Traditional horse and rider parade outfits, such as you might see in the famous Rose Parade, or of the type Roy Rogers and his mount Trigger wore, are awe inspiring with their incredible ornamentation. There’s silver everywhere—conchos and shiny plating over beautiful leather saddles, bridles, breast collars and hip drapes or serapes behind the saddle, with silver accents and an ornate western costume for the rider as well.
If you plan on riding with a group or even a friend or two, coordinate your outfits. You may choose to dress alike, and colorful, coordinated nylon tack can help you stand out without the cost of silver. Matching saddle blankets and polo wraps also help unify your appearance. Depending on the parade and time of year, you may choose to ride in costume. Perhaps your group can come up with a theme appropriate to the holiday. (Be sure to practice riding in the costume so that both you and your horse are comfortable with it.)
Parades are the one place where you can dress up with your horse, so be creative and have fun. All eyes will be on you parade day—make your team a sight to be seen.
Great article. Sounds like so much fun, I want to take Scooter to the parade now!
Parades are so much fun, and positively a chance to go nuts with the sparkles and glitter! My mom and I have ridden many parades together, and the week before is devoted to coordinating our outfits and our horses’ tack. A great experience, not to mention, after a few parades, our horses are bomb-proofed to just about anything!
I love the yearly 4-H parade at fair. We dress up in our club colors and I am going to make most of my decorations royal blue(our club color) and Braid with Royal Blue Ribbon.