In-Crowd Clothing:

After my first aged event show as a loper, I quickly tuned in on a couple clothing choices that make you one of the "cool kids". & yes, if you must know, the circuitous cutter was NOT one of the cool kids at that show.

During Winter the clearest beacon of "cool" is the Vests you wear. Oh yes, you heard me, the vests.

An example: Center Ranch's Stallion, Woody Be Tuff

There are the "Stud Vests"

These are vests with stallion names that are given away as promotion pieces for the particular stud. However, the vests came with some stipulations:

1. If you have a current & "hot" stud vest on = you are cool. It generally means that your friends with the right people, lope for a big trainer, lope at the biggest shows, are riding the best horses etc. If you have a lesser stud, you are still doing okay, but your not doing as good.

Finally, to make matters even more complicated what is current and "hot" is subjective. Sometimes, the studs you see more or actually due to amazingly talented marketing teams. Never forget that these vests, jackets, and hats are promotional pieces.

I saw this particular Stud's name EVERYWHERE this year

2. You better make sure said vest and the horse you are warming up have "cat" in their name. Aka, they are the offspring of THE High Brow Cat, and bonus points if you are riding/wearing an own son or daughter.

3. Also, BIG points if you have a vintage "High Brow Cat" jacket on... those are golden, the biggest of all and vintage? You must be pretty "cool".

Now... if you are not wearing a stud vest, you still have a chance because your second best bet is a "Finalist Jacket".

These are jackets/vests given away to anyone that makes the finals at shows. Lopers who truly were finalists can smile smugly to themselves where as the rest of the lopers just got horses warmed up that made it into the finals. However, these jackets still show you've been around the block - bonus points if the finals were at one of the "big" shows aka the cutting trip crown, or in the weekend world, the big money mercuria shows, the world show, etc.

CR Ranchwear has some very nice, very trendy, and of course... pretty expensive show shirts, that are very "in" right now.

Finally, if all else fails have a Nice Shirt on... bonus points if you are ballin out with a finalist jacket, stud vest AND a nice shirt that matches the following criteria: it must walk the fine line between sparkly, boring, old fashioned and new age. Trust me - this was achieved by quite a few girls and I drooled every time they loped by.