Free Rein Color Me Traditional The dressage-competition attire rules will soon allow a wide range of colors. Our columnist is a traditionalist, bus she recognizes that the change is a necessary one. By Jean Kraus es to the dressage-attire rule (DR 120), which will go into effect December 1, 2021. A much wider color palette will be permitted in USEFlicensed/USDF-recognized dressage competition. In coats and jackets, any single color will be permitted, and the fabric may have subtle pinstriping or be a check or tweed. (Many of you may remember or still use those splendid Irish tweed hack-
In breeches and jodhpurs, dark and light colors will be allowed along with the traditional white/ cream/light-gray hues. Bright colors or patterns are not. Riding boots can now be of coordinating color(s). This ostensibly means that a rider could legally compete in a white jacket, black breeches, and white boots. (When I say could, there is the real question
RAINBOW OF OPTIONS: Dressage-competition rider attire is poised to leapfrog from the longtime black-and-white “uniform” (left) to practically any color of coats, breeches, and even boots
There has been a call for change in the sport of dressage, from the Olympics on down. Olympic Games organizers warned that dressage had to do something to liven things up, or else the sport may become a relic of Olympic history and be removed from the Games. Some changes, such as how tests are scored, have already taken place. Is the current move toward more relaxed attire requirements the start of another such change? On the national level in the US, US Equestrian has approved chang-
ing jackets!) Striped or multicolored coats will not be allowed, however, so no on the “circus tent” stripes or looking like a multiflavored popsicle. “Tasteful and discreet” accents, such as a collar of a different hue, modest piping, or crystal decorations, are acceptable. But what is tasteful or discreet, you may ask? During the drafting of the new rules, a great deal of discussion occurred over how exactly to define “tasteful or discreet.” After all, one person’s ordinary is someone else’s outlandish.
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of, ‘OMG, would anyone actually want to do that?’ But that may be my traditionalist mindset speaking.) It is understood that it may take some time to refine everyone’s understanding of the “broader, yet not all restrictions are off ’ parameters of the new rules. Further guidelines that will help to clarify these changes and their limits are in the works. Many in the sport anticipate that these changes will precipitate the development of two attire “camps” within the dressage community. Tra-
JENNIFER BRYANT; COURTESY OF BIG DEE’S TACK & VET SUPPLY
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n many people’s opinion, the narrow parameters of the traditional black-and-white dressage competition attire are stultifying for our sport. Spectators see the same tests repeated horse after horse, with all the riders looking alike. The monochromatic color palette, which has been carried over from the twentieth century, is not what will continue to work today.
