groomed hair, and elegantly dress in equestrian clothing, you are now ready to display your horse-riding skill. Even if you are a city-dweller, London provides a rich range of possibilities: from Hyde Park, the historic locale for equestrian display and cavalry training, to the traditional Tudor hunting grounds of Richmond Park, or the rus in urbe, open terrain of London’s commons, such as Tooting or Wimbledon. Maybe your riding will take you further afield, to the wilder countryside of Exmoor, the Peak District, or the Yorkshire Dales. Or you will enjoy the unique pleasure of galloping along open sands to the accompaniment of pounding waves at Studland in Dorset or the Holy Island of Lindisfarne.

Whatever your choice, you can rest assured that you will cut a fine figure and will be able to enjoy the perfect marriage of form and function that is the hallmark of Britain’s best tailoring traditions. Do so in Truefitt & Hill style - always with your best face forward.